Bend day care operator gets 21 years for abandoning kids 
 
 BEND, Ore. - (Update: Comments from sentencing judge, parents) 
 
 A Bend woman who grabbed world headlines after her arrest for leaving numerous young children alone at her unlicensed day care, giving them melatonin to sleep while she went for a tan or to work out, was sentenced Friday to more than 21 years in prison after a long litany of sorrow and anger from many tearful parents — and her own tearful apology to them. 
 
 Deschutes County Circuit Judge Wells Ashby imposed a sentence of 21 years and four months on January Irene Neatherlin, 32, at the close of an emotional day of testimony by the parents and family of numerous children suffering lingering issues with sleep cycles, trust and more. Prosecutors had requested a 35-year prison term. 
 
 “I failed you all. I let you all down,” January Irene Neatherlin, 32, told the crowded courtroom. 
 
 “I let all of you down that trusted me, and no one is at fault but me,” she said. “I know you may never forgive me, but I ask you consider it.” 
 
 Neatherlin, speaking through tears, said despite what she had admitted doing, she thought of “all my day care kids as my own, and I believe they loved me.” 
 
 “Everybody makes mistakes, but not everybody takes responsibility for those mistakes,” she said. "With that said, I pray that the court and the parents accept my apology, It was never my intention to put any of your children at risk of injury or harm. I truly loved them all, but I made a very poor call that has forever changed my live, and maybe even has ended it." 
 
 She also noted she failed her own children, who she hasn’t seen since her arrest nearly a year ago. ‘I have abandoned my children, because of my actions.” 
 
 “I have a lot of demons to face. I have a lot of things pushed down inside of me that I was scared to face,” Neatherlin said. “I lost a part of me long ago, and I haven't been the same since. I lost all focus on what was right from wrong, thinking things through before doing them. 
 
 "I had tunnel vision, so I didn't have to face the reality of my life. ... I was being selfish, thinking only of myself, not thinking of people I could be putting in jeopardy, and not of the people I could be potentially hurting. All I could think of was trying to keep my mind from facing the reality. I had one mindset and didn’t think about the consequences in the long run." 
 
 Ashby said the day's testimony gave him a clearer understanding of what he called a "very tragic situation" that resulted in "sheer terror" and guilt for parents who trusted a child to someone who they thought was trustworthy. 
 
 "You (as parents) find a way to blame yourself, even if it's not your fault," the judge said, noting the "carnage" left by the case, including a number of couples who said jobs were lost or marriages or partnerships ended "because of the tidal forces of this case. They couldn't withstand the forces -- and how could they?" 
 
 The judge said it was good that Neatherlin has taken responsibility for her actions, but said she still has a "very long way to go." 
 
 Ashby said a judge is supposed to strike a balance, looking at all the factors, but said he "will not take a risk on community safety." 
 
 Neatherlin told one girl’s parents that the girl did fall out of her chair but she “didn’t think she hurt herself that bad.” She said she tried to reach out to them, but police said not to contact them, and she apologized to them as well. 
 
 Ashby rejected that explanation of injuries prosecutors said were consistent with shaken baby syndrome. 
 
 "There is a pattern with you of lying repeatedly, of repeatedly putting children at risk," the judge said. 
 
 "There is something broke and something missing in you," he said. "I don't say that to be mean to you -- simply a gap there. It is the court's hope you can make yourself whole again." 
 
 The judge directed photographers not to show the faces or reporter to identify the family members who testified. But some parents spoke with us outside the courtroom after the sentencing. 
 
 "I'm glad that there is some kind of closure," Kevin Hord said, his voice trembling at times. "It's going to be tough, but we'll make it through. And I think justice was served. I think the judge was right on with fully understanding the extent of the charges and making a judgment that will hopefully make somebody like that think twice, if they make it out." 
 
 Audrey Torrance said, "To hear these other testimonies is absolute heartbreak." Asked what's next for her family, she smiled but said tearfully, "We move on, we -- I go home, I hug my kids and we move on." 
 
 The emotional, daylong sentencing hearing came nearly a year after police investigators found seven children under age 5 drugged and unattended at Neatherlin's Little Giggles Day Care while she was at a tanning salon. 
 
 Neatherlin entered negotiated guilty pleas last month to a dozen of the 122 charges against her, including 11 counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment and one count of third-degree assault. 
 
 Deputy District Attorney Kandy Gies laid out the details of how the case came to light last spring, after a former roommate who stayed home sick saw kids being left home alone. 
 
