Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Florida Babysitter Left Baby Girl's Face Bruised: Sheriff

Episode Date: March 12, 2026

Viviana Ortiz-Lopez, 30, faces a child abuse charge after detectives in Marion County, Florida said she bruised the face of a baby girl in her care. According to an affidavit, Ortiz-Lopez called the baby's mother and demanded she pick her up hours after she dropped the girl off on March 10, 2026. That's when the mother saw the bruises on her baby's face. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes over the case and what Ortiz-Lopez allegedly told detectives in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guests: Lt. Paul BloomRandy Kessler https://x.com/GAdivorceCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hello. Vivian? Viviana? Yeah. Ven here. That's babysitter Viviana, Ortiz Lopez, being taken away for questioning. After deputies said a baby she was caring for had bruising on her face,

now Ortiz Lopez is in jail facing a child abuse charge, and detectives believe there are more victims. I'll explain why. I'm Janette Levy, and this is Crime Fix. Viviana Ortiz Lopez is accused of abusing a little baby. She was paid to babysit. Babies, of course, they're completely defenseless and can do nothing for themselves. They rely on adults to feed them, clean them, and protect them. But sheriff's deputies in Marion County, Florida say Ortiz Lopez left the face of this baby girl bruised in more than one place. Deputies picked up Ortiz Lopez

for questioning on the evening of March 10th after the baby's parents had picked her up. up from Ortiz Lopez's home and they noticed bruises on her face. A probable cause affidavit lays out the case and how the baby girl's mother picked up her daughter from Ortiz Lopez's home at 1 p.m. on March 10th, she had dropped the baby off at 8 a.m. Deputies say Ortiz Lopez wanted the baby picked up because she wouldn't stop crying and was fussier than usual. So if you're a mom and you show up at the babysitter and you see injuries on your baby's face, What are you going to do? You are going to ask, how did this happen? Well, the affidavit says Ortiz Lopez told the baby's mom that the baby caused those injuries by scratching herself, so she needed to bring mittens with her the next day to prevent that from happening again. It appears the injuries only got worse and the parents called the sheriff. The affidavit states, Deputy Hill obtained several photos of the victim's injuries which he sent to me. In the photos, I observed a parent bruising along the victim's left cheek, I also observed four distinct red lines, which would be consistent with a slap mark.

On the victim's nose, I observed swelling and more bruising, which ran to underneath her eyes. Deputy Hill also advised that the victim, along with her parents, would be responding to Advent Hospital to provide further care for the victim. Now, this was very concerning to the deputies and detectives, so they interviewed the baby's mother. The affidavit states, she advised when she dropped the victim off, she did not have any injuries, but noted she was more fussy than normal. Around 1 p.m., the defendant contacted her and told her to come pick the victim up due to her nonstop crying and not allowing the other children at the location to sleep. The mother advised during this call, the defendant sounded desperate for her to come get the victim. The mother arrived to the location,

and the defendant immediately brought out the victim's twin brother. The defendant then told her that she needed to come inside to come get the victim. At this time, the mother observed the victim's injuries and began questioning the defendant about it. The defendant advised the victim had done these injuries to herself and continued to state this many times. The mother advised she wasn't sure what to do, so she brought the victim back home and waited for the father to arrive.

The detective wrote that while he was at the hospital, he was able to see the baby's injuries and they were what he saw in the photos from the deputy. he said they appeared to be consistent with an adult's hand. The detective wrote, the mother further explained that she had only been bringing her children to the defendant's house for the past two days. She was recommended to the defendant by a mutual friend. After this incident happened, the mother called the friend and told her what occurred, and the friend told her that she knew the defendant did this, and she had to pull her children from her care previously due to this. The friend explained that she is fearful of the defendant and that this is why she did not contact law enforcement.

