Oregon day-care worker gets 21 years for drugging children so she could go tanning, do CrossFit

[Demovictory9]

January Neatherlin told parents they couldn't pick up their children from Little Giggles day-care center between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. That three-hour period, she said, was nap time.

It was also CrossFit time and tan time for Neatherlin, the owner of the illegal day-care operation, according to court records obtained by the Oregonian. In one instance, police investigators say, it was also drop-her-own-kids-off-at-school-time.


To avoid the risk that the seven infants and toddlers in her care would wake up, trudge around and possibly hurt themselves while she ran errands, Neatherlin drugged them with melatonin.

Neatherlin, 32, was sentenced to more than 21 years in prison last week after she pleaded guilty to 11 counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment and one count of third degree assault in connection with Little Giggles, according to the Oregonian.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-oregon-daycare-drugging-20180311-story.html

[Initech]

1. God what a piece of shit!

[Codeine]

2. In her defense,

the children all seemed very well-rested.

[Rorey]

5. I'm going to go ahead and

(Hoping the kids are all ok.)

Edit: Well, after reading the article, it turns out that a couple of the kids weren't ok, though neither of the incidents in which they incurred injuries were connected to the melatonin. One of the parents of the kids in her care said he thought she should get sentenced to at least 100 years.

[Rorey]

3. These stories are why I "forbid" my kids.....

.....to put their kids in day care.

Well, it would be a reason, but I the real reason is because I have enjoyed caring for them so much. With all four of my grandkids, it's always been a family thing when it comes to their care. But I know we've been fortunate that we've been able to handle the child care thing within the family. Not all parents have that luxury.

I'm happy to see she got a pretty harsh sentence. Hopefully it'll be a deterrent to other child care providers. And hopefully none of the children in her care will suffer long-term damage.

[sarah FAILIN]

9. Melatonin is a natural sleep aid

I watched a great explanation from Dr. Oz once about how too much light interferes with the natural production of it and keeps you from sleeping good. My kids used it when going from summer schedule to fall when school started back because it was so hard for them to sleep early.

[Rorey]

11. It is more complicated than that

She didn't just give them melatonin. She left them alone while she went to a tanning salon and a cross fit gym. Thankfully there wasn't a catastrophe during the time she was gone. She was running an illegal day care and had seven infants and toddlers in her care. She told the parents she was an RN.

There was an instance in which she overheated a bottle in the microwave oven and gave it to the child and burned the child's mouth and shoulders. There was another instance in which an 11 month old was rushed to the hospital with a head injury. The article mentioned shaken baby syndrome. It's good to know she won't be endangering anyone's kids for a couple of decades.

I've tried melatonin myself in an effort to find a solution for insomnia. I'm not judging your decision to give it to your kids, and I'm glad it was helpful.

[sarah FAILIN]

17. I'm not defending her

I agree leaving the kids was insane and giving them anything the parents didn't tell her to use was wrong.

[dalton99a]

4. Her cellmate better watch what they eat and drink

[bpj62]

6. Daycare

My wife ran a home daycare for 15 years. She was licensed and our home was inspected by the county several time a year. We also had an inspection from the fire department as well. It allowed my wife to be home with our three children who interacted with all the daycare children. My wife was conscientious in her responsibilities to the children under her care. Daycare is very expensive in this area and we realized that it would cost more for daycare than my wife made in her monthly salary.

People like this Oregon woman give the homecare industry a bad name.

[Rorey]

13. I've considered doing that too.

My daughter-in-law works for a company that may be closing in the next year or two. We've talked about doing something like that together. She's an awesome mom, and she'd get to with her little guy.

If we do decide to do it, I'd insist that parents would have video access every moment via their smart phones. We've already got video surveillance anyway, so it wouldn't take much to add a couple more cameras.

It's a huge responsibility. I'm glad your wife did it the right way.

[sarah FAILIN]

7. What she did was very serious

But I think 21 years in prison is excessive. Rapists and murderers don't get that much sometimes. I know of a man that forced a bunch of women in a drug court program to have sex with him or their drug tests would be reported as positive and they would go to prison. He got time served in the county jail which was about a year.
We use melatonin ourselves if having a hard time getting to sleep. Not saying what she did was ok, but it wasn't worth 21 years.

[jalan48]

12. Seems excessive to me also.

[Rorey]

15. There's more info in the article at the link

She's lucky it didn't turn into a manslaughter case.

[sarah FAILIN]

18. You do know that nobody died?

The statements about the possibly shaken baby isn't certain it was her either. It is possible whatever happened to that child happened at home.
What she did was serious, but not 21 years serious.

[Rorey]

19. What I meant.......

Had a fire started, or some other catastrophe, it would be way more serious. Yes, I know nobody died.

I don't have any sympathy for her. None.

[IluvPitties]

8. Melatonin? Doesn't do much for me.

Still, henious to attempt to drug children.

[ProudLib72]

10. And yet, she operated Little Giggles for five years

Am I the only one who thinks a three hour nap is just a little on the lengthy side?

[Rorey]

14. I think so too.

Three hours is a long nap.

If this woman only cared for infants and toddlers, they likely couldn't vocalize what was going on there. And one care giver for seven infants and toddlers is definitely not ok.

[EllieBC]

16. It's not that lengthy.

When my 15 month old transitioned from 2 naps to 1 nap it became a 3 hour nap. He used to take 2 two hour long naps. Now he takes 1 nap that runs anywhere from 2-3 hours depending on how much he slept at night, how much he's been doing that day, etc.. And if you look it up, 3 hours isn't outside the norm at all.

[renate]

20. when my kids were little I didn't leave the house to go 100 feet to the mailbox

I don't care that nobody died etc. Well, I care, of course, in that I'm glad. But that's irrelevant to her sentence.

Leaving the house for THREE HOURS is absolutely unconscionable. Any parent knows that a kid can get up to all kinds of no good in less than two minutes. It's not likely that they will, but it's possible.

[meadowlander]

21. And on top of it all, she's being paid to stay there and look after the kids.

If drugging them and leaving them alone was no big deal, the parents could do that while they were at work.

She should be slapped with fraud charges as well for accepting money for a service she didn't deliver.