Child Injury Lawyer Blog
By David Wolf, Attorney
Published by Child Injury Lawyer Network
A former Littleton, Colorado, day care center employee was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault upon a child. It was reported that 32-year-old Paul James Kerr was a lead teacher at KinderCare Daycare Center and had been employed at the center since July 2010. Littleton Police initiated their investigation after a child told a parent of an incident that allegedly occurred on March 21, 2011 at the center. The parent subsequently notified police. According to a Littleton Police release, investigators discovered there were several victims. KinderCare provides care for children between the ages of 2-months and 13-years-old. Kerr was immediately fired when the investigation was initiated and all families were notified his termination and the ongoing investigation. Before working for KinderCare, Kerr was employed as an elementary substitute teacher in both Jefferson County and Denver Public Schools. He also worked as a summer church camp counselor in Missouri in 2005. Kerr is currently held on a $50,000 bond for sexual assault on a child and sexual assault by someone in a position of trust, both felony charges. For more read Former Littleton, Colorado, daycare employee arrested on suspicion of sexual assault on a child.
In Kannapolis, North Carolina, it was reported that a day care worker was caught on video surveillance tape at the day care center mistreating children under her care. Police have charged the woman (Whitney Belk) with five counts of criminal assault for her actions. The day care center, Kids Korner Child Development Center, had video surveillance in place. The administrator (Danielle Mauldin) of the North Carolina child care center viewed videotape and then terminated Ms. Belk as an employee. The use of video surveillance can be used as evidence in criminal case. More day care centers should consider installing and utilizing videotape surveillance as a safety precaution and measure for children. Videotape surveillance can answer questions and settle disputes when there is a question as to how a child was injured or how a child was handled or treated by a teacher, assistant, and / or other staff member at the day care center. Unfortunately, staff members and employees at day care centers in North Carolina and other States continue to abuse and neglect children at a location that should be a safe haven for children. See 
Sara Beth Whited, a former day care center owner in Casper, Wyoming, pled guilty to child endangerment. The charge was pressed against Whited after an infant, 3-month-old Tyler Parker, died in the Wyoming day care center in October 2010. Autopsy reports revealed that Tyler died as a result of suffocation, he was swaddled in a blanket and placed on soft-foam mattress. When Tyler’s mother, Nichole Parker, found her son he was cold and unresponsive. After being discovered, Tyler was taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead. Whited was ordered to serve a year of unsupervised probation and was also given a one-year suspended jail sentence. A local newspaper reported that Whited would no longer be unable to operate her daycare center because her guilty plea barred her from obtaining future licensing. For more read 
Jessica Tata, the former owner of a residential day care center in Houston, Texas, turned herself in to officials after she fled to Nigeria for her involvement in the death of 4 children while under her care. Tata’s residential day care caught fire sometime last month, killing 4 children under her care. Tata allegedly fled to Nigeria two days after the fire broke out. Charges were pressed against her the day after she fled from Texas. Tata was on the run for 20 days, during that time she was placed on the U.S. Marshal’s 15 most wanted fugitive list. She traveled with Nigerian officials to Lagos, where U.S. authorities met her. It is believed that Tata’s family played a role in her surrender. Tata faces four counts of manslaughter as well as multiple charges of injury to a child and 3 counts of abandoning a child. For more information on Tata’s surrender read 
A Southern California couple is being tried for sexually abusing children at their residential day care center in San Diego. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that 59-year-old Mark Kaczmarczyk was convicted by a jury of felony child abuse and lewd conduct on a child. He faces up to 10 years in prison. Prosecutors argued that, in 2007, Kaczmarczyk sexually molested a 2-year-old girl at his home-operated day care center in Mission Valley. Kaczmarczyk’s 45-year-old wife, Anita, was also convicted of child abuse involving the same 2-year-old female victim and another 2-year-old boy.
A two-year-old child was hospitalized in critical condition after the child was hit and run over by a car outside a child care center in south Tel Aviv. The incident occurred around 8 a.m. after one of the center’s three children wandered outside and into the day care center’s parking lot. The husband of the day care’s owner drove up to the center to pick up the couple’s nine children and take them to school when he heard a loud blow and then screams by his wife and other bystanders. The husband stop and exited his vehicle to find the toddler lying motionless under the wheels of his automobile. The toddler, who sustained a head injury, was immediately taken inside the child care facility , where he remained until paramedics arrived and attempted to stabilize him. The 2-year-old was transported to Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center in critical condition. Police questioned the center’s operator on the suspicion of negligence and find out how the child could have left the facility without anyone noticing. Traffic police also investigated the car accident. Both investigations are still ongoing. For more read