Day care workers at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Ariz., are accused of phycially abusing children enrolled at the facility, according to the five separate lawsuits. The Marine Corps families are each requesting damages that range between $900,000 and $5 million. (iStock)
Negligence in hiring, training and supervising day care workers at a Marine Corps base in Arizona laid the groundwork for children to be abused physically by employees at the military facility, according to federal lawsuits filed by five families.
Children between 1 and 2 years old were forcefully placed in chairs and shoved into tables, forced to use their own hands to hit themselves, hit with toys, and carried by just an arm or a leg and then left alone when they cried in pain, according to the five separate lawsuits filed last month in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona. The families are each requesting damages that range between $900,000 and $5 million.
Each family had a toddler who attended the child development center at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma and was physically abused by up to three caregivers at the facility, according to the lawsuits.
“Had [day care] staff had proper precautions in place to identify, address and report the behavior to law enforcement and family members at an earlier time, A.H. likely would not have suffered the same level of trauma he and his family are now left to deal with,” according to the lawsuit filed by Cpl. Caleb and Katelyn Hitchcock.
Their son, identified in the lawsuit as A.H., was physically abused at least 110 times within 90 days, according to the lawsuit. He has suffered permanent behavioral issues and delayed emotional and behavioral development from the experience.
Other parents who filed lawsuits were Master Sgt. Joseph and Hannah Lucero, Master Sgt. David and Brittany Crosby, Staff Sgt. Zackery and London Johnson, and Sgt. Mariah and Caleb Wilson.
“We are aware of the lawsuit regarding incidents that occurred at the child development center aboard Marine Corps Air Station Yuma. The health, safety and well-being of children is our priority,” said Capt. Owen VanWyck, spokesman for the base. “We have cooperated fully with local authorities over the course of their investigation and will continue to do so as necessary. Currently, we are unable to share additional information.”
Each family filed administrative complaints in February 2023 with the Navy, which were denied.
The federal lawsuits are bolstered by evidence collected in criminal cases associated with the abuse. Two of the three caregivers identified by the Yuma Police Department were convicted last year in Yuma County court. Valerie McKinstry, 30, served a nearly two-week jail sentence and probation, and Katherine McCombs, 30, received probation. A third woman named in court documents, Maria Mendez, did not face criminal charges.
The physical abuse occurred between December 2020 and March 2021, according to court documents. If abuse occurred in the months prior to December 2020, it wasn’t documented because the facility only kept video surveillance footage for 90 days.
In addition to video surveillance — a standard practice at Defense Department child development centers — the “Tiny Tots” classroom where the abuse occurred had windows open to the facility’s management office and required more than one person always be in the room with the young children. However, supervisors and outside staff did not observe the abuse for months, according to the lawsuit.
By the time that the facility’s director Laura Frank called police March 2, 2021, police used the 90 days of video footage to document hundreds of instances of abuse and 15 child victims, according to court documents and reports from police.
“You had these people who were repeatedly abusing these 1- to 2-year-old children,” said Glen Sturtevant, an attorney for the families. “Clearly you have a situation where it was a systemic failure to train, supervise and manage these people, as well as, it’s a pretty good indicator that these were not people who should have been hired to be performing child care of little babies.”