At this time, the mother advised she would be contacting the friend to see if she is willing to come forward with the allegation. The baby was examined by a doctor and a forensic nurse, trained in identifying signs of child abuse and the affidavit details their findings. The victim's doctor, Dr. Rogers, observed the victim on his preliminary review. He noted the victim had a parent, patechiae, tiny flat red spots caused by broken blood vessels under the skin around the victim's eyes. He also noted that the victim had major bruising on her face consistent with blunt force trauma. When asked if he believed the victim could do these injuries to herself, he advised she could not. Then Elena Meredith, with the Kimberly Center, responded and conducted her forensic exam of the victim.

She noted additional bruising, which was showing on the other side, of the victim's face, along with more red marks underneath the victim's armpits. She advised she is able to determine positive findings for abuse. Again, when asked if she believed the victim would be able to cause these injuries to herself, she advised. She would not. Now this, along with a recorded phone call between the mother and Viviana Ortiz Lopez that we'll get into shortly, led detectives to bring the babysitter in for questioning. Policea.

Police! Vivian? Viviana? Come here. Come here. Come here. Manas, ribus. Okay.

Okay. Let me. Take. I'm okay. Thank you. Okay. Okay. I'm going to do.

English? No. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I want to hear speaking English. No? Okay. Okay. A little bit. Okay.

You're being, well, we have to speak with the detective. Detective those questions. Okay. Yeah. I'd like to bring in Lieutenant Paul Bloom of the Marion County Sheriff's Office. Lieutenant Bloom, a really horribly sad case. You all believe there are more victims out there. Yeah, it really is, Antoin.

this is, I think, any parent's worst nightmare because you're, one of the hardest things I think I did in my life. And I've done a lot of hard things in military and this job and everything else. But I think for any parent, one of the hardest things, like me, was dropping my kid off for the first time in kindergarten. It was tough. But when you had to go to work, leave your child with a daycare or babysitter, that concern is always in the back of your mind. Nobody's going to love your child like you do. But there's some great babysitters and daycares out there that do a fantastic job. But in the back of our minds, is this worst fear that something terrible like this could happen.

And yes, we feel like this person, if you're capable of doing this for one child, what stops you from doing it to another? And just after their interviews with her and the contradicting stories and the lies that she was telling the detectives, it just causes some concern for us. This was a daycare, a babysitting service run out of the home. Is there any indication that she was regulated or licensed because I wasn't seeing that? Right. Yeah, that's unfortunate. We're not ignorant of the fact that there are a lot of folks who just do this without a license. This is something they're just kind of helping a couple friends out, that kind of thing.

Whether she was or not, I don't know. That's going to be something for more of the regulatory boards here to look into. But I would say as a cautionary word to parents, make sure the person you leave when your child with is certified. There's some things with that certification where this person has to be trained in first aid, CPR in case your child has an emergency. And certain safety points have to be met in the home with as far as fire safety, those kind of things. So I always say it's good to check on those and having that certification. It doesn't make somebody perfect or they're going to be the best, babysitter, but it's certainly something that's going to help.

Have any other people come forward since this story broke? Right now, we don't have any new cases that have opened up, but we hope there is none that do come about. But we also know as this story gets out there and we appreciate you putting it out there for us, that maybe some other parents that have known her and even going back years in time, if she's been doing this for a while, that will see the story. and maybe speak up. How long has she been babysitting?

That we don't know how long she's been. These folks have had this baby with them for just a short while, but it's, you know, even with years of experience, I don't know, that helps her. If you had this mindset where you're willing to hurt a child, I don't care how long you've been doing that job. There's a better way to do it. You cannot do that, not in a society.

It's just not going to be tolerated, certainly in our county. And she's facing some felony charges because of that. How is the baby doing now? So we're being told the baby is recovering fine. And thank God. It's not going to be anything that is long term. But you can imagine picking up your child and finding this baby with bruising on the face. And you're being told, oh, the baby fell down, I think.

And getting a call that your baby won't stop crying. So the parents get there because the babysitters call them because the baby won't stop crying. I want to find out probably the reason the baby won't stop crying is because the baby is injured. So I just don't want to even think about the emotions and the anger, the sadness, the, I don't know, the despair in a parent's heart when you hear that and you see that and experience it. I think it's, and I know a lot of our followers and a lot of your viewers will feel the same way that it just brings up a lot of anger in them. that natural maternal instinct that should be there is missing. And it's hard for us to understand. Yeah, I think there were a couple of different stories.

