An Irvine family’s former nanny is facing 10 felony child-abuse charges after she was caught on a nanny cam shaking, punching and hitting a baby, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said on Wednesday, Oct. 28.
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The nanny, a 29-year-old Anaheim woman originally from Brazil, was arrested on Oct. 23 when she returned from Brazil and tried to set up an online profile for nanny services, prosecutors said.
She fled to Brazil after the child abuse was discovered by the baby’s mother in July, prosecutors said.
The alleged abuse happened when the baby boy in the nanny’s care was two and three months old, in June and July, prosecutors said.
The baby’s mother became concerned when she heard her three-month-old son scream. She checked on him in his nursery.
The nanny assured her everything was fine, but when she looked at nanny cam footage, she saw the nanny “violently” bouncing the baby around as she sat on a yoga ball, prosecutors said.
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The footage shows the baby boy’s head and neck going side to side and back and forth and the nanny punching him in the back of the head with a closed fist, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
When the mother then viewed nanny cam footage from the last month, videos showed the nanny punching, hitting and shaking the baby, the baby falling off a bed, and the nanny throwing him onto a bed, according to prosecutors.
“This family’s nightmare began the moment a monster disguised as a loving nanny walked through their front door with open arms to care for their brand-new baby, and this should serve as a powerful reminder to parents everywhere that evil can hide behind the friendliest of smiles and the heartiest of laughs,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a statement.
The nanny pleaded not guilty and was being held on $500,000 bail. If convicted on all 10 counts, she faces a maximum sentence of 18 years in prison.
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