Woman jailed for abuse in Nanny Cam case
A home camera system recorded a nanny for a Whitpain family striking the infant for whom she was caring for.
NORRISTOWN » A home camera system recorded a nanny for a Whitpain family striking the infant for whom she was caring on the head and now a judge has sent the one time caregiver to jail for abuse.
Roselyn Fayette Curry, 67, of the 2600 block of Elliott Avenue, in the Willow Grove section of Abington, was sentenced recently in Montgomery County Court to 8 to 16 months in the county jail after she pleaded guilty to a felony charge of endangering the welfare of a child and a misdemeanor charge of simple assault in connection with a December 2018 incident involving a 9-month-old boy at the Whitpain home of her employer.
Judge Wendy G. Rothstein also ordered Curry to complete two years’ probation following parole. Rothstein said Curry is prohibited from serving as a caretaker “in any capacity” during the course of her supervision, including caring for infants, senior citizens and special needs individuals.
Assistant District Attorney Matthew Brittenburg sought jail time against Curry, arguing her contact was egregious and unexplainable. During the sentencing hearing, Brittenburg showed the judge the camera footage that depicted Curry striking the infant on the head, the slap being audible to those who viewed it, as the child sat on a couch on Dec. 21, 2018.
“The nanny then grabs him by the arm and drags him by the arm on the couch,” Whitpain Township Detective Thomas Wittig alleged in the arrest affidavit.
As she pleaded guilty to the charges, Curry conceded that her conduct was not behavior that was protected under Pennsylvania’s corporal punishment laws. Essentially, Curry admitted that there was no legal justification for her behavior.
Defense lawyer Robert Young sought a sentence of house arrest for Curry but the judge determined jail time was warranted.
Curry, according to court documents, was hired by a Whitpain couple to watch their child in August 2018 and Curry worked at the Reynards Run home Monday through Friday. The family, police said, installed a Nest video surveillance system inside the residence in December 2018 and had advised Curry about the cameras.
The child’s mother was at work on Dec. 21 and was watching the livestream from the home security cameras and witnessed Curry slap the child on the face or head.
“(The mother) told me she was so upset, she drove right to her house, leaving her work, to comfort and console her son,” Wittig wrote in the criminal complaint.
The child’s father also arrived home, confronted Curry about the incident and fired her, according to the arrest affidavit. Curry admitted to striking the child “but did not appear to show any remorse,” according to the arrest affidavit.
The boy’s parents took him to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where he was evaluated. No notable injuries were documented by the hospital but officials there referred the matter to child social workers.
A caseworker with the Montgomery County Office of Children and Youth subsequently viewed the videotape provided by the child’s mother and concluded, “it appears the nanny clearly assaulted the baby” and characterized the incident as child abuse, according to the criminal complaint. Whitpain police were then notified, launched an investigation and met with the child’s mother on Dec. 24.
“While meeting with (the mother) she was very upset about her son being assaulted by her nanny,” said Wittig, adding he did not observe any injuries to the boy’s face at that time.
During the sentencing hearing, Brittenburg offered other testimony that suggested Curry was not the perfect nanny and had handled the child in a manner that was not gentle on other occasions.
“The nanny then grabs him by the arm and drags him by the arm on the couch.”
- Whitpain Township Detective Thomas Wittig