Daycare workers accused of 'exceptionally shocking' abuse

Left to right: Chloe Kaye Johnson, Elizabeth Augusta Wiemerslage (Anoka County). Inset: Small World Learning Center (Google Maps).

Two Minnesota daycare workers have been arrested after being caught on surveillance camera severely abusing young children in their care, “violently” turning infants over and breaking at least one baby’s leg.

Elizabeth Augusta Wiemerslage, 22, and Chloe Kaye Johnson, 24, were taken into custody Thursday and charged with three counts of malicious punishment of a child and one count of third-degree assault of a victim under the age of 4, according to records reviewed by Law&Crime.

Officers with the Blaine Police Department began investigating the Small World Learning Center in the 1300 block of Paul Parkway Northeast on July 16 after staff from Minneapolis Children’s Hospital contacted the center about a 5-month-old infant with suspicious bruising on his thighs, ABC affiliate KSTP reported in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Blaine Police Department detectives interviewed the victim’s parents, who said that when they picked up their child from daycare, they noticed the child had new bruises. They contacted the facility to inquire.

Someone at the daycare told the parents that the child’s bruises “could have come from the chair or swing in the infant waiting room,” Minneapolis Fox affiliate KMSP reported. In individual interviews with police, Johnson and Wiemerslage both reportedly gave similar explanations, blaming the daycare’s chairs and swings for the injuries.

However, surveillance footage from inside the facility contradicted the two defendants’ allegations, according to the Star Tribune.

In one video, police allegedly saw Johnson “grab (a baby) by the upper thighs, hip and groin and violently flip (the baby) back and forth, from her stomach to her back,” police wrote in a probable cause affidavit filed in Anoka County District Court. “(The baby’s) arms are flailing outward and her body is constantly rigid as her face repeatedly contacts the floor mat while she is flipped over and her head is unsupported.”

Although the video does not contain audio, police reportedly said the baby “appears to be screaming with his mouth open as this occurs and Wiemerslage is reportedly watching.”

In another instance, Johnson allegedly “roughly” picked up an infant and was seen “holding a cloth over the (second) infant’s mouth for several seconds while the infant cried,” according to KMSP.

Footage also allegedly shows Wiemerslage “violently” grabbing another crying baby by the arms and “aggressively” moving him onto a floor mat. She then allegedly grabbed the first baby by the legs and “aggressively dragged” him towards her before “slamming” him against a pillow.

According to police, none of the child victims appeared able to walk or crawl on their own.

In a statement to the Tribune, Blaine Police Capt. Mark Boerboom called the allegations against the two women “exceptionally shocking.”

“Most parents drop their children off at daycare believing their child will be safe, especially since there is usually more than one caregiver watching their child at any given time,” the captain’s statement reads. “In this case, we found two workers working with infants together, both aggressively abusing the children.”

Wiemerslage and Johnson were both released on bail a day after their arrests.

The parent of a 5-month-old child opposed the idea of the accused attackers going free.

“Two daycare teachers were caught on camera abusing infants at Small World Learning Center in Blaine, Minnesota, and our 5-month-old son was one of them,” Cody Pech wrote in a Facebook post. “He received scratches and bruises all over his body and suffered a broken leg from the abuse. The despicable human beings who did this were arrested Thursday but are already out on bail. Please share this post so the world knows what these evil human beings have done.”