A childcare worker accused of assaulting two infants at an Oaks daycare will face trial, judge rules
One baby whom prosecutors allege was assaulted by Catalina Baldwin required surgery on her skull for internal bleeding.
When a 7-month-old girl arrived at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in July, the infant’s injuries were so severe that it was clear the child had likely been violently shaken, thrown, or beaten, a doctor testified Wednesday.
Cindy Christian detailed the baby’s injuries in a Montgomery County courtroom, where 37-year-old Catalina Baldwin stood accused of aggravated assault on two infants at the Oaks childcare center where she worked.
The bleeding inside the infant’s skull was “so severe it was pushing on the brain,” Christian told a judge as the parents of children who attended the center looked on.
“That’s always incredibly dangerous,” said Christian, a physician and child abuse expert. That, she said, is common in infants who are abused. The baby also suffered retinal damage and injuries to ligaments in her neck area, she said.
Baldwin’s lawyer, Brian McMonagle, suggested that the baby’s injuries could have happened at home. But the doctor said “this is not an injury that happened hours, days, or weeks” before the infant’s parents dropped her off that morning.
Baldwin was the only adult in the childcare center’s infant room on July 9, prosecutors said. That morning, Baldwin sought assistance from the center’s director, who arrived to find the child listless and unable to hold up her head. The director called first responders, who noted the child appeared to be having seizures.
During their investigation, police discovered a deleted message on Baldwin’s phone describing the child as being “a nightmare,” and later found evidence of a Google search for “Shaken Syndrome” two days after the incident, according to prosecutors.
That child’s injuries came as Upper Providence police were already investigating an incident involving another infant who suffered a mouth injury under Baldwin’s care in May.
In that case, prosecutors said, Baldwin sought help from the AI chatbot ChatGPT on how to address the child’s mother’s concern that her baby’s safety was “compromised” at the center.
Christian said that in her assessment, the 5-month-old’s mouth injury was not consistent with the explanation provided to her parents — that the infant had cut her mouth on a wicker basket.
“I don’t even believe that,” Christian said. She considered the large laceration under the child’s tongue to be a result of “blunt trauma.” The child later required a feeding tube after refusing to eat due to irritation, according to the doctor.
“This was an inflicted injury,” Christian said.
In court Wednesday, Baldwin cast her eyes downward and declined to comment on the charges as police led her from the courtroom after Montgomery County Court Judge Cathleen Kelly-Rebar held held her for trial on all charges. She posted bail late Wednesday, and will be placed on electronic monitoring and barred from having unsupervised contact with minors or contacting the victims’ families.
Baldwin’s arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 22. She no longer works at the Oaks Early Learning Center.