A New Orleans daycare worker arrested on Oct. 3 is accused of deliberately burning an infant’s hand using a bottle warmer. Twenty-seven-year-old Victoria Saulter was charged with second-degree cruelty to a juvenile, and her bond was set at $35,000.
According to Fox 8 Live, a 6-month-old baby girl was dropped off at McMillan’s First Steps Child Care around 7 a.m. on Sept. 22. At 3:50 p.m., the daycare called her mother to inform her that her child’s hand had been burned.
After she was taken to Children’s Hospital in New Orleans, doctors revealed that the child was at risk of losing range of motion in her hand. Staff informed her mother that video evidence showed Saulter dipping the infant’s hand into the scalding hot water twice.
Detective Caitlyn Smith wrote in her report of the incident, “The subject (Saulter) is seen removing a bottle from the bottle warmer … (and) is then observed leaning over and placing the 6-month-old victim’s left hand into the bottle warmer twice. The victim is heard crying from the audio, and (Saulter) is heard saying, ‘Good job.’”
P.W. Reed, director of operations and the principal at the school, told the outlet, “We do have the autonomy to make sure that we’re vetting even more carefully. That we’re watching more carefully every single thing that we’re doing. Our directors are going into classrooms. We have observationists that are going into classrooms, and we’re going to keep doing the due diligence that we’ve been doing for 36 years.”
Joe Raspanti, a legal analyst for Fox 8, said of Saulter’s alleged act, “It can be generally just gross negligence. But here there was specific intent, and that level of psychopathy needs to be looked at very carefully by the district attorney. […] “It never ceases to amaze me how dark the hearts are of some of our citizenry. What that report says is very disturbing.”
Raspanti added, “This one seems to be egregious than most and I think it’s incumbent upon the DA to consider that.” If convicted, Saulter will face up to 40 years in prison.
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