The accusations are a parent’s nightmare. One day care worker covered a toddler’s mouth with packing tape so that the girl could not breathe. Another hit five children on the head with metal bottles. A third sprayed two toddlers in the face with bleach.
The workers were employed at a branch of the child care giant Bright Horizons near Columbus Circle in Manhattan. Together, prosecutors say, they abused 1- and 2-year-olds under their supervision for more than a year.
All three employees — Evelyn Vargas, Latia Townes and Shakia Henley — are charged with multiple counts of child endangerment, a misdemeanor, Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, said in a news release this week. Ms. Vargas, 47, is also charged with felony counts of assault, strangulation and attempted assault. Ms. Townes, 24, is charged with attempted assault as well.
In a statement, Bright Horizons, which operates about two dozen child care centers in New York City and more than 1,000 in the United States, Britain, the Netherlands, Australia and India, said it had fired Ms. Vargas, Ms. Townes and Ms. Henley in February.
“We took immediate action by terminating the individuals and reporting to the local authorities,” the company said. “Since then, we have fully cooperated with those authorities. Our concern remains for the children and families involved.”
Ms. Vargas pleaded not guilty at an arraignment on Wednesday before Justice Ann D. Thompson in State Supreme Court. Dressed all in black and with her hair pulled back in a tight bun, Ms. Vargas had an impassive expression as she entered the plea.
Christopher Charnetsky, an assistant district attorney, described how Ms. Vargas had cut off the girl’s breathing by putting packing tape over her mouth. He said she had lifted the child into the air to show her to a co-worker, saying, “Look, she’s turning red.”
As Mr. Charnetsky spoke, Ms. Vargas looked down at her folded hands, rubbing her thumbs and shaking her head softly. Her demeanor remained largely the same as Mr. Charnetsky ticked off accusations that included pushing toddlers to the ground, pulling them by their arms and dragging them by their hair between rooms on three occasions.
He said that Ms. Vargas had struck children on the head with water jugs and metal bottles, thrown a cup at a toddler from across a room, stuffed a tissue into a crying child’s mouth, force-fed ginger shots to two toddlers and restrained several children in chairs for extended periods.
Ms. Vargas appeared shaken as she left the courtroom with her lawyer and another woman. She pulled up a black denim jacket to shield her face when reporters approached in the hallway. She and her lawyer both declined to comment. The lawyer, Christopher Booth, did not respond to a phone message seeking comment on Thursday.
Ms. Townes is charged with abusing at least five toddlers. She repeatedly pushed and shoved children in her care to the ground, hit them on the head with metal bottles and restrained them in chairs for long periods, Mr. Bragg said. She also verbally harassed the children by calling them names and laughing when they were in distress, he said.
Ms. Henley sprayed at least two children in the face with cleaning supplies, including soap and bleach mixed with water, prosecutors said. She, too, is accused of keeping toddlers strapped into chairs.
Eugene Nathanson, a lawyer for Ms. Henley, 37, said she had pleaded not guilty at an earlier arraignment based on a criminal complaint. He declined further comment. A lawyer who had been representing Ms. Townes said on Thursday that she no longer was. Information was not immediately available about who had replaced her.
The abuse occurred from September 2023 until this past February, Mr. Bragg said in the release. Witnesses described the behavior to investigators, according to the complaints filed against the three women this month.
The city’s health department, which regulates day care centers, said in a statement that it had investigated the Bright Horizons branch immediately after receiving a complaint about abuse there in February. The department had substantiated the accusations, the statement said, and had shared its findings with the city child welfare agency.
“The health and safety of New York City’s children in child care are a top priority,” the health department said in its statement.
Bright Horizons is a publicly traded company whose shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange. It has 31,000 employees and had $2.7 billion in revenue last year, up 11 percent from 2023, according to a company news release. Its share price closed at $113.10 on Thursday.
Much of the company’s business involves offering regular or backup child care to employees of its more than 1,000 corporate customers. (The New York Times is among them.)
In 2022, Bright Horizons was fined 800,000 pounds, or just over $1 million, after the British authorities found that its failure to adequately train workers at an Edinburgh nursery had contributed to an 11-month-old boy’s death by choking on a piece of mango.
Eryn Davis contributed reporting.
Ed Shanahan is a rewrite reporter and editor covering breaking news and general assignments on the Metro desk.
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