 Police conducted surveillance and on March 15 of last year, knowing she had again left, entered the home. Officer Devin Lewis testified they were shocked when they walked in and saw seven young children -- and no adult present. He said he went into “father mode” and had to change a couple of diapers. One baby, he said, had vomit on the neck and face, and Lewis said that child could have suffocated if police had not intervened. 
 
 Each parent had put their trust in Neatherlin, Gies said, calling the situation “each parent’s nightmare.” The case is different, she said, and not a typical matter of criminal mistreatment. 
 
 The prosecutor listed each of the children there at the time and what happened to them – one with bruises, one with burns and a third that led to the assault charge, with injuries consistent with shaken baby syndrome. 
 
 That baby had bleeding and swelling in the head when the injuries came to light in January 2014 The child was 11 months old and now is 5. In fact, the prosecutor said, the baby was taken away from the parents and placed in foster care for seven months when state child welfare investigators thought the parents were at fault. 
 
 The girl’s father and both sets of grandparents of the girl spoke next, saying the injuries came to light when they picked the girl up and she was lethargic, then threw up and was acting groggy. They took her to the hospital, where bleeding on the brain was found. A doctor told them it appeared there had been a previous injury. 
 
 The family members said the little girl needed therapy for several years and that they remain worried about long-term impacts, but so far she’s a normal 5-year-old. The allegations of abuse also tore the family apart, they said, asking that the judge impose the full 35-year sentence sought by the state. 
 
 The grandparents cried during their testimony. Neatherlin wiped her eyes and removed her glasses, before a break in the proceedings was called. 
 
 The baby’s mother then testified, saying Neatherlin gave them fraudulent documents and that Neatherlin did not respond to repeated calls. She said the baby was shivering and shaking after being picked up from the day care and could barely roll over after the injuries. She said they had to take an ambulance to a Portland hospital, as a Life Flight helicopter could not fly due to the weather – and that they probably will never know exactly what happened. 
 
 Another mother said she met Neatherlin when her daughter was 9 months old and she seemed nice and that she’d researched her name – though she gave the wrong name – and the family was in a pinch. A year later, they learned she had shoved scalding hot milk into the girl’s mouth, burning her mouth and shoulder. 
 
 Neatherlin also had asked the family to watch her own child once, and she said when her husband went to the home, they found 16 children in the home. She said Neatherlin also told the family to give her (Neatherlin's) own daughter melatonin. That’s when she looked up Neatherlin under a different name and learned what was going on. She said her daughter came down with severe pneumonia and a doctor asked about abuse. She removed her child after 10 months in Neatherlin’s care. 
 
 Another mother said they had been friends for over a decade when she placed a child with her. She said she’d tried to get the place shut down three years ago and was sorry her voice wasn’t heard. 
 
 “She is a danger to society and all of our children,” the mother said. “She cannot be rehabilitated. She is and always will be a habitual offender.” 
 
 Another mother said her baby was in Neatherlin’s care from 3 to 9 months of age and often was crying. 
 
 The woman said they had been lied to and their child was mistreated. But she also said that “finding child care is a parent’s nightmare” – that she’d contacted 20 days cares before finding Neatherlin, who knew the struggles parents face finding day care. 
 
 After time in Neatherlin's care, she said her child didn’t sleep through the night until after he turned a year old, having been fed melatonin for months. 
 
 She said she and her husband attended therapy to cope with their loss of trust in people. Despite that, she said, "We will never feel safe leaving our children with anyone." 
 
 Another mother told of how Neatherlin said she was licensed and could provide documentation – also assuring her that her daughter would be the only infant in her care. 
 
 She said their daughter went to Little Giggles five days a week starting in August 2016, as both parents are teachers. Neatherlin told her to let her know when she was on her way to pick up her child. 
 
 The woman said Neatherlin often said her baby could be tired because she hadn’t slept well. She said her daughter was always constipated and cried constantly. The mother, in tears, said what happened caused her to lose trust in people and the community. 
 
 Her husband said Neatherlin repeatedly administered sleeping agent to children “and drove off in her car to fulfill her narcissistic needs. January had no respect for human life,” he said. “The community will be safer without her in it.” 
 
 The afternoon session continued with more parents telling of their kids having lasting issues -- a mother said her daughter came home with broken blood vessels in her face and neck, and Neatherlin said it was from screaming. Her son, 4 years old at the time, remembers police entering the home and asks about Neatherlin. 
 
 While the family feels betrayed and manipulated, the mother said, "I want to teach my kids about forgiveness and understanding." 
 
 The children's father, crying and angry, called it "unbelievable that any person on this Earth ahs the capacity to make children a target." 
 
