THIS STORY HAS BEEN UPDATED SINCE THE ORIGINAL POST.
The Autauga County Jail roster is now showing two of the suspects in custody. Leah Livingston, 58, was booked at 8:47 p.m. May Alice Sorrells, 62, of Deatsville was the first to be booked at 5:58 p.m. May 2. Multiple media outlets inaccurately reported all three were in custody early yesterday afternoon.
BY HAMILTON RICHARDSON
ELMORE/AUTAUGA NEWS
On Monday afternoon, news of a terrible set of circumstances came to light as authorities announced the filing of criminal charges against three daycare workers who all worked for Journey Church Daycare in Prattville.
CJ Robinson, Chief Deputy District Attorney of the 19th Judicial Circuit, alongside Sgt. Shanks and Investigator Collier from the Prattville Police Department, explained the situation as well as the charges filed, in a press conference Monday.
“We called a press conference to announce the results of an investigation that is still ongoing,” said Robinson. “We’ve reached the point of this investigation where we feel that we need to try to communicate to the public what is going on. This has been a very emotional case so far and I know there are many families involved.”
Robinson referred to the investigation being done by the Prattville Police Department.
“What happened is several weeks ago there was an employee that came forward–a potential employee of Journey Church Daycare. That potential employee I believe was shadowing current workers there and saw some behavior she thought was inappropriate,” he explained. “That person did exactly what you’re supposed to do. If you see something, say something. They were willing to do that. They were brave enough to do that.”
The Chief Deputy DA said she then went forward to the director of the daycare and that information quickly got into the hands of Prattville Police Department, who initiated an investigation. He said that the staff at Journey Church gave the video to police and have fully cooperated. The women were terminated immediately when the allegations came to light.
“They’ve (Prattville Police) talked to people. They’ve collected evidence. We’ve done everything we believe we can do at this point,” said Robinson. “With that being said, there are several charges being announced today. There are three individuals who have been charged with felony-level child abuse for instances that happened there while they were employed at the daycare facility of Journey Church.”
Robinson named the suspects, saying, “Those three employees are Alice Sorrells, 62, of Deatsville; Leah Livingston and Susan Baker. Those three individuals were in charge of an area that has multiple children, actually there are potentially 11 children and families involved in this case. We have readily identified potentially up to seven victims.”
As far as the kind of abuse the women were charged with, Robinson explained, “We’re talking about striking, were talking about shoving, were talking about physical abuse. There’s nothing sexual that has been uncovered or that we’ve seen. It’s all physical abuse to children under the age of two.”
“In those instances, if a child is being abused and you’re a daycare worker and that is in your presence and you believe that has happening, you have an affirmative duty to report that,” he said. “That did not happen here in this case.”
Specifically, the charges are one count of Felony Child Abuse for each of the three women and one count of Failure to Report Child Abuse, as they are all mandatory reporters, also for each woman.
Also discussed at the press conference was the calling of a Special Grand Jury in the case.
“That Special Grand Jury will be in Autauga County later this month and we firmly believe there will be additional charges presented to that Grand Jury,” Robinson said. “There could be potentially up to 40 charges of child abuse. The investigation is ongoing and we’re communicating with those families and it’s a very difficult case. It’s absolutely horrific. The video in this case– it is unbelievable. It is something that you would imagine that would be in a horror movie or something disturbing.”
A significant addition to the situation, said Robinson, was that all three women were previously at another daycare together before moving over to Journey.
“I do think I should mention that these three women previously worked at another daycare facility here in the Prattville area,” he said. “That facility was East Memorial Daycare facility. I believe that it was closed in December of last year and these three women moved over to this location. At this time, it is my understanding that we do not have any evidence that this type of behavior was occurring at East Memorial but also, we do not have the ability to pull video from those instances because I don’t believe it exists or it is too old.”
The Chief Deputy DA went to express his appreciation for the quick-acting decisions of his colleagues in this case.
“I do appreciate quick action on this case. Judge Joy Booth acted very quickly. When these warrants were issued, she issued bonds for these three individuals,” he explained. “All three, Alice Sorrells, Leah Livingston and Susan Baker, have a bond of $50,000 cash. They also have a $5,000 cash bond on the charge of Failure to Report as a Mandatory Reporter. So, all three individuals have $55,000 worth of cash bonds each.”
He then went on to ask for parents’ help in the case as well as encouraging them to have a very important talk with their kids.
“This might be a good time to have a conversation with your children and ask if things happened that were inappropriate,” Robinson said. “I know those are difficult decisions to make for parents or conversations to have. If you have information about these three women of prior instances, please contact Prattville Police Department. Please contact Butterfly Bridge Children’s Advocacy Center. We want to know what happened. We want to help you get justice for those children.”
Robinson also said that what is chilling in this case is how young the victims were.
‘The children in this particular case, what is so bone-chilling, these children are not at the age to talk,” he said. “These children that are abused cannot go home and tell their parents that they were hit. They cannot tell their parents they were shoved. They cannot tell their parents they were assaulted. To be quite honest with you, I think the bond that was issued is probably going to ensure the safety of the defendants. If these parents find these charges out, I can only imagine what my reaction would be if that was my child. Them being incarcerated is probably the safest place they can be.”
Robinson sent a clear message to parents regarding the case against the women.
“With the reality and the brazenness that I see these three people do on these videos, this is not the first time, and that’s why we are imploring people that if your children were around these three women previously, talk to them,” he repeated. “Know who your children are staying with. Go the extra mile and not only get to know the facility that your children go to, but get to know the people.”
Robinson praised Journey Church for having video surveillance in place, and encouraged other daycares to do the same.
Robinson expects a hearing to be set for Sorrells, Livingston and Baker within the next 72 hours.
