Parents Angry About Day-Care Home’s Closure : Investigation: Police find no support for charges that children were sexually abused. State officials amplify their claims.

Parents and neighbors expressed outrage Wednesday that state officials have temporarily closed a licensed day-care home, saying charges of sexual abuse against the owner and her assistant could not be true.

“The whole neighborhood is really upset,” said Linda Russell, a next-door neighbor of day-care operator Terri Borzoni.

Russell said she has spent the past two days watching TV news crews go in and out of Borzoni’s home. “My God, how can (state officials) accuse her. It’s ruined her whole life. How can they do this on TV if it isn’t true?”

Licensing officials with the state Department of Social Services ordered the day-care home closed Monday after a monthlong investigation into allegations that Borzoni, 37, and her assistant, Vicki Jimenez, 21, sexually molested a child and exhibited inappropriate sexual behavior in front of other children.

Both Borzoni and Jimenez have denied the allegations.

Cypress Police Lt. Phillip Satterfield said Wednesday that officers have completed an investigation into allegations of misconduct at the day-care home and “do not have anything to support or substantiate any arrest or warrant.”

Satterfield said children under Borzoni’s care have told officers they were treated properly, and “there’s nothing to support or substantiate that any crime occurred.”

However, Satterfield said he plans to refer results of the investigation to the Orange County district attorney’s office this morning for review. He called the referral “kind of like a second review.”

“We don’t have anything, but we’re not the D.A.,” he said. If asked, police could continue their inquiry, although they don’t plan to do so now, he said.

Clint and Claire Campbell, who have taken their twin sons to Borzoni’s home during the last two years, said they believe that Borzoni and Jimenez are being “blindsided” by an unfair licensing investigation.

Claire Campbell said state licensing officials had several “cursory” talks with the couple over the last two weeks and, after learning that the Campbells liked Borzoni’s preschool-like program, never bothered to interview their 6-year-old sons.

“I can’t tell you how much we love Terri and Vicki,” Claire Campbell said. “I don’t think Terri and Vicki are molesters.”

State officials remained unfazed by the outpouring of support for Borzoni and Jimenez, saying that parents typically express outrage at first that their day-care provider has been accused of wrongdoing--even when the evidence is obvious.

“They form a bond with their licensees. It’s hard for them to believe they would do something wrong. They need to believe in them,” said Nancy Jezak, licensing program evaluator for Department of Social Services community care licensing.

Jezak noted that administrative hearings to revoke a provider’s license differ markedly from criminal proceedings. In a licensing case, prosecutors need only provide a “preponderance of evidence” as opposed to proving their case beyond a “shadow of a doubt,” she said. As soon as Department of Social Services officials believe that enough evidence has been gathered to win a case, they temporarily close the day-care facility pending the outcome of the hearing.

Meanwhile, state licensing officials countered claims made by Borzoni in an interview Tuesday that she was a victim of a disgruntled parent’s vendetta, revealing that they had received a report of alleged sexual abuse at Borzoni’s home from the Orange County Child Abuse Registry.

That registry, they said, had been contacted by a therapist for one of the children under Borzoni’s care. Under state law, the therapist is mandated to report suspected child abuse.

Jezak said evaluators have learned to proceed cautiously as a result of the McMartin preschool case in Los Angeles County. She said they coordinate with other agencies, avoid asking children leading questions and try to elicit spontaneous statements.

Jezak said she closed down a day-care home last December because the provider was trying to care for 10 infants with one assistant. When the investigation began, the provider’s assistant tried to hide six infants in a home down the street, where there was an unfenced pool.

“Some of the parents knew this and condoned it,” she said. “They yelled at us.”

In the meantime, Borzoni and Jimenez have retained Santa Monica attorney Herbert Dodell.

Dodell said late Wednesday that he will file a response to the state’s charges within a few days. He said that after a brief review of the file, “I have concluded there is absolutely no merit to any of the allegations.”

He described Borzoni as a “very responsible, likable, legitimate person, and it’s very difficult when out of the clear blue sky, some crazy accuses her of things that have nearly no merit. A person almost has to prove their innocence.”

Dodell said he did not know that the initial report of sexual abuse had come from the county’s Child Abuse Registry.

Both Borzoni, who was licensed in 1990 to care for 12 children under age 5, and Jimenez previously worked at Cypress Early Learning Center. Their former boss at the preschool said Wednesday that he was “shocked” by allegations against them.