Ex-Daycare Workers Face Assault Charges

PHOTO CAPTION: Hill Air Force Base in Utah. Three former workers at the base’s Child Development Center face federal simple-assault charges involving allegations concerning young children in their care. File photo.

Three former daycare workers at Hill Air Force Base have been federally charged with misdemeanor assault after prosecutors accused them of physically mistreating toddlers and young children who had been placed in their care.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah announced the cases Thursday against Karlie Brook Rainey, 29, of Clearfield, Utah; Patricia Michelle Davis, 28, of Layton, Utah; and Allison Shea Ferdon, 32, of Carrollton, Virginia.
The charges were filed Sept. 16, but the Justice Department publicly disclosed the cases Oct. 1.
All three women formerly worked as daycare providers at the Hill Air Force Base Child Development Center.
The alleged incidents occurred in late 2022 and early 2023.
Prosecutors say Rainey repeatedly mistreated a crying child in December 2022.
Court documents allege she covered the child’s mouth with her hand, pushed the child’s face into the floor and repeatedly covered the child’s face with a pillow.
She is also accused of pinning the child in a corner for more than 20 minutes.
Additional court filings cited by Utah news outlets allege Rainey pulled the child’s hair, dragged her by the arm multiple times and subjected her to what prosecutors described as an abusive timeout.
Davis is accused of shoving, pushing and roughly handling multiple children in January and February 2023.
According to court documents reported by KSL, surveillance footage allegedly showed Davis pushing one toddler with enough force that the child appeared to become partially airborne.
In another alleged incident, prosecutors said she placed a child onto the floor forcefully enough that the child’s head could be seen bouncing off the floor.
Ferdon is accused of repeatedly grabbing and roughly handling young children during the same period.
Prosecutors allege she sprayed one child in the face with a spray bottle and used another child’s hand to hit a child.
In another incident, Ferdon allegedly lowered a child over a trash can as though she were going to throw the child away.
Federal prosecutors emphasized that the children involved were toddlers and young children entrusted to the employees’ care while their parents were away.
“The defendants’ alleged conduct toward these toddlers they were entrusted to care for is both disturbing and unacceptable,” U.S. Attorney Melissa Holyoak said when the charges were announced.
The Hill Air Force Base Office of Special Investigations is investigating the cases.
Rainey is scheduled to be arraigned Oct. 15. Davis is scheduled for arraignment Oct. 7, and Ferdon is scheduled to appear Oct. 8 at the federal courthouse in Salt Lake City.
The charges are misdemeanor simple-assault allegations.
None of the three women has been convicted, and all are presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.