Like, a baby did it to herself. She needed mittens. The baby was in a swing and did something. So according to the court documents, there were a number of different stories given. That's right. And I think any parent, myself included, I raised three boys. Kids do get hurt on their own sometimes. They just do that.

and toddlers at certain ages are more dangerous than other ages, but there's a distinct difference. And when we're getting a story that keeps changing from the person that was there with the task of watching this child, that causes alarm for us. We understand accidents happen. This was not the case. And the evidence proves that. And then she ultimately admits to just harming his baby, slapping his baby. So she's right where she needs to be behind bars. our hope for the families that they can move on because I know it's a, you know, in our society,

when you have mothers and fathers that both have to work to make ends meet, it's tough. And there's big decisions to make. And your kids are forefront of your mind when you're making these decisions. So hopefully they can move on and find somebody that choose to have a babysitter again that's going to work for them and love that child the way they should. Lieutenant Paul Bloom, thank you so much. All right. You're welcome. Thank you for getting this.

story out there. So I want to bring in Randy Kessler. He is a family law attorney. We're going to get into really the fine details about this case, including a call that mom made to the babysitter in front of the detectives. So Randy, first of all, I just want to get your thoughts on this case. We have a little baby girl, a little baby. Mom drops her off at 8 a.m. to this babysitter's house. The documents say mom's like, you know, she had a little tiny bruise up on her forehead when I dropped her off, but then, you know, babysitter

calls at one and says, you've got to come pick her up. You got to come pick her up. And the baby's got bruising all over her face. I can't even imagine. You know, you can just start thinking about this, and unfortunately hindsight's 2020, but there's a tougher questionnaire

a tougher interview process to work at McDonald's or to work at a fast food restaurant than there is to hire babysitter and you know I think it's because we're generally good human beings and we trust people and when someone's recommended as a babysitter or you find somebody advertising themselves as a babysitter we just assume they know how to take care of kids it's just something that you know good people know how to do we should be a little more skeptical and I'm not blaming the parents but you know hindsight's 2020 and what's your most precious precious asset your child

We all have to be more aware and hope this is a lesson for other parents out there. I hope it is too. And, you know, sometimes people are desperate to find somebody to watch their children. Child care is incredibly expensive. And it sounds like this woman came recommended to the parents in this case. I mean, they had one, not just one baby, two. They had twins that they were taking here. and it had only been like she they had only taken these babies to this woman like a couple of times

and you know i i don't know how you would have vetted this woman um other than maybe going online and looking her up um i looked online and all i'm finding really is that she has an LLC some type of stucco business registered to her she's the manager of a stucco business um which has in my opinion nothing to with babysitting. So, you know, I am confused as to how you would even vet this woman other than talking to people that you know, and that seems like that's what happened here. Like, you know, hey, you know, Susie down the street said, yeah, I take my kids to Viviana. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I was talking to a lawyer last night who actually interviewed for a job. It was given a psychological assessment to practice law, contract law, to review contract, but they wanted to make sure that it was

right fit for this person and it turns out they said well maybe this isn't the right fit maybe you wouldn't be happy with your job maybe it was a nice way of saying it who knows but you know if we do that for jobs where you're the risk is not to a child but to a contract it's a financial risk maybe there should be some standardized formulaic test and I'm not suggesting that everyone has to do that but what can we do better because prevention is the cure is the key right after the fact doesn't do a lot of good you know and again when you your neighbor says I've got a 16-year-old son or daughter who needs some extra money and they can babysit, so many people do that. We all do that. But what 16-year-old is used to raising a child

and has experienced, you know, with a child. So just need to think a little bit more about that. And again, I'm not faulting these parents. They did what every parent does. They were highly recommended to this person and they trusted this person, a human being, to care for a child. That's like the one instinct that people have, particularly women, if you want to be sexist about that throughout the history of time, you know, when you get birth and women raised children, you know, you can call me a sexist or whatever you want, but it's okay to default to, you know, a babysitter who says I'm a good babysitter should know the bare minimums about how to make sure a child doesn't suffer and doesn't have bruises all over their face.

