Cops: Daycare owner lied about 2-year-old being left in van for hours
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After realizing a 2-year-old had been left inside a van for several hours, a Georgia daycare owner failed to seek medical treatment and lied about the incident to the girl’s mother, according to police.
An employee of the Bright Achievers Pre-K Center, located on Jefferson Street in Austell, told the center's owner, Melinda Hamilton, the toddler was found on the van used earlier in the day for a field trip, an arrest warrant states.
On the afternoon of May 5, the van was being used to pick up children from nearby elementary schools when the driver found the girl in the backseat, police said.
“The driver described the child as ‘sweaty’ and the child’s clothing as ‘moist’ from having been in the vehicle for several hours,” the arrest warrant states. “The accused did not call 911, did not transport the child to a hospital or doctor, and told the driver not to tell anyone else that the child had been left in the vehicle.”
Hamilton also allegedly instructed a staff member to provide a false statement on the incident to state investigators, stating that the 2-year-old’s class had left for the field trip in the afternoon, according to police. Hamilton told the employee to state that the child had been left on the van for 15 minutes, rather than more than five hours, and asked the staff member to erase video surveillance footage from inside the center, police said.
When the staff member refused to erase the video, Hamilton allegedly asked a technician to remove the camera, the arrest warrant states.
The child’s mother was also told the child was left in the van for 15 minutes, she told police. Another staff member told the mother her child had been left in the van much longer, and the mother took the girl to the hospital for treatment when her daughter was noticeably sluggish and unusually thirsty, according to police.
Hamilton, 59, of Atlanta, was arrested Friday and charged with false statements, tampering with evidence and reckless conduct. She was booked into the Cobb County jail and released Saturday morning after posting $25,000, booking records showed.
The Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning, which licenses daycare centers, is investigating the incident, believed to be the fifth case this year involving childcare providers leaving children in vehicles. Last year, the department investigated 18 cases, a department spokesman said.
— Please visit ajc.com for updates.
