Charges dropped against former York County police officers in alleged baby abuse case

Prosecutors dropped all criminal charges against two former York County police officers who had been charged with neglect of their infant son in 2015, court documents show.

Lawyers for both Audrey Schurig and Robert Jeffrey “Jeff” Taylor now say that both are vindicated after they were accused of crimes they did not commit.

Taylor, 47, and Schurig, 38, were charged by State Law Enforcement Division agents in March 2015, after alleged injuries to the son that Schurig and Taylor have together.

Taylor was charged with inflicting great bodily injury on a child and neglect and Schurig was charged with neglect.

Both resigned from police jobs during the investigation.

Charges against them are now dropped because prosecutors cannot prove who caused the injuries to baby Jaxon after his birth in late 2014, according to court documents filed late Thursday.

Taylor’s lawyer, Jim Boyd, said Taylor did not commit any abuse.

In a Family Court abuse allegations case against both Schurig and Taylor, a judge ruled in December 2015 that neither Taylor nor Schurig abused the child.

That ruling stated that authorities did not prove the allegations of abuse and neglect against either Taylor or Schurig.

Now a prosecutor has dropped the criminal charges.

“After a week-long abuse trial in Family Court (in 2015) the evidence was overwhelming that no abuse occurred,” Boyd said. “I am glad the solicitor’s office decided to drop these charges.”

Boyd said Taylor “has always maintained that he is innocent. He is glad that this ordeal is over, and he can celebrate Christmas without this cloud that has been hanging over his head since 2015.”

Schurig’s lawyer, Gary Lemel, said Thursday that Schurig is happy the charges are now dropped.

After both Taylor and Schurig were arrested, the baby was placed in the custody of the S.C. Department of Social Services.

Schurig has had custody of Jaxon since the Family Court decision in 2015, Lemel said, and now that criminal charges are dropped, both she and Taylor have the same rights as any parents.

“Audrey had always maintained her innocence from the start of this matter,” Lemel said. “Her position is supported by numerous medical experts. The decision of the solicitor vindicates that position, but no parent should ever have to suffer the attacks she has had to endure.”

Both Boyd and Lemel declined to comment on whether Taylor or Schurig might seek to get their jobs back or seek any civil action against law enforcement.

Schurig was a sergeant for the Chester Police Department before resigning during the investigation. She had worked at other area agencies, including the York County Sheriff’s Office and the Tega Cay Police Department. Taylor resigned from the Lancaster Police Department but had worked before that in York and Rock Hill.

Two medical experts for Taylor and Schurig testified in the 2015 Family Court trial that the child’s condition in February 2015 was consistent with an illness from a virus, and not from physical injury from the parents.

The child’s medical condition included swelling of the brain, bruising, cervical ligament injury and foaming of the mouth, the experts testified in court.

A prosecution doctor disagreed, prosecutors said in the dismissal document dropping criminal charges. But the defense doctor’s determination of no abuse in the 2015 Family Court trial is “both credible and compelling,” the document shows.

Prosecutors said in the dismissal document that police and prosecutors still say the child’s injuries are from abuse.

“Although the State believes that someone purposefully injured the victim, there are insurmountable obstacles to overcoming that burden in regards to who caused those injuries,” the dismissal document states.

The child had bruising and other injuries, including brain and eye injuries that police and prosecutors said at the time of arrest was abuse, warrants showed.

Misti Shelton, lead prosecutor in the case, declined comment outside of the dismissal document that she filed that is now part of the court record.