Well, a woman is supposed to have maternal instincts, you know, but at her core, at everyone's core, they're still human beings, right? still fallible. Having maybe too many kids in your care is, you know, not a good thing. I want to get into now this, what they're calling a controlled call that mom makes in front of the detectives to Viviana. And, you know, Viviana, according to the documents, said the baby did this to herself. And she gave a couple of different stories. The cops, you know, said when they talked to her, she made inconsistent statements, but specifically this controlled call that mom makes in front of the cops to Viviana, you know, they say in the documents, and we'll put this up on the screen,

the defendant explained that the victim had been crying a lot today and believed it was because the victim was sad about being dropped off. During this time, the defendant began making contradicting statements. The defendant advised the victim was brought there in a car seat that was covered with a blanket, and she never observed the victim. Later in the conversation, the defendant explained she did see the victim, and she was rubbing her face with the blanket. When she removed the blanket, she observed the injuries to the victim's face. She further advised that when she changed the victim's diaper,

that she did not observe any injuries again on the victim. So she's basically saying they dropped the baby off. There's a blanket over the baby, and she's not even seeing the baby. So I guess like the baby's just sitting in the car seat with a blanket and you don't even look at the baby. And then she's like, voila, takes off the blanket and there's bruising on the face. That, I mean, like that doesn't comport. Like a baby gets dropped off and you take the baby.

Like, let's say the baby's sleeping. You might take the car seat and set it aside for a little bit. And then, you know, then go check on the baby. But come on now. I mean, that sounds a little hokey. you know if there was a blanket would take the blanket off to kiss the baby goodbye and hug the baby and see the injuries check the baby before you leave yeah and then she earlier said that she you know the baby was hitting her themselves you know it's crazy um you know it's interesting in janet about

this though it's one of those cases where the victim can't really say what happened you know so there are no eyewitnesses you know there apparently no cameras of the incident so you still have that burden of proof to to prove that somebody would have intentionally harmed or lack of, you know, thought and just done something that resulted in the harm to a child, it's still a question of proof. And, you know, that's still going to be a, can a jury believe that somebody would have done this to a child versus how else could it have happened? Is that enough to win beyond a reasonable doubt?

It might be enough for civil damages and tip the scales, as we always say. It still makes it a little bit tougher of a trial for the prosecution because they just have to say, well, nobody else could have done it. If I was in the defendant, I'd say, you better have more than that. You better have something proving that I did this because I'm innocent, and I shouldn't have to prove my innocence. You have to prove my guilt. So it's still going to be an interesting trial, an interesting process.

Well, and I've seen cases too, Randy, where a child, you know, haven't, like, thank goodness this child, this baby is alive. But I did see a case one time that I covered years ago where it was in Wisconsin. where a child, you know, it was so sad, the child died. And then the defense was, well, the child was already injured. By the time the child was dropped off at the babysitter. And so the parents are blaming the babysitter for causing these injuries. And then they drop off a sick child who's injured.

And then the babysitter is taking the blame and being prosecuted. So she's probably trying to say, this baby was already hurt. And then the bruising shows up later because the parents dropped off a fussy baby to me who was already injured. That could very well end up being the defense here. Right. And often babysitters, if you're working as a babysitter for a living, you may not be wealthy. You may not be able to afford great, you know, resources and great criminal defense lawyers and private investigators and medical subpoenas to try to prove your case. And they shouldn't have to, right?

