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. (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. Prosecutors had pushed for 35 years in prison, according to The Bulletin’s archives. “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. “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. “I didn’t think she hurt her head; I didn’t think she was injured in any way,” Neatherlin said. 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. “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. “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. “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. 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. Officer Devin Lewis testified they were shocked when they walked in and saw seven young children -- and no adult present. 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. 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. 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. That’s when she looked up Neatherlin under a different name and learned what was going on. She said she’d tried to get the place shut down three years ago and was sorry her voice wasn’t heard. 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. Her son, 4 years old at the time, remembers police entering the home and asks about Neatherlin. “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 
 
 19771040 "She has repeatedly demonstrated that stealing is a way of life in her world," they wrote, noting her past theft and ID theft convictions. 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). 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. 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. 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." 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." 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.
– 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.)