Brighton Heights man gets time served in infant daughter's death

A Brighton Heights man will serve no more jail time in the 2015 death of his 5-week-old daughter.

Joseph Swidorsky, 33, who has been in the Allegheny County Jail since his Oct. 1, 2015, arrest, was sentenced Wednesday to 23 to 46 months in jail, which amounts to time served, according to Mike Manko, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office.

Swidorsky pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in April in connection with his daughter’s death. The plea deal did not contain an agreement as to sentencing. The DA’s office requested the statutory maximum of 5 to 10 years, Manko said. Judge Jill Rangos imposed the 23-to-46-month sentence.

Swidorsky was placed on five years probation and ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation, attend parenting classes and have no contact with the child’s mother.

Swidorsky’s 1-month-old daughter Braelyn Swidorsky became unresponsive in a West View home on June 15, 2015, and died later at a hospital. Doctors determined the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head that likely was caused by another person, police said.

Swidorsky was arrested three months later. He told investigators that he was giving the girl a bath when she was crying so hard she stopped breathing and turned blue, according to police.

A charge of child endangerment was withdrawn by prosecutors.