You're innocent of proven guilty. So burden of proof is always on the state. If we're going to put somebody away for doing this horrific crime, you better be pretty darn sure beyond not all doubt, but beyond a reasonable doubt. It sounds, smells, feels, tastes like she did it. But is that enough to put her away? That's what makes these cases interesting from a legal point of view. And then, you know, of course the investigators, they go to the house and they pick her up,

Viviana Ortiz Lopez, they pick her up. And they're like, okay, we're bringing you in for questioning. they have a translator because she speaks Spanish. And they, let's put this one up on the screen, she said, they say in the probable cause affidavit, the defendant explained that she cares for multiple children and that the family's contact her only when they need her services. The defendant initially omitted taking care of the woman's children,

but when asked directly, she advised, she did, and only had them for the past two days. The defendant further explained that she is the only one who, watches the children and is responsible for them. The other children she watches are also toddler aged. So, I mean, that's an interesting thing that she didn't even mention these children, the two babies, when she was asked about it by the detectives. I'm sure the detectives, when they went to their house, that's pretty common. They were detaining her. They didn't like come to her and say, we're coming, we're here and we need to talk to you about baby

X and her bruises on her face. They bring her in and they sit her down and they, you know, it's a tactic, an interview tactic. And they ask her about her babysitting and see what she offers up. Yeah, I mean, that was sorts of tactics and those translation issues. You know, we've seen situations where someone comes in and says, I want to ask you about this, this and this. And then they come back and say, but she didn't mention the other. Well, ask her about the other. You know, it's sort of a gamesmanship. And again, you can't pin your whole case on the fact that somebody didn't volunteer. something, but if it's an overt lie, meaning she basically said in response to a question, no, I did not do that, that's one thing. If she didn't volunteer something, you know, she doesn't speak the language. She's not sure what they're asking. She doesn't know what they want. That's an easier one to pick a part for a defense lawyer, I would think. But still, you know, prosecution is going to try to raise as much, you know, question about her sincerity, her honesty, or credibility as they can. And again, if she doesn't testify, then this may be the only thing.

thing that the jury hears from her, so they have to make it good. Another thing that was kind of like really scary to me, it sounds like they think this baby, I mean, they said the baby had patechiae, which I thought that you only got patiki eye from your airway being cut off. Maybe you can get it other ways, which is really scary to me. They said there were like marks under the babies, underarms. I mean, there were a lot of things that sound, it sounds like maybe the baby, could have been squeezed, shaken, I mean, like, slapped, hit.

Like, I'm like, oh, my God, like, what was going on? And was it maybe somebody else in the house hurting the baby, too? They're saying in the document, you know, it looked like an adult-sized hand caused the injuries. I mean, that's like a cop seeing it. But they did have a doctor, a physician, and this forensic nurse examine the baby. I mean, kind of scary. Yeah, I mean, this case is going to rest on the medical. testimony, right? Doctors, you know, and the defense is going to cross-examine them, saying,

not, you know, is this your opinion? Because the doctor might give an opinion that this was caused by the babysitter, but how certain are you in the opinion? How many other options are there? Is it possible this could happen? Are you certain beyond a reasonable doubt that this is the person who caused this injury? You know, what doctor is going to say, I know exactly what happened. It's going to be a good cross-examination. You know, and then, of course, if I was the defense counsel, I'd be asking my client, was there anybody else there? If there was, it's not time to protect your boyfriend or protect your guest that you snuck over to the house, it's time to tell the truth because that person could go to jail and you could be free

or you could be serving less time. I'd need to know. But right now we don't know of anybody else, and that sounds like that's an avenue to explore, at least from the defense counsel. You know, even if you're afraid that this person is going to hurt you because you throw them under the bus and reveal that they hurt this child, you're covering for somebody, and you're going to cover for them for the rest of your life because you may be spending most of it all of it in jail. That's, you know, to be a flaw in the wall between the lawyer and this defendant would be interesting.

Well, and the sheriff's detectives also, you know, they're suspicious that there could be other victims because babies, toddler-aged children, they may not tell if they've suffered injuries. And maybe they don't have injuries that are as grave as this. So I think, yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's really sad. But she is innocent until proven guilty.

I mean, we do need to reiterate that. I mean, these are allegations. These are criminal charges, and the process has to play out. Randy Kessler, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it. Thanks, Anjanet. And Viviana Ortiz Lopez. She is in the Marion County Jail where she is being held without bail.

And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. We will see you back here next time.