Law&Crime Sidebar - Workers Violently Abused Babies at Daycare in 'Exceptionally Shocking' Misconduct: Court Docs

Episode Date: July 24, 2024

Elizabeth Wiemerslage, 22, and Chloe Johnson, 24, were arrested in Minnesota after police found security camera footage of the women allegedly abusing infants under their care at Small World Learning Center. The women are accused of violently flipping babies and pushing them down into pillows. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber combs through the heinous accusations and speaks with state Rep. Nolan West, who says he removed his own child from the daycare center not long before the arrests.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger and Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY 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.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that will

keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Two daycare workers in Minnesota are accused of unthinkable abuse against the children in their care. Now they both face assault charges as police reveal the alleged abuse. use was all caught on camera. We're speaking with a state lawmaker who says he pulled his own young daughter out of that daycare not long before these employees were arrested. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by law and crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Two women are out on bond in the Minneapolis area after being arrested and charged with three counts each of malicious punishment

of a child and one count each of third degree assault of a victim. under age four. On July 16th, it's been reported that a parent called 911 to report potential child abuse at a daycare center in Blaine, Minnesota. According to this statement of probable cause, the

five-month-old's parents, remember that age, notice bruising on her thighs, groin, buttocks and legs. They contacted the daycare center to inquire about the bruising, and were told it might be from the chair or swing in the infant room. Officers found out that the two employees,

for infant one's room, that's how this infant's being identified, infant one, were 24-year-old Chloe K. Johnson and 22-year-old Elizabeth Weimerslage. When police questioned Johnson, she reportedly said she saw some redness on infant one's pelvic area in the afternoon on the 15th, and then saw it had turned to bruising on the 16th, but she allegedly said the bruising could come from infant chairs. Then when police questioned Weimerslage, she said she didn't see anything. She said she didn't see any redness or bruising. But if there was, it was caused by the swing or chair. You know what the issue with that is? Police say there is surveillance video that shows what actually happened inside of that infant room. Now, I have to warn you. We obviously cover really horrifying crimes

on sidebar. There's no secret about that. This, though, is incredibly difficult to hear. I'm giving you that warning right now. With that in mind, and I apologize for this, but it's important to understand the allegations. Here we go. The probable cause statement reads, around 9.07 a.m., defendant Johnson is sitting with infant one on a floor mat and starts moving infant one around aggressively. Over the next several minutes, defendant Johnson grabs infant one by her upper thighs, hip, and groin area, and violently flips infant one back and forth from her stomach to her back,

not allowing Infant One to remain on one side for longer than a few seconds. Infant One's arms are flailing outward and her body is consistently rigid as her face contacts the floor mat repeatedly as she is being flipped and her head is unsupported. There's no audio but Infant One appears to be screaming with her mouth open as this is happening. Absolutely horrific. And this statement explains that Weimerslage is there as this is going on. and is seemingly watching this, but let's continue. In the video, Defendant Johnson is also seen picking up another infant, infant two, roughly,

and holding a cloth over the infant's mouth and nose for several seconds while infant two is crying. Defendant Johnson is gripping infant two firmly by the neck before she violently pulls them up by the arm and shoves a bottle repeatedly in and out of Infantu's mouth too rapidly for Infantu to be drinking from it. Later in the video, defendant Johnson is seated next to defendant Weimerslaj, who picks up infant two and violently slams the infant down onto a support pillow. At another time, defendant Weimerslage is seen picking up another infant, infant three, and aggressively shoving them down onto a changing table. It goes on to state that defendant Weimerslage aggressively drags infant one towards her by her legs before she picks her up aggressively and slams infant one into a support pillow and press. presses down hard on infant one's torso and abdomen. You know, it's almost impossible to comprehend what is going on.

And we haven't seen the video of this. I don't think I even want to see the video of this. But video of these children being tossed around like literal rag dolls, that's the accusation right now. So remember, infant one's parents are the ones who made the initial report. But according to court documents, infant two and infant three underwent medical examines. for potential injuries, and more bruising was found. And one of the babies had a leg fracture, believed to be about two weeks old.

The probable cause document states medical reports indicate that infant one sustained bruising in nine different areas on her body, including her groin, buttocks, thighs, shins, and abdomen. The report indicates the bruises range from one centimeter to five centimeters in length are consistent with a grip injury or squeeze type injury and are inconsistent with a chair or strap injury. The reports further diagnosed the bruising as inflicted injuries due the bruising pattern and immobility of infant ones. So if this makes its way to trial and these defendants try to fight it, this could be a battle of the experts talking about how these children received these injuries. Is there one set of causes? Is there only one way this could happen? We see this a lot in abuse cases and abuse trials.