 "In my opinion, your honor, 100 years would not be enough for this person," he said. "There is no place in this world for monsters like January." 
 
 Ashby thanked each parent for their comments, telling this father: "It's great to hear your strength, and it gives this court a lot of confidence that your children are going to do well. So thank you for being here." 
 
 Another mother said her children would start crying the moment she turned down Neatherlin's street, and their time in her home changed their behavior - her son trying to ransack the refrigerator and cupboards. The kids later told counselors she would hit or kick them and yell at them. 
 
 "I will always wonder how this damage will shape who they will become," she said, before her husband called Neatherlin "an absolute manipulator." 
 
 Neatherlin " has a lengthy criminal history of scamming people for her own financial gain," Gies and fellow Deputy District Attorney Errol Laure said in their 13-page sentencing memo, filed Wednesday, requesting the 35-year sentence. 
 
 "She has repeatedly demonstrated that stealing is a way of life in her world," they wrote, noting her past theft and ID theft convictions. "This defendant has now taken her criminal scams to a new level and she has placed the lives of children in danger -- not once, not twice, but numerous times, day after day." 
 
 In her day care operation, the prosecutors said Neatherlin "would tell parents what they wanted to hear, that she was licensed and certified to care for children and that she had CPR training. When a parent expressed concern about her child's medical needs, (Neatherlin) responded that would be fine, she could handle it, she was a trained RN (registered nurse). None of this was true." 
 
 A former roommate and a former boyfriend, as well as other adults and children, "detailed atrocious behavior" by Neatherlin, prosecutors said, including "regularly giving melatonin to the children to put them to sleep while she would leave ... multiple children alone on numerous occasions," to go to a gym and tanning salon, as well as to take her own children to school. 
 
 The prosecutors said one thing they found "important and disturbing ... was the ease with which she would lie. When parents were seeking out day care for their children, (she) always had the answer the parents were looking for," going so far as to "create her own certificate stating that she was licensed to provide day care. She was not." 
 
 Parents were told they could not pick up or drop off children between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. "because this was 'nap time' for the children," and it would disrupt all of them. 
 
 The prosecutors also said Neatherlin, since her arrest, had contacted other inmates in various ways "and has tried to get them to report they were working for her and helping with the day care services." In a letter to a former inmate, turned in to the DA's office, Neatherlin asked others to bring her bail money, "promising she had offshore accounts worth a lot of money" she would repay them from -- "yet another example of her denial and her scams." 
 
 The prosecutors also laid out Neatherlin's criminal history, with at least five convictions before the day care investigation began, including several cases of theft and ID theft, such as buying a trampoline at Walmart, taking an old, rusted one, putting it in the box and returning it, as well as stealing from co-workers at St. Charles Bend. 
 
 They also said three of the young day care victims were injured, one a burn to her lips because she heated a bottle in a microwave and didn't test it before forcing the girl to drink from it. The prosecutors said several of the children regularly given melatonin had "significant trouble sleeping through the night' until only recently. 
 
 "The parents placed their children in (Neatherlin's) care, believing her lies, expecting their children would be cared for,” they wrote. “The defendant violated this expectation and trust." 
 
 In her guilty plea petition, Neatherlin acknowledged she could face a maximum of 60 years in prison and a $1.5 million fine for the dozen guilty pleas. She will have 30 days to appeal her sentence to the Oregon Court of Appeals, if she wishes, and could challenge the sentence by petition on constitutional grounds such as inadequate defense within two years. ||||| A Bend day care owner who had been accused of slipping children melatonin so that she could hit the gym and go tanning was sentenced to 21 years and four months in prison by a Deschutes County judge Friday. 
 
 January Neatherlin, 32, had been running an illegal childcare operation called Little Giggles for approximately four years and pleaded guilty to 11 counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment and one count of third-degree assault, according to court records. She had also lied to parents about being a registered nurse, even though she had no such qualifications. 
 
 Bend police, based on tips provided by a former boyfriend and a former roommate, surveilled Neatherlin last March and saw her leave the house twice while she was supposed to be watching seven children. 
 
 She drove her kids to school on the first trip. On the second, police found her at a local Tan Republic. 
 
 The children who had been left in her care during those excursions had the sleep aid melatonin in their systems, according to a sentencing memo. 
 
 Neatherlin had been telling parents they couldn't pick up or drop off their kids between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Police checked Cross Fit and Tan Republic records to find that's when she would leave the house, hours she referred to as "nap time." 
 
 The Bend Bulletin also reports that a child in Neatherlin's care was once sent to a Portland hospital with multiple head injuries and that she admitted to overheating bottle of milk, giving a young child burns. 
 
