A Texas daycare worker, aged 44, has been taken into custody following allegations of being recorded physically mistreating several 2-year-old children over 100 instances throughout several months.
Catherine Guziejka was arrested last month and faces six charges related to causing harm to a child to inflict bodily injury.
An affidavit indicating probable cause, acquired by the ABC affiliate KSLA in Tyler, Texas, reveals that several assaults occurred from July to October 2024 at the Punkin’ Doodles Day Care located in Lindale, Texas, approximately 200 miles north of Houston.
Last month, an employee at the daycare initiated an investigation after reviewing the facility’s security camera footage. In the course of the evaluation, it was reported that the employee witnessed Guziejka striking a 2-year-old boy in the lower back while the child was on the ground.
On October 23, the employee informed the victim’s father about the incident, prompting him to promptly reach out to the Smith County Sheriff’s Office to file a report.
Authorities examined surveillance footage from the daycare and reported finding proof of Guziejka physically attacking six separate 2-year-olds on 134 occasions.
Numerous incidents involving the young children shared a common scenerio where the victim was engrossed in a television program when Guziejka would stealthily approach from behind and deliver a kick to their lower back with her right foot, as reported by the local CBS and CW affiliate in Nacogdoches, Texas.
Investigators noted several instances of troubling conduct captured on the footage, such as Guziejka standing on the toddlers’ hands, forcefully shifting them while they slept, and seizing a sleeping child by the arm to pull them to changing tables.
During the process of changing the children, Guziejka would frequently compel them to face the wall rather than the television across the room by forcefully pressing their heads down.
Melanie Dawn Law, who previously owned Punkin’ Doodles Day Care, allegedly examined the security footage prior to her conversation with law enforcement. In a recent law enforcement interview, Law allegedly stated that Guziejka had been abusing the children since July, with at least 100 separate incidents of abuse revealed. She stated that Guziejka, who began her employment in September 2023, was terminated right after the accusations of abuse came to light, and all video evidence related to the alleged incidents was subsequently handed over to the authorities.
Law shared with KSLA that following the recent abuse revelations, she has sold the daycare facility to a new owner, who plans to reopen it in December with a new name.
Smith County Sheriff Larry Smith discussed with KLTV the details surrounding Guziejka’s arrest and the potential next steps in the process. Smith expressed relief that the children escaped serious injuries from Guziejka, noting that the injuries have been confined to “minor to medium bruising” thus far.
“We’ve got six charges we think that are provable in a court of law,” Smith told the station. “Now we’re going forward and detectives are combing through hours of video to see if there’s any other forms of abuse that have not been reported.”
Guziejka is presently in custody at the Smith County Jail, with a bond set at $450,000, according to the Sheriff’s Office.