According to the Minnehaha County Jail inmate profile, a Sioux Falls woman was booked on child abuse charges on April 17 after reportedly dumping and roughly handling multiple newborns in her care at a local creche.
Chelsea Marie Struss, 38, is charged with four counts of abuse or cruelty to a youngster under the age of seven, according to a Minnehaha County court record. According to an affidavit supporting Struss’ arrest, the event occurred on 15 April and was reported to police by a worried parent of a child attending the NXTGen Kidz center.
According to the affidavit, a manager at the creche told police that Struss pushed and hit the newborns in her care and gave detectives a 10-minute video of the incident.
According to the affidavit, the event included four toddlers who were all one year old. According to the affidavit, Struss reportedly “dropped,” “yanked,” and struck the infants during sleep time at the nursery over a 10-minute period.
According to the affidavit, video footage from the event shows Struss “dropping” one of the children face-first onto the ground. Struss allegedly grabbed one youngster by the armpit and “aggressively and quickly yanked” them off the ground, according to the affidavit.
Two coworkers approached Struss about her activities. According to the affidavit, one employee informed officers that they were in the hallway discussing an unrelated subject with a Child Protective Services staffer when they heard Struss yelling “with anger in her voice.”
Struss allegedly admitted to officers in an interview that she “handled the kid a little too rough,” according to the affidavit. According to the affidavit, Struss stated that she was overwhelmed by the children she oversaw and begged to be moved to a separate room.
She is being held in the Minnehaha County Jail on a $25,025 bond and is scheduled to appear for an initial hearing on April 22, according to court documents.