Charges: Day Care Provider Accused Of Child Neglect
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A South St. Paul day care provider is accused of dropping a 12-week old infant last October and breaking the baby's arm, according to charges filed Monday in Dakota County Court.
Amanda Jolene Oster, 35, was charged with one gross misdemeanor count of child neglect in connection with the Oct. 24, 2011 incident.
According to a complaint, Oster runs a licensed in-home day care in South St. Paul and was taking care of seven children on the day of the incident. Oster called the baby's mother at about 2:12 p.m. that day and said she thought something might be wrong with the child's arm.
Oster told the mother that she was holding the baby and another child when she accidentally dropped the infant on the couch, the complaint states. The baby's mother took the infant to Children's Hospital, where X-rays revealed the baby had broken its upper left arm.
Oster spoke with a social worker the day after the incident and said she was holding the infant in her left arm and her 2 ½-year-old son in her right arm while both were crying. She said her son was "freaking out" and she tried to unswaddle the infant to see if would comfort her. She told the social worker that she pulled on blanket swaddling the infant, causing the baby to roll out and fall about three feet onto the leather couch, according to the complaint.
The infant was crying hysterically and could not move her arm. That's when Oster called the baby's mother.
If convicted, Oster faces up to a year in jail, a $3,000 fine and a possible revocation of her day care licensing.