Now, according to police, quote, defendant Johnson initially told officers she was helping the infants learn how to roll over but ultimately admitted. she was too rough and admitted her behavior could have caused infant ones bruising. Defended why massage also admitted to her behavior and that it was wrong. Both women were released on $75,000 bail. They're due back in court separately one in August, one in September. The maximum sentence, our understanding for each count, is five years, so they could potentially face a max of 20 years in prison if they go to trial and are convicted. Blaine police said in a statement, quote,

although we have been forced to investigate other terrible acts of child abuse, this one is exceptionally shocking. Most parents drop their children off at daycare centers believing that their children will be safe, especially since there's 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. This is a sad case, but it is an important one to tell nonetheless. One of the reasons we're able to present you stories like this and talk about the law and talk about the facts is in large part to the support we get from our sponsors. And that includes Morgan and Morgan, America's largest injury law firm. Look, if you should find yourself

in a position where you're hurt and you need legal representation, Morgan and Morgan may be who you want in your corner because they are specialists in this area. And they're so big because they win a lot. Verdicts and settlements in the multi-millions across this country. They make the process super easy for their clients because from starting your claim to uploading documents to signing contracts and talking to your legal team it can all be done from your smartphone so if you're injured you can easily start a claim at for the people.com slash lc sidebar the daycare provider small world learning center released a statement to kSTP in minneapolis saying quote we as a company do not condone the acts of the two individuals involved in the incident the two teachers in question

were terminated immediately and indefinitely we were remaining open to continue supporting our families who rely on us for care and stability during this difficult time, we want to remind everyone that in the 24 years that Small World Learning Center organization has been open that this is the first time something of this nature has happened. We have a team of fully dedicated teachers who love what they do and are here for the safety and well-being of the children in their care. We are cooperating with the Blaine Police Department and DHS to locate any weaknesses in our policies and procedures to ensure this does not happen again. But these may not have been the only children to experience abuse at this daycare center. Why? A man named Cody Pesh posted on

Facebook. Two daycare teachers were caught on camera abusing infants at Small World Learning Center in Blaine, Minnesota, and our five-month-old son was one of them. He received scratches and bruises all over his body and suffered a fractured leg from their abuse. The despicable humans that did this were arrested on Thursday but are already out on bail. Please share this post so the world knows what these evil human beings did. Another woman, Rihanna Lee, said, She pulled her child out of that same daycare center. She posted, I pulled Gray from this daycare after multiple mysterious incidents where he kept hurting himself where I'd come pick him up with a bloody nose, marks in his body, rug burn, etc. Just to find out a month later that two of the teachers that were in his room were caught abusing kids.

People knew what was going on there and did nothing. And that brings me to our guest today. Minnesota State Representative Nolan West, who it's our understanding, his daughter attended. Small World Learning Center. Now Nolan posted on axed, quote, these monsters tortured our baby. They were the caretakers when Sybil was there. She was always upset and sad when we picked her up. We have pictures of unexplained bruising. Their explanations were fishy, but we never assumed the worst. We moved our baby to Primrose, and she completely changed and was always cheerful. We never assumed that it was because she was always being abused. I am learning that many other

parents have the same story and this seems to have been going on for quite some time this is absurd and infuriating and totally unacceptable i agree representative west joins me right now from minnesota representative thank you so much for coming on to talk about this i know it it can't be easy um and it's kind of shocking to hear what we're talking about if you can though if you can explain your experience uh at this daycare center because again it's kind of unbelievable to think about yeah i mean you would literally never expect it like uh so those two teachers one of them we actually never really liked i mean never in a million years but we think she was doing anything but like we'd hand sibyl to her and my daughter and she'd freak out like bloody murder and it's like

oh she loves us so much and like because the other possibility doesn't enter your mind but the other teacher uh never in a million years what i like even more so seemed like a lovely person seemed like she actually did like our child uh and like so we had about two incidents report reports a week while sybil was there and it's our first baby so we didn't like okay well my wife was very on the ball she her motherly instincts kicked in i was just like well how could so stupid I thought this is normal, but I had no frame of reference. My wife was smart enough to take pictures, which we did get to submit to the police and tell them our story.

So hopefully that can help bring them to justice because those pictures were from last year, late last year. Wow. And they didn't get arrested, as we know, until July. So this is nuts. Wait, wait. That was our experience. Let's amplify that.

You sent the pictures to police a year ago and nothing happened? Oh, no, no, no. I thought it was nothing. Okay, okay. I'm incredibly embarrassed about, like my wife has been very gracious with me because this is, yeah, but my wife took pictures just in case. Okay. And sure enough, she said, something in me told me, I need to document this, but we didn't submit him to the police. That just happened two days ago.

