May 20, 2005
Providence Journal
BY ZACHARY R. MIDER Journal Staff Writer WARWICK -- The state Department of Children, Youth and Families has suspended the daycare license of a Providence woman accused of leaving a five-month-old baby in a hot van while she shopped at the Macy's department store at Warwick Mall last month.
Maria Batista, 39, had been licensed to take care of four or more children at home at 13 Morgan St. The DCYF suspended her license on May 2, six days after the Warwick police took the baby from the van and charged her with a felony count of child neglect. A supervisor in the agency's licensing unit has recommended that the license be permanently revoked, said Thomas Bohan, executive director of administration at the DCYF. That decision will be made by Lee Spreduti, the unit's chief, Bohan said. A daycare provider whose license is revoked can appeal to a hearing officer in the department, Bohan said. Warwick Patrolman Scott P. Robillard received a call from Warwick Mall at about 1 p.m. on April 26, and found a baby in the back seat of a van, wrapped in a blanket, sweating profusely and crying. He used his expandable baton to open a lock through a window that was open slightly, and sent the baby to Kent Hospital. He concluded the baby had been in the van for at least 45 minutes in the hot sun. The baby is the daughter of a 15-year-old Providence high school student. Batista remains free on $100 bail on the child-neglect charge, which was filed in Family Court. Bohan said he did not know why it took the state six days to suspend Batista's license. Sharon O'Keefe, the state's assistant child advocate, said, "As long as I'm assured that the license was reviewed and looked at, and they took some action quickly, I'm not concerned that this was an inordinate delay."