Two former day care workers at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii will serve short jail sentences for charges that they harmed an Army officer’s toddler in a Navy-run child care facility, according to online court records and the family. (iStock)
Two former day care workers at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii will serve short jail sentences for charges that they harmed an Army officer’s toddler in a Navy-run child care facility, according to online court records and the family.
Analyn DeGuzman and Marilyn Kanekoa were each charged with assault in the third degree, a misdemeanor. DeGuzman received a 30-day jail sentence and Kanekoa an eight-day jail sentence during two separate hearings on Jan. 17 in a Honolulu courtroom.
Army Capt. JD Kuykendall’s child Bella was 15 months old in August 2022 when he and his wife Kate noticed bruising on the girl’s legs and an uncommon redness on her cheeks. They also noticed a change in her demeanor.
After taking their concerns to the Ford Island Child Development Center where Bella went daily for care, facility managers reviewed footage and began an investigation. Both women were fired from the day care, according to a Navy official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
However, the Kuykendalls felt their concerns were downplayed and, after months of discussions with the Navy, JD Kuykendall gained access to the day care’s video camera footage through a Freedom of Information Act request and documented the abuse himself.
“The flags indicated crimes were here, but the system left us with sympathetic indifference,” he said. “It took hundreds of hours of lobbying to get something to happen that would have been executed immediately if investigative authorities had taken the situation seriously at the first hour of notification.”
Kuykendall eventually took his findings outside of the military to the Honolulu Police Department, and charges were filed against the women in May.
Last week, both women made agreements with the court to avoid admitting fault, according to court records. The plea is known in court as “no contest.”
“It’s not just about us,” Kuykendall said. “It may help prevent this from happening again.”
The Navy said last year that it doesn’t maintain records of civilian criminal charges against its civilian employees. Therefore, the service had no information on how often situations such as this occur, said Destiny Sibert, spokeswoman for Navy Installation Command Headquarters.
“However, instances of abusive behavior among [child development center] staff are extremely rare,” she said. “Navy Child and Youth Programs’ top priority is ensuring the safety and well-being of children entrusted to their care.”
Bella will be 3 years old in May, and her parents told the court that she still has headaches, difficulty balancing and is fearful of strangers.
“Since the incident, Isabella deals with psychiatric trauma, and acts in ways completely different from before the incident. These changes include quick escalations in violence when she is scared or triggered, or collapses into herself for extended periods,” Kuykendall said.
He, too, has struggled to put the incident behind him, even with resolution through the courts. This week, Kuykendall said he began contacting state legislators in Hawaii to discuss state laws that he believes limited prosecutors’ ability to hold the women more accountable and bring more gravity to cases where children are harmed by people outside of their immediate family.
