Day care worker sent to trial in alleged abuse of 18-month-old
A former Sun Prairie day care worker accused of abusing an 18-month-old girl in her care was ordered to stand trial Tuesday after a preliminary hearing which featured testimony from a former co-worker who saw the abuse.
Sara Kladehall, 20, of Portage, faces three charges of child abuse and one count of first degree reckless injury for the injuries she inflicted to the little girl at the Rock-A-Bye day care center in Sun Prairie.
Both Kladehall and Lindsey Anderson, 21, of DeForest, were charged in the case, but Anderson reached a plea deal earlier and testified at Kladehall's hearing Tuesday.
Anderson said as she was eating her lunch on Jan. 24, 2006, when Kladehall said the little girl was in trouble. "I saw the little girl lying on her mat," Anderson said. "Her eyes were rolling back in her head and her lips were turning blue."
Anderson said she gave the girl CPR until the Sun Prairie ambulance and police arrived, and the girl was revived and rushed to a Madison hospital.
Both Anderson and Kladehall were fired from the day care center following the incident, and after an extensive investigation both were charged in October 2007 with abusing the young girl.
Anderson testified that she reached a plea agreement in which she pleaded guilty to three misdemeanors and was allowed to participate in the First Offender's Program, which means the criminal counts will be dismissed if she successfully completes the program.
Anderson testified that of the eight children she and Kladehall took care of in the Barn Buddies room at Rock-A-Bye, the victim was the most difficult to care for, often cried, and seldom would nap when the other children did.
Kladehall, she said, would often swaddle the child in a blanket, place another blanket on her, then place a bean bag chair on the girl's back to try to get her to sleep. Kladehall would also lay on top of the little girl cross-wise, to put additional pressure on the child. Anderson testified that she saw Kladehill resting near the child but couldn't tell if her body weight was on the little girl.
Assistant District Attorney Shelly Rusch said that was the only possible way the girl could have suffered her injuries on that day, and argued it was enough to show probable cause that Kladehall committed a felony and should be held for trial.
The Sun Prairie detective in charge of the case was out of town on vacation Tuesday and not available for testimony, and Dr. Barbara Knox, a pediatrician and child abuse expert who Rusch expected to call as a witness was also unavailable.
That led to a spirited argument at the end of the hearing as to whether the state had met its burden, which is minimal at a preliminary hearing, with defense attorney Lawrence Bensky arguing that the major felony count of causing first degree reckless injury had to be dismissed because there was no testimony on what harm was done to the child or how it was caused.
But Dane County Circuit Court Judge Richard Niess ruled that Rusch only had to show probable cause that Kladehall committed a felony, not all specific charges in the complaint since they were transactionally related.
The case now goes to Dane County Circuit Court Judge Patrick Fiedler for trial.
