Church day care workers indicted on abuse charges

A special grand jury in Autauga County has indicted three former workers at a church day care in Prattville on charges of abusing children.

The 44 total charges against Susan Baker of Prattville, Leah Livingston of Wetumpka and Alicia Sorrells of Deatsville stem from their work at a day care operated by Journey Church of the River Region, The Associated Press reported. The church is part of Elmore Baptist Association.

All three women were arrested earlier this month after a potential employee of the day care reported conduct she found concerning to managers of the day care.

A special grand jury was convened and returned charges after watching security videos that showed children ages 2 and younger being hit, kicked and punched, according to court records and prosecutor C.J. Robinson, who spoke at a news conference.

‘Very little doubt’

“When you have videos in crimes of this nature, it leaves very little doubt,” he said.

Each person was indicted on charges of child abuse and failure to report child abuse, the AP reported.

All three women also worked at a day care center at East Memorial Baptist Church in Prattville before it closed several months ago, according to the Montgomery Advertiser. East Memorial is part of Autauga Baptist Association.

“They transferred over to Journey Church,” after East Memorial closed, Robinson said. “We have no evidence that any abuse occurred at East Memorial Day Care Center. But if you are a parent or a guardian of a child who was cared for there, ask your children if anything happened.”

Robinson said church leaders have cooperated in the investigation. A legal representative for Journey Church told The Alabama Baptist that church officials cannot comment on an open and ongoing investigation and reiterated that, “as the chief deputy district attorney has repeatedly stated, my client has been proactive with boots on the ground since day one; it has been fully cooperative, with and extremely helpful to, law enforcement in its ongoing investigation, and it remains committed to this effort.”