By Bill Braun
Tulsa World
November 10, 2010
http://www.tulsaworld.com/webextra/content/2010/crimesite/article.aspx?subjectid=450&articleid=20101110_14_A9_CUTLIN592457
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| Meredith Allison Howard: She was working at child-care centers at Tulsa churches at the time of the children's injuries. |
A Tulsa child-care worker was charged Tuesday with abusing two unrelated children at separate locations.
Meredith Allison Howard, 38, was arrested Tuesday and placed in the Tulsa Jail, with her total bail set at $100,000, records show.
Howard, a teacher's aide at the John Knox Child Development Center, had been put on administrative leave during an investigation before she was charged Tuesday with two felony counts of child abuse.
Howard is accused of using her finger on Thursday to penetrate the vagina of a 19-month-old girl at the center, which is operated by the John Knox Presbyterian Church at 2929 E. 31st St.
A pediatrician who examined the girl "observed active bleeding from a laceration to the vagina and determined that surgery would be necessary," police reported.
The pediatrician determined that the extensive injury was "likely inflicted trauma and consistent with child sexual abuse," a detective's affidavit says.
When questioned, Howard said that while she was alone with the girl in a classroom, the child was squirming during a diaper change.
Howard indicated that a knuckle of her ring finger accidentally slipped into the child's body, and Howard said she noticed that the girl was bleeding, according to police.
A pediatrician said the child's injuries were not consistent with that "accidental insertion" explanation, a detective reported.
In the other case, Howard is accused of using unreasonable force when she broke the thigh bone of an 8-month-old boy on Dec. 8, 2008.
The boy had been left in Howard's care at a day care affiliated with Kirk of the Hills Presbyterian, 4102 E. 61st St., records show.
The boy was extremely fussy and crying as if in pain when he was picked up from the day care.
He was taken to a pediatrician and then to a hospital, where he was diagnosed with a "spiral fracture of the left femur," a detective's affidavit states.
When interviewed by a detective in February 2009, Howard admitted that she thought she had broken the boy's leg when she "sat him down" really hard when he was being fussy.
Howard said she "became frustrated" with the child and that his "cry changed after she forced him to sit on the ground," the detective's affidavit says.
It was unclear Tuesday why charges in the earlier case were not filed until now.
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