Fayette County daycare employee accused of assaulting, strangling baby

MASONTOWN, Pa. — A Fayette County day care employee is accused of assaulting her 1-year-old daughter.

According to court documents, on Nov. 10, Fayette County Children and Youth Services provided police with a tip for officers to investigate a reported assault of a one-year-old child that happened at 48 Fort Mason Village in Masontown.

That is where the owner and manager of Hopwood Child Care Center noticed bruising developing on the neck, stomach and back of a baby, along with fingernail marks, police say.

Court documents report that the owner asked the baby’s mother, Arayiah Jaiah Harris, 19, who is also an employee at the day care, how the child had been injured. Harris said the baby had fallen in the bathtub about a week earlier, but a mandated reporter told police that the bruises continued to develop over the course of the day. Police said she also reported that the child was fussy that day and said she had to stop her vehicle several times to console her on the ride to work.

Fayette County CYS took the child to WVU Ruby Children’s Medical Facility. Police said photos taken there showed strangulation marks on the child’s neck, along with the other bruises that had developed on the child’s torso.

Police interviewed Harrison on Nov. 13, where they say she then denied that the child had fallen and said she was trying to figure out what had happened. She said a man named Jeffrey, referred to as a close friend, had stayed at her house on the previous Sunday. She said that over the course of the night, she woke up several times to the child crying hysterically. She noted that the child wanted nothing to do with Jeffrey the next day and would cry anytime she was near him, which she found odd because that had not been the case the evening before. She said she drove Jeffrey to his house and that the child was inconsolable the entire way there, but immediately calmed down after he was gone. She said the child was complacent for the rest of the ride to the day care.

Investigators said she wrote a statement that said she believed Jeffrey had done all the damage to the child because he was tired of listening to her crying.

Police said they followed up on this information by interviewing Jeffrey at a home in Uniontown. He reportedly told police that he usually stayed downstairs at the house while the child and mother slept upstairs. He admitted to going upstairs that night because he heard the child crying, but said he only went to Harris’s room to wake her up to help the baby.

Police said they asked Jeffrey why Harris would try to blame the marks on him and he told them it was because he had recently gotten into an argument with her over how she takes care of the child.

Harris was called back to the police station, court documents say, to address the discrepancies in the statements. Police said she began to change her story, this time admitting that Jeffrey had woken her up. Police said they asked Harris if she would take a polygraph test and she agreed.

Investigators said Harris returned to take the polygraph test on Jan. 14. A post-exam interview was held. During this third interview, police said Harris admitted to hearing the child cry throughout the night after consuming alcohol and marijuana. Police said she admitted to grabbing the child with excessive force and slamming her back into a pack-and-play and pushing her down into it. Police said she also said no other person could have caused the injuries to her baby.

Harris is charged with felony counts of endangering the welfare of children, aggravated assault of a victim less than 13 and strangulation. She also faces misdemeanor charges of simple assault and recklessly endangering another person.

She is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday.

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