 Since her arrest last March, Neatherlin had approached other inmates and asked them to claim they had worked for her. She also wrote letters to former inmates asking for bail money and promised to pay them from offshore accounts worth "a lot of money," according to the sentencing memo. 
 
 Neatherlin's rap sheet dates back to 2007, when she was charged with multiple instances of theft and identity theft. Court documents filed by the state describe her as having an "on-going, systematic scheme of doing what she wanted and getting what she wanted, without any concern for the danger she was placing others in." 
 
 Prosecutors originally angled for a 35-year sentence. 
 
 Follow @edercampuzano 
 
 --Eder Campuzano | 503.221.4344 
 
 ecampuzano@oregonian.com ||||| January Neatherlin listens as a parent describes to Judge Wells Ashby how her actions of abandoning their child has caused emotional, physical and financial damages to their family during her sentencing hearing at Deschutes County Circuit Court on Friday, March 9, 2018. (Ryan Brennecke/Bulletin photo) 7252860 
 
 January Neatherlin listens as a parent describes to Judge Wells Ashby how her actions of abandoning their child has caused emotional, physical and financial damages to their family during her sentencing hearing at Deschutes County Circuit Court on Friday, March 9, 2018. (Ryan Brennecke/Bulletin photo) - Bulletin 
 
 January Neatherlin addresses the parents and family members of the children she abandoned during her sentencing hearing at Deschutes County Circuit Court on Friday, March 9, 2018. (Ryan Brennecke/Bulletin photo) 7252859 
 
 January Neatherlin addresses the parents and family members of the children she abandoned during her sentencing hearing at Deschutes County Circuit Court on Friday, March 9, 2018. (Ryan Brennecke/Bulletin photo) - Bulletin 
 
 January Neatherlin wipes her eye as she addresses the parents and family members of the children she abandoned during her sentencing hearing at Deschutes County Circuit Court on Friday, March 9, 2018. (Ryan Brennecke/Bulletin photo) 7252861 
 
 January Neatherlin wipes her eye as she addresses the parents and family members of the children she abandoned during her sentencing hearing at Deschutes County Circuit Court on Friday, March 9, 2018. (Ryan Brennecke/Bulletin photo) - Bulletin 
 
 January Neatherlin addresses the parents and family members of the children she abandoned during her sentencing hearing at Deschutes County Circuit Court on Friday, March 9, 2018. (Ryan Brennecke/Bulletin photo) 7253030 
 
 January Neatherlin addresses the parents and family members of the children she abandoned during her sentencing hearing at Deschutes County Circuit Court on Friday, March 9, 2018. (Ryan Brennecke/Bulletin photo) - Bulletin 
 
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 After a contentious sentencing that revealed horrific details about an illegal day care in northeast Bend, its former owner, January Neatherlin was sentenced to 21 years, 4 months in prison. 
 
 She had ignored and abandoned children, even burned a baby with scalding milk. Parents of one child say Neatherlin violently shook their daughter. 
 
 “There is something broken and something missing in you,” Deschutes County Circuit Judge Wells Ashby told Neatherlin, who had drugged children and left them at her Little Giggles Daycare while she went to a tanning salon or to work out. “It is this court’s hope that you are able to find it or reconstruct it, and make yourself whole at some point.” 
 
 During the hearing Friday, parents and grandparents of more than a dozen children left in Neatherlin’s care spoke about their experiences with her over the course of nearly five years. 
 
 Statements from Deschutes County Deputy District Attorney Kandy Gies and concerned family members revealed that she had sent a child to a Portland-area hospital with multiple head injuries, and admitted to causing burns on a young child by overheating a bottle of milk. Parents accused Neatherlin of everything from disrupting children’s sleep cycles to striking them. 
 
 “I don’t know what’s wrong with the defendant; I don’t know what could bring a person to do what she’s done to the most helpless and innocent people in our society,” said Les Adams, the grandfather of one of the children. “But I hope she can understand that she damn near killed the easiest, happiest, most easygoing baby I’ve ever known in my life.” 
 
 Neatherlin pleaded guilty in February to 11 counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment and one count of third-degree assault. Each of the counts was related to a different child under her care, according to Gies. Prosecutors had pushed for 35 years in prison, according to The Bulletin’s archives. 
 
 Before she was sentenced, Neatherlin addressed the families of those children publicly for the first time. Wiping away tears and brushing a lock of dark hair from her eyes, Neatherlin apologized to a room of about 30 parents, grandparents and young children. 
 
