Babysitter admits treating infant roughly

AUBURN, Wash. – Prosecutors filed charges Wednesday against a babysitter accused of violently shaking an infant in her care, and court documents say the babysitter admitted to detectives she had treated the child roughly after the baby wouldn't stop fussing.

Dotty M. Reed, 18, is being held on $150,000 bail, while the 9-month-old baby boy remains in critical condition at Children's Hospital, where he has been since Thursday.

Auburn Police Sgt. Scott Near said the baby's mother dropped him and his sibling off at Reed's home at 7:30 a.m. Thursday. At 9 a.m. that morning, Reed called 911 and said the baby was having trouble breathing.

Medics arrived at the home in the 11200 block of Southwest 322nd Street and found no outward signs of trauma. The baby was taken to the Harborview Medical Center, then later transported to Children's Hospital.

Several hours later, hospital staff notified police that the baby appeared to have injuries that often result from shaking. The baby is in an unconscious state, and may not regain consciousness, Near said.

Reed was arrested on Friday.

In court documents, Reed told detectives that she had been watching the infant since February, when the parents answered an ad she had posted on the Craigslist website. But Reed said over the past three weeks, she had been getting frustrated with the infant due to his fussiness, documents said. She added the baby didn't appear to like her at all and cried every time she looked or talked to him, or even came into the same room.

Documents say Reed considered ending the babysitting agreement, but hadn't done so yet and that the frustration reached a boiling point on Thursday when the baby became fussy in his walker. Reed told detectives she grabbed him roughly out of the walker, and brought him back to her bedroom, where the baby started crying loudly. She said she put him down on the floor, setting him down so hard that his head snapped forward, documents said.

Once she set up a playpen, she grabbed the baby roughly from under her arms and spun him around to face her, and put him down hard in the playpen on his bottom, where he fell backwards, documents said.

She said the baby started crying differently, then stopped crying and seemed to go to sleep, but his breathing pattern changed, prosecutors wrote. Reed said when she picked up the baby, he was limp and that's when she called 911.

Reed's mother and grandparents were sleeping in separate rooms at the time and detectives said Reed never summoned help from any of them during the incident.

Over the weekend, Reed's family claimed that the infant's injuries were likely from a car accident the baby was in about a month ago, but doctors at Children's Hospital told detectives the injury to the baby was something that happened from an immediate event.

The babysitter has a 2-year-old child of her own, who was taken into protective custody, Near said.

Prosecutors say they could upgrade charges to murder if the baby doesn't pull through.