DES MOINES, Iowa (WHO) – A child endangerment charge has been filed against a Des Moines woman accused of injuring a child at a church daycare.
Daija Dentis, 20, was booked into the Polk County Jail Wednesday afternoon on a charge of child endangerment-bodily injury, a Class D felony.
According to online court records, the incident happened at 821 Arthur Avenue in Des Moines. That’s where The Church at Union Park’s Wee Care child development center is located.
In a criminal complaint, police said the two-year-old victim came home from daycare with bruises under her arm and on her chest on April 25th. A detective reviewed video from the daycare and saw Dentis handling the victim roughly on multiple occasions. The bruises on the child were consistent with how Dentis “would pick the child up under arms and by the chest in an aggressive manner.”
Dentis admitted to police that she got frustrated with the child and grabbed her roughly, according to the complaint.
Dentis waived her preliminary hearing and is scheduled to be arraigned on July 8.