Well, first of all, please do not blame yourself because it's, again, it's hard to imagine that this could happen. And as I mentioned earlier on, you know, there's one thing for one person to be accused of this, but there's a group there. There's multiple people. And so you would think that there's people supervising other people and watching what's happened. Here you have two have been accused of abusing. So it's again, doing it together. Exactly. That's one of the most shocking things about it. What was your reaction when this came out? Us utter disability. Like, well, one, they said teachers at small world is how I heard about it. I, like, while I was reading this Facebook post, which is actually one of the big problems, is the vast majority, all but like two families discovered that any of this was going on from a Facebook post, not from the daycare telling them.

I mean, like, a daycare should tell you when police are investigating, I mean, but they, the families found out in this Facebook post. I was reading it. I was like, oh, that's strange. It sounds like they're talking about where Sybil was. And then seeing the mugshots over two teachers was just even while reading it, I didn't immediately assume. Well, especially because one of them seemed so nice and lovely, honestly. And, yeah, we did, then you saw it, and it was completely flabbergasting. I couldn't believe it.

Did you confront them about what happened to Sybil? So my wife did. I wish she was here, but she's working right now. One of the bruises, they didn't even report, but we didn't see it until later. And that was like a two-inch bruise, about an inch wide. posted the picture on her shin which when you see when you hear about the police reports of how they were flipping children by grabbing their legs uh makes perfect sense which is just mortifying and then there was this band a bruise straight across her back along her ribs

and my wife confronted them about that one that one did have an incident report and they said well we think it might have been the chair um you know sometimes a strap can hurt heard and which isn't that I found out they gave that exact same explanation to other families and then there was another like more targeted like red dot almost like being poked with something now I don't know what happened I'm not a forensic expert but they said that was from rolling over a magnet and then they showed my wife the magnet because she's like that doesn't sound right and it still didn't sound right but it's like you look at it now and you're like how could you not know but it's just so far from our minds that this apparently

lovely person was harming our child it's hard to think that people could do this that's or allegedly do this i mean look they are innocent hoping guilty but but let me ask you this you you and your wife felt that there was enough to take sybil out of there though right no this is it's just continuing embarrassment for me so we moved daycares because we need one of open later. And we didn't realize, like when we started to go, wait a minute, there is something wrong there was when we brought her to the new daycare, because they were up until six. Really, that's the reason we moved. But then Sybil was never sad, never. Like, we brought her there. She's happy. She reaches for the teachers. She can't wait to see them. They can't wait to see her.

Everybody knows, like, everybody's like, hey, Zibyl, when you walk in there, then when you pick her up, she's always doing something, her diaper's clean. That's another. There was a time when they didn't change your diaper for five hours. They told us they forgot to log it, but now we're pretty sure that they weren't even doing that much for these kids. But at the new, then we're like, wait, what was wrong with that old daycare? But then again, they were just like, man, they're just a bad daycare. We didn't think for a minute, obviously. I've said that like a hundred times. I'm glad you're emphasizing because you're not alone in this. And this is not the only case that we've seen of this. But do you, did you have interactions with any other people?

people at that daycare that you may believe might have been engaging the same kind of conduct or ledge conduct of other teachers at the daycare yeah yeah um well that so no not any other teachers that we can surmise i've nothing i mean there's some things we could talk about in terms of reporting because and this is freaky one of the teachers who did the older infants uh she also had a baby in the younger infants and she brought concerns to the leadership of the daycare saying i've got weird bruising on my child and in her words because i was in a meeting with like 30 some other teachers 30 some angry parents um and the only okay i need to finish that uh and in that meeting she said the director completely blew her off twice and that is likely um going to be an issue for them in the future but it's so you look at even teachers were victims here that weren't that had that trusted that their kids would be fine in the daycare where they were wow that's incredibly alarming have you considered legal action oh we're considering everything um i mean the the parents

are well organized in terms of after that meeting um all met at a coffee shop near there which actually the only way i heard about the meeting going on because i pulled my child and even one of the that are the infant one and two, they didn't know about the meeting either because they immediately pulled their child as soon as this all started. So because they pulled their child, they didn't feel like they needed to be notified of a meeting to tell them about it. I was at a meeting at the coffee shop that they ended up going to later. And I saw like 50 cars in the parking lot. I'm like, okay, I think I know what that's about. And I just went in there. And that's the only reason I heard about the meeting. The families didn't hear about the

meeting until after 10 p.m. the night before. And like, their day is. care was closed the next day. I mean, for good reason, but these poor families are now out, like out of a daycare for the foreseeable likely forever, I would guess, but at least for the foreseeable future. It's hard to trust the daycare after this experience, too. By the way, how is Sybil doing right now? Oh, she's doing well. She hasn't walked yet, but she's, I mean, she's, she was sick yesterday. So I was home with her. I actually did an interview with her in my lap. She's ridiculously She's doing very well. But the other infants, like, so one of the things that's read about in the police report, which I didn't finish because it's literally the worst reading you can imagine if you have a child, they would put the baby on its stomach and then like press on it. And I don't know, like, other than causing harm, I can't imagine why they would do that. And that baby used to, you know, you do tummy time with your young infants to, you know, acclimate them to the world and the baby will not go on its stomach anymore,

one of their children. And it's just horrifying, but Sybil appears to be fine. The only thing that really frightened me is the fracture, the kid that got the fractured leg had no symptoms. So they didn't know, they didn't know that there was a fractured leg until they went to the doctor and this came up. That freaked me out about civil because maybe she did and we just never noticed because she wasn't walking, but she can put weight on it now and stuff. So I think, I think she's okay.

