Day-Care Operator Faces Cruelty Charge

A residential day-care operator who authorities say allowed four young children to run away from her facility last week has been charged by the San Bernardino County district attorney with a misdemeanor count of cruelty to a child.

She is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 23.

Maria Devote, 53, failed to notice that the four children had piled up plastic toys, including cars, to unhook a gate latch in her backyard and walk about half a mile, a police spokesman said. The children, ages 2, 3, 4 and 7, became thirsty and stopped to ask a neighborhood woman for some water. The woman summoned police, and the 7-year-old told them that she and the other children left Devote’s residence because they were tired of her pinching them and pulling their hair, authorities said. That accusation resulted in the charge.