Prosecutors expect to upgrade charges against nanny charged in assault on 1-year-old who later died

By Peter Schworm and Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

Even though an autopsy is not yet complete on the tiny body of the victim, Middlesex County prosecutors say they “fully and firmly” expect to file more serious charges against a Quincy nanny charged with assaulting a 1-year-old child in her care who later died.

But Aisling McCarthy Brady’s lawyer called today in court for a reduction in her client’s bail and insisted her client was innocent.

Prosecutors were granted a continuance by Cambridge District Court Judge Roanne Sragow until April 22 for a probable cause hearing.

Assistant District Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said the autopsy on Rehma Sabir of Cambridge was not yet complete due to “substantial and complex medical issues” that had prevented the medical examiner from determining the cause and manner of death.

In a motion calling for the continuance, prosecutors were adamant that they expected to upgrade the charges. A determination by the medical examiner on how the baby died would would be crucial to the prosecution case.

“I don’t think four weeks is unreasonable,” Sragow said.

But Melinda Thompson, Brady’s defense attorney, said the state’s case against her client was weak.

“My client has been in jail for 65 days. ... The charges have not been upgraded now for 65 days. There is an innocent person sitting in jail,” she said in a sharp exchange with the judge.

Thompson asked for a bail reduction, but Sragow said she could not reduce the bail, which was set by another judge. She also noted that the defense could appeal to Superior Court if they wanted bail reduced.

Brady, an Irish native who has been in the country illegally, was arrested Jan. 21 and charged with assaulting the child on Jan. 14, inflicting severe head injuries. The child died Jan. 16 at Boston Children’s Hospital. Brady currently faces a charge of assault and battery on a child causing substantial bodily injury.

The child died less than a week after a party marking her first birthday was attended by 20 people.

Witnesses told The Boston Globe that the nanny and infant brightened a neighborhood near Harvard Square and Brady looked like she was doing a good job. But Brady, while never convicted, had faced a criminal charge in the past and two restraining orders.