Child-Care Center Owner Arrested in Burning of Girl, 2
A 25-year-old Mid-City man who runs a child-care center was arrested Friday on charges of causing second- and third-degree burns to a 2-year-old girl in his care, because he was angry that she wet her pants, police said.
Los Angeles police booked Lemuel Rodgers on charges of felony willful cruelty to children, said Lt. Peggy York, commanding officer for Wilshire Division detectives. A $500,000 bail has been set.
Rodgers and his wife, Kathryn, run a child-care center on Cloverdale Avenue, York said, but he was alone with the children Thursday when the girl soiled her pants. “That made (Rodgers) angry, and he put her in a tub of hot water to clean her,” York said.
After Rodgers’ wife returned and noticed “something was wrong with the baby,” York said, the couple took the toddler back to her family “and told them the baby had had an allergic reaction to bubble bath.”
The parents called paramedics, who took the baby to the hospital, “where it was discovered she had second- and third-degree burns over 47% of her body,” York said.
The baby is in critical condition at Sherman Oaks Community Hospital Burn Center.
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