 “I loved all my day care kids as my own, and I believe they loved me and enjoyed hanging out with me during the week,” she said. “But I failed you all. I let you all down.” 
 
 A baby brought by one of the families in attendance cried softly while Neatherlin spoke. 
 
 Neatherlin was arrested March 15, 2017, after police followed up on a tip that she was leaving young children alone in her home where she operated her day care on Blue Bush Court. They found children between 6 months and 4 years old alone in the home. Seven of the criminal mistreatment charges relate to the children found in March 2017. 
 
 However, her problems with children began well before last year. On Jan. 21, 2014, an 11-month-old child was picked up from Little Giggles and rushed to St. Charles Bend, and eventually to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland with bleeding and swelling in her head. The head injuries were consistent with a baby being shaken or struck repeatedly, according to Adams, the child’s grandfather, and were the source of the third-degree assault charge. 
 
 During her apology, Neatherlin said she turned her back on the 11-month-old girl to answer a phone call and the baby fell while sitting up. 
 
 “I didn’t think she hurt her head; I didn’t think she was injured in any way,” Neatherlin said. “I would never hurt her.” 
 
 During the sentencing, the judge rejected that description of the assault, describing it as inconsistent with the evidence in this case. After the hearing, Adams called it “an outright lie.” 
 
 The other four criminal mistreatment charges are from previous incidents with children in Neatherlin’s care in 2013, 2015 and 2016. One of the parents during that period, Audrey Torrance, said Neatherlin heated a bottle of milk in the microwave, which left her daughter with blisters on her mouth and shoulders. Torrance said Neatherlin at the time called the injuries spider bites when pressed about it. 
 
 “She has shown no remorse, after being confronted multiple times by multiple sets of parents,” Torrance said. 
 
 Devin Lewis, a sergeant with the Bend Police Department, testified that one of the children found in her home was covered in vomit that was still damp, and officers were concerned that the child was choking. 
 
 “What we saw was shocking,” Lewis said. 
 
 Other statements during the sentencing included a litany of crimes — diaper rash, poor nutrition, allegations of scratching. 
 
 “This isn’t a one-time, ‘oops, I made a mistake,’” Gies said. “This is a continued course of conduct that went on for several years.” 
 
 Angela Therese Lee-Mandlin, Neatherlin’s attorney, objected to allegations that Neatherlin had beaten or punched any children. Lee-Mandlin added that Neatherlin opted not to enter an Alford plea, which allows defendants to concede that the state has sufficient evidence to find them guilty while not admitting any criminal conduct. She did so, Lee-Mandlin said, to atone for what she’d done. 
 
 When passing the sentence, Ashby said he wanted to balance Neatherlin’s efforts to improve while in prison with her consistent pattern of reckless behavior. 
 
 “It is sheer serendipity and chance that some of those kids were not killed,” he said. 
 
 Adams said he hoped that the sentence would be longer, and added that he hoped there was a condition that she never be near kids again. The vast majority of parents testifying advocated for the maximum allowable sentence. 
 
 “In my opinion, your honor,” said Kevin Hord, one of the fathers in attendance, “100 years would not be enough.” 
 
 — Reporter: 541-617-7818, shamway@bendbulletin.com 
 
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– The operator of the Little Giggles day care center in Bend, Ore., had a rule: Parents couldn't drop off or collect their children between 11am and 2pm. That was the period January Neatherlin referred to as "nap time"—and when she headed out to go tanning and to CrossFit. The 32-year-old was on Friday sentenced to just north of 21 years in prison after pleading guilty to 11 counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment and one count of third-degree assault. Per court documents, Neatherlin would give the children in her care the sleep aid melatonin and then take off. Her misdeeds didn't end there: the daycare was an illegal one, and she was not a registered nurse, though she told parents otherwise. The Oregonian reports the scheme unraveled after an ex-boyfriend and ex-roommate tipped off police, who began tracking Neatherlin a year ago. They observed her exiting the house on two occasions, leaving alone seven kids, ages 6 months to 4 years, reports the Bend Bulletin. Bend Police Sgt. Devin Lewis testified that "what we saw was shocking." For example, one of the kids left unattended was found covered in damp vomit, and KTVZ reports Lewis feared the child could have possibly suffocated without intervention. Using CrossFit and Tan Republic records, police verified Neatherlin visited those establishments during "nap time" hours. Four of the charges relate to prior incidents, in which Neatherlin was said to have burned a baby with scalding milk; on another occasion, an 11-month-old was taken to a hospital with head injuries. Said the sentencing judge: "It is sheer serendipity and chance that some of those kids were not killed." (This day care is also in the news over alleged melatonin use.)