According to a letter from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, Diana Stacy, of New Carlisle, was accused of operating a child care facility in her home without a license.
The attorney general’s office told Stacy she needed to “immediately cease and desist caring for more than six children in your home at one time without a license,” according to the letter. She also was told to “immediately cease and desist caring for more than three children under the age of two at one time.”
Stacy was told if she did not comply, the attorney general’s office could pursue legal action.
INITIAL REPORT:
Drugs found at a Clark County daycare sent one woman to jail and resulted in an investigation into whether the childcare center is operating illegally.
Danielle N. Burkhead, 32, of New Carlisle, faces four counts of child endangering after she admitted to detectives she shot up heroin inside the ABC Daycare, in Medway, said Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly.
Burkhead pleaded not guilty in Clark County Municipal Court on Thursday to the charges. She was also arraigned on outstanding warrants for violