A foster parent who runs a day care center catering largely to low-income families is under investigation for allegedly showing porn to a 10-year-old boy at the center, police said today.
Day Adventures, owned by Charles V. Day, remained open this week even as Hamilton County Job and Family Services notified Day they would stop paying him for 76 children who were eligible for subsidized care.
An 8-year-old foster child that Butler County Children Services placed with Day was removed from the College Hill home of Day and his wife when allegations surfaced in March, agency spokeswoman Denise Winkler said.
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Police opened an investigation into Day after the boy’s mother reported that her son said he had been shown computer images of adults and cartoon characters Scooby Doo and Shaggy having sex.
The child also disclosed the January incident to a teacher at the Hamilton County Educational Services Center and to staff at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital’s Mayerson Center for Safe and Healthy Children, the police report said.
Mount Healthy Police confiscated several computers March 17 from Day Adventures, which operates out of lower level of Emmanuel Temple Apostolic Church at 1585 Compton Road.
Detective Greg Nolte wouldn’t say if porn was on the computers, and a search warrant remains sealed.
Nolte said he presented his evidence against Day to Hamilton County prosecutors this month. No charges have been filed.
Day, a former Lifeway For Youth foster parent who is now licensed through the network, NECCO, has had foster care placements from both Hamilton and Butler counties over the years. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
A Hamilton County foster child died in May 2007 after he jumped from Day’s family van onto Interstate 275 on the way to church.
Winkler said none of the other Butler County foster children have reported “anything untoward” happening during their stays with Day.
Day has made nearly three quarters of a million dollars since 2006 from Hamilton County Job and Family Services, which subsidized child care fees for 35 low-income families, agency spokesman Brian Gregg said.
Day Adventures’ state-issued license allows Day to have 73 children at the center at the same time. The majority of the children at the center are school age, state records show.
The agency gave Day a 30-day notice May 30 that it would no longer do business with Day Adventures, Gregg said.
Agency officials called parents the same day, informing them they would have to find child care elsewhere if they wanted the county to continue subsidizing that service. The county’s contract with Day required a 30-day notice, Gregg said.
“We also mentioned … that there was a criminal investigation going on,” Gregg said about what parents were told.
“We were waiting for police to confirm that it actually happened. Even making this decision in May, we still didn’t have criminal charges here,” Gregg said. “We’re potentially putting (someone) out of business. We have to be sure when we do something like that.”
He said the children didn’t appear to be in jeopardy.
“The allegations aren’t molestation,” Gregg said. “There’s a difference between if they could potentially be molested or beaten to death in relation to did a child glimpse something on a computer that he shouldn’t have seen.”
Ohio Job and Family Services officials say they were aware of the police investigation, but state rules allowed Day Adventures to stay in business in the interim.
However, state records show that Day Adventures fared poorly on a state inspection this month. The center was cited for violating 34 of 54 state regulations.
Problems included being over capacity, water leaks in various rooms, and general filth, including dirty toys, floors, diaper pails and furniture as well as piled up trash.
The center also was cited because a staff member used inappropriate behavior in berating children who did not clean the classroom after play.