Obviously, this is going to be an ongoing criminal case. You may very well have to testify at a trial or be compelled to testify at a trial about this if they decide to, you know, not take a deal or this does, you know, makes it, doesn't make it to trial. But would you be prepared to testify against these two women and recount your experience because it's horrifying? And what your description, I unfortunately read the whole statement, the whole public, the problem cause statement, it's incredibly difficult. It's so consistent with these other accounts. Would you and your wife be prepared to testify if you had to? So that's one thing that I was, they only keep a week of footage.

So there's like no footage of my baby being there. So I was worried that, oh, well, we got these pictures, but what are, you know, we can add to pattern maybe. but we can't get our own charges or anything like that. But maybe we can, the more I hear about how the investigation is going. And absolutely, you know, my wife in particular is perfect because she confronted them on this and she can recount those conversations. And yeah, I would definitely test. No, we're going to be there every step of the way.

We don't care if we just sit there and do nothing. But if it is it in any way possible to be there as they move through the process, August 12th, is one of their, I believe it's the arraignment for one of them and then the other one's September 19th. And we will be there every day that the public is allowed to be there. And if we can testify to help get justice for all these kids, because it sounds like this is at least going on for a year, in my opinion, like we'll do whatever we can to make it happen. And I have to conclude by asking this as a lawmaker, have you looked at possibly changes in the law, to police this, to see if this is more of an ongoing issue, to perhaps stricter

penalties for this. Unfortunately, given your experience, I wonder if this is something that you and your colleagues might now be looking into, because this is unfortunately not the first case I've heard of child abuse in daycare centers. Yeah, when I was talking detective, I just thought about how horrible it was for them to hear. I'm sure they've heard 50 of these stories. it's every month but um yeah no absolutely like the the balances you don't want to daycare is already super expensive we don't want to load them up with additional mandates so i'm i'm hesitant to go nuts on it but we it's my number one priority and like for example they wouldn't be being brought to justice without the cameras there's almost yet like almost for sure no and when

you look and my new daycare which i love they're amazing they actually don't have cameras in the room which i'm like oh i just assumed daycares had to have cameras uh i think that is one thing we need to look at i i mean look at that better be law at some point to make sure that especially in infant rooms now there's a lot to go through because we don't want to add more cost to an already outrageously expensive thing but when it comes to health and safety i think focusing on camera and storage retention because you look at they only had a week of footage and i do video work outside the legislature and i can tell you it's like you can store a whole lot of footage on a $100, like, 10 terabyte hard drive. I mean, especially if

you're compressing and archiving it. So that is my number one priority. Other things like notifying parents, if police show up, you know, that that seems like an easy one. And then incident reports in particular, when there is one, having more than one person signed these incident reports, so not just the parent and the teacher, but the two people from the daycare, just so if one person continues to perpetrate this, at least they don't have an excuse for not knowing. And then it looks like that people didn't know who to report to. So people were telling the superior about abuse is what it sounds like. And that didn't go anywhere.

Well, technically, as under the mandatory reporting, it's you're supposed to report to law enforcement, health care practitioner, or the county. So maybe they just didn't know. They should have had training on that when they became staff at that institution. So reexamining that in some way. But those lots and then making sure parents have access. to video when they have an incident report. So even if it's nothing, letting the parent know that, especially with this in mind,

I think is only a good thing. So looking at those, this is also done with the thought of, we don't want to make it even more expensive because it's already crazy expensive. Let's make sure that, you know, my hope is we can add something to this safety package to also make daycare more affordable

or ease the regulatory burden in things that don't have to do with, you know, health and safety of the infants. those are incredibly important initiatives i'm wishing you luck on them i think that those would be very well needed especially in light of the story we just talked about um and listen representative west thank you so much for coming on i know again it's not easy sharing this experience i'm sending my best to you and your family and also to all the other families uh who have experienced this um it's really an unthinkable story but it's important to bring it to everybody's attention nonetheless

less wishing you the best of luck and really thank you for the work that you do thank you so much i appreciate you broadcasting this this is i mean people need to know all right everybody that's all we have for you right now here on sidebar thank you so much for joining us and as always please subscribe on apple podcasts spotify youtube wherever you get your podcasts i'm jesse weber i'll speak to you next You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.