A child care worker caught on camera abusing children at a Blaine day care last year was sentenced to three months in jail and 10 years of probation.
Elizabeth Augusta Wiemerslage, 23, pleaded guilty in Anoka County District Court in March to aiding and abetting malicious punishment of a child and aiding and abetting felony third-degree assault after reaching an agreement with the prosecution. The plea deal included the length of her jail term and dismissal of four other charges.
Besides the 90-day jail sentence, which was handed down Friday, Wiemerslage must also complete anger management programming and letters of apology to the victims’ families.
Wiemerslage, of Coon Rapids, was one of two caretakers at the Small World Day Care Learning Center charged with felony child abuse after the parents of a 5-month-old took their child to the hospital with unexplained bruising in July 2024 in what authorities called an “exceptionally shocking” incident of child abuse that ended up affecting at least two other children.
The case against Chloe Kaye Johnson, 25, of Andover, is pending, with a pretrial hearing scheduled for Nov. 18.
“Although we have been forced to investigate other terrible acts of child abuse, this one is exceptionally shocking,” Capt. Mark Boerboom of the Blaine Police Department said at the time. “Most parents drop their children off at day care centers believing that their child will be safe, especially since there is usually more than one care provider watching their child at any one given time. In this case, we found two workers working together with infants, both aggressively abusing children.”
According to the criminal complaints, the infant’s parents reported the possible abuse July 16 after taking their baby to Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis after finding bruising on her thighs, groin, buttocks and legs.
While watching daycare surveillance video, police identified two other victims and contacted their parents.
The video shows Johnson grabbing the infant by her lower body and “violently” flipping the child onto her back on a floor mat, the complaints say. The infant’s face hit the mat repeatedly during the incident, with Wiemerslage just a few feet away.
In another video, Johnson picked up a second infant and held a cloth to the baby’s mouth and nose for several seconds while the child was crying, the charges say. Johnson then allegedly gripped the child by the neck and shoved a bottle repeatedly in and out of the baby’s mouth. Later in the same video, Wiemerslage picked up the child and allegedly “violently slammed” her down on a support pillow.
At another time, Wiemerslage picked up a third infant and “aggressively” shoved the child down onto a changing table. Later, Wiemerslage “violently” picked up the infant by the arm and “aggressively” moved the child around on a mat as Johnson watches.
Wiemerslage is then seen with the 5-month old, who was lying on the mat. She “aggressively” dragged the infant toward her by her legs before she picked her up “forcefully” into a support pillow while pressing down hard on the child’s torso and abdomen.
Johnson initially told officers she was helping the infants learn how to roll over, but ultimately admitted she was “too rough, and admitted her behavior could have caused the (5-month old’s) bruising,” the complaint states. “(Wiemerslage) also admitted to her behavior and that it was wrong.”
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Medical examinations showed the 5-month-old girl had bruising in nine areas that were consistent with a “grip injury” or “squeeze‐type injury,” while another infant was found to have a healing leg fracture “suspicious for nonaccidental trauma,” the complaint says. Bruising was found on three other infants who were in the care of Wiemerslage and Johnson.
Rep. Nolan West, R-Blaine, whose daughter was one of the victims of the abuse, has introduced legislation to increase posting requirements for childcare mistreatment investigations and require childcare centers with active maltreatment violations to retain video footage for 60 days and have cameras in their infant and toddler rooms.
Nick Ferraro contributed to this report.
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