Two women charged with felony child abuse at Blaine day care center

Kristi Miller, Pioneer Press
·3 min read
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Two caretakers at the Small World Day Care Learning Center in Blaine have been charged with felony child abuse after the parents of a 5-month-old took their child to the hospital with unexplained bruising last week in what authorities are calling an “exceptionally shocking” incident of child abuse that ended up affecting at least two other children.

Elizabeth Augusta Wiemerslage, 23, of Coon Rapids, and Chloe Kaye Johnson, 31, of Blaine, were both charged with child abuse, according to a news release from Capt. Mark Boerboom of the Blaine police department.

“Although we have been forced to investigate other terrible acts of child abuse, this one is exceptionally shocking,” he wrote in the release. “Most parents drop their children off at day care centers believing that their child will be safe, especially since there is usually more than one care provider watching their child at any one given time. In this case, we found two workers working together with infants, both aggressively abusing children.”

The release gave these details about the incident:

On July 16, police said they received a report of the possible abuse after the parents took the infant to Minneapolis Children’s Hospital with unexplained bruising that had occurred the day while the child was at the day care.

Authorities said that at first the day care providers told investigators that the bruising might have been caused by an infant swing. But when detectives looked at surveillance video footage they saw the child had been abused and the two women were arrested, according to Boerboom’s release.

While watching the video, the release said, police identified two other victims and contacted their parents.

Authorities allege the video shows Johnson grabbing an infant by her lower body and “violently” flipping the child onto her back. Authorities allege that the infant’s face hit the floor mat repeatedly during this incident, and Wiemerslage was present at the time Johnson was doing this.

In another video, authorities allege that Johnson picked up a second infant and held a cloth to the baby’s mouth and nose for several seconds while the child was crying. Then, police said, she allegedly gripped the child by the neck and shoved a bottle repeatedly in and out of the child’s mouth. Later in the same video, authorities allege Wiemerslage picked up the same child and allegedly slammed her down on a support pillow. At another time, police said Wiemerslage picked up a third infant and “aggressively” shoved that child down onto a changing table.

Upon medical examination, the first infant had bruising in nine areas and the third infant was found to have old leg fractures that may have occurred two weeks before.

The day care center is cooperating with investigators as detectives comb through additional video footage. Families have been contacted and told to have their child evaluated and to contact the police if they see any unexplainable injuries.

The women were each charged with one count of felony assault, malicious punishment of a child; assault in the third degree for a victim under four; and two gross misdemeanor counts of malicious punishment of a child. In addition, the two women have been released on $75,000 bail.

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