Nurse charged in Bucks County child harm case has pending assault case in Delco
Cindy L. Desser, 58, was charged last month in Bucks County with child endangerment and is now being held on $2 million bail.
A home health nurse who was charged last week in Bucks County with physically abusing a medically fragile child was criminally charged last year in Delaware County with assaulting a 1-year-old with spina bifida while working in a Newtown Square home, according to court records and a new lawsuit.
Cindy L. Desser, 58, of Jamison, was out on bail in the Delaware County case when she was hired by a home nursing agency to work with a family in Bensalem.
Desser was charged in Bucks County in March with child endangerment for an alleged offense that occurred on Oct. 5, 2025, and is now being held on $2 million bail.
In Delaware County, Desser was arrested on Sept. 19 and charged with aggravated assault and related offenses for an offense that allegedly happened on May 25.
Desser was released after posting 10% of $25,000 bail — $2,500, court records show.
The Delaware County case is still pending.
On Monday, the parents of the Delaware County victim filed a lawsuit in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court against Desser and her previous employer, Team Select Home Care.
Jennifer Frankito, chief marketing officer at Team Select Home Care, said Tuesday evening that the company cannot comment on the lawsuit or employment matters, but, “We do take this, obviously, very seriously and are cooperating with authorities.”
William Davis Jr., the lawyer for Desser in both criminal cases, declined to comment.
In the Bensalem case, Desser was reportedly hired by Dynamic Home Health Care. The company could not be reached for comment.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of David and Meredith Nastasi of Newtown Square by the law firm of Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky.
The child in that case has spina bifida and a host of other serious medical conditions that required more than nine months of hospitalization and six significant surgeries in the year after she was born, the complaint said.
When the she was discharged, she had a tracheostomy and needed a ventilator, and required round-the-clock nursing care, the complaint said.
On May 25, the girl — identified in the lawsuit as Z.N. —sat up in her crib and a medical alert sounded and Desser is seen in a Ring camera video grabbing the girl and forcefully pushing her back down into the crib, and then briefly adjusting some medical equipment, according to the complaint.
The girl sat up again and another medical alert sounded.
“Defendant Desser grabbed Z.N. by her throat and slammed her down into her crib with such force that it rattled the crib and one of the medical monitoring devices was shaken off a nearby table,” according to the complaint.
The girl’s parents saw what happened on the Ring camera and confronted Desser, and then notified Team Select and local authorities, the complaint said. Desser was reported to the state licensing board.
The lawsuit also alleges that Desser, who began working with David and Meredith Nastasi a few months earlier, on prior occasions neglected her duties, including falling asleep.
“Unbelievably, while Desser was out on bail and awaiting trial in the criminal matter, she was somehow able to secure employment with yet another home healthcare company and was assigned to care for a medically compromised toddler in Bucks County,” the complaint said.
The lawsuit is seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages, as well as costs.
In the Bensalem case, police said that detectives watched multiple video recordings that showed Desser “throwing the child within the crib, striking the child, and sleeping during her shift.”
The police added: “In one particularly concerning incident, Dresser removed the child’s tracheostomy tube and failed to promptly reinsert it, causing the child to struggle to breathe.”
The Nastasi lawsuit alleges: “Upon information and belief, Desser had a long history of abusing infants in her care and had worked stints with numerous other home healthcare companies that had either fired Desser or separated from Desser on poor terms by the time she was hired by Team Select in late 2024.”