Plea deal: Brief jail time for woman who abused babies while working at Twin Cities day care

Prosecutors have agreed to a 90-day jail term for a woman caught on video with a fellow staffer violently handling babies at a Twin Cities day care where they worked.

Elizabeth Augusta Wiemerslage, 23, of Coon Rapids, admitted last week in Anoka County District Court to aiding and abetting malicious punishment of a child and aiding and abetting third-degree assault in connection with the abuse at Small World Learning Center in Blaine, one of eight under the same ownership in various Twin Cities suburbs.

A co-defendant, 24-year-old Chloe Kaye Johnson, of Andover, was similarly charged and is free on $15,000 bond ahead of a May 13 court date.

Along with the jail term, the plea agreement between Wiemerslage’s defense and the County Attorney’s Office calls for her to apologize in writing to her victims’ families and undergo a psychological evaluation.

Wiemerslage is scheduled to be sentenced May 16, when Judge Jenny Walker Jasper will decide whether to accept the terms of the plea agreement.

Defense attorney Kayla McKeeth declined to comment on what led to the plea agreement other than to say “a lot of work went into it all, and a lot of emotions were involved.”

County Attorney’s Office spokesman Keith Ternes said prosecutors “want to reserve making any comments on the case until any pending sentencing agreement has been finalized or imposed.”

Small World’s owner, Anil Jain, told the Minnesota Star Tribune that Johnson and Wiemerslage were fired as soon as the allegations were made.

The charges allege that five babies were abused between October 2023 and July 2024.

The Blaine facility’s license was renewed by the state on Jan. 1 and remains active, according to state Department of Human Services (DHS) online records.

Agency spokeswoman Sarah Berg said last summer that the DHS opened a maltreatment investigation involving Small World, but she cited data privacy restrictions and declined to say whether it involved this case. The DHS said Tuesday it has no update on that inquiry.

One of the victims noted in the charges is the daughter of State Rep. Nolan West, R-Blaine, who has three bills moving through the Legislature that address safety in licensed day care centers. He said Tuesday that all have bipartisan support as the legislative session moves toward wrapping up on May 19.

One bill toughens the sentences for the types of crimes Wiemerslage and Johnson are accused of committing. Another calls for parents of newborns to be formally educated on how to recognize evidence of abuse, and a third requires greater video surveillance of centers inside and out, and a longer retention time for the footage.

West said it “was shocking” to hear that Wiemerslage was offered a three-month jail sentence.

“The punishment does not fit the crime in any way, especially when you consider it was months-long abuse,” said West, whose daughter, Sibyl, was barely 9 months old when Johnson’s alleged abuse left the baby with bruising on her abdomen that prevented her from rolling over on her own.

West said Sibyl would resist when it came time to drop her at Small World.

Now, his healthy 21-month-old daughter “runs to get to her teacher” when she’s brought to her new center, Primrose School of the Lakes in Blaine.

According to the charges against both women:

A mother and father told police they picked up their baby July 15 at the Small World location in the 1300 block of Paul Parkway NE. and noticed fresh bruises on the 5-month-old’s thighs, buttocks and legs. They contacted day care staff, who suggested injuries may have been caused by the baby’s swing.

Johnson, the primary care provider in the infants room, told police that she saw no bruises on the child when she was dropped off but did see some redness around the pelvis that turned into bruising and wondered whether it was from the baby using infant chairs in the room. Wiemerslage offered a similar possible explanation to police.

Under further questioning, Johnson said she was helping the babies learn how to roll over, then admitted that she was too rough and might have caused the one infant’s bruising. Wiemerslage also admitted to her abusive actions.

Detectives reviewed surveillance video from inside the day care center and saw Wiemerslage and Johnson abusing three of the five victimized children.

The video captured Johnson as she “grabs [one infant] by her upper thighs, hip and groin area and violently flips [the baby] back and forth from her stomach to her back,” the charges read. “[Her] arms are flailing outward, and her body is consistently rigid as her face contacts the floor mat repeatedly as she is being flipped and her head is unsupported.”

There is no audio on the video as this abuse was occurring, but the baby “appears to be screaming with her mouth open as this is happening,” and while Wiemerslage was present and facing Johnson.

Video also showed Johnson picking up another infant and holding a cloth to the baby’s mouth and nose in an aggressive manner for several seconds as the child cried. Johnson then gripped the infant by the neck, pulled the baby up by the arm and repeatedly shoved a bottle in the child’s mouth.

Later in the video, Wiemerslage picked up an infant and slammed the baby onto a support pillow. Wiemerslage then picked up another infant and forcefully shoved the baby onto a changing table.

Medical reports indicated that one infant had bruises in nine spots that are consistent with excessive gripping or squeezing. Another baby had a leg fracture that may have occurred a couple of weeks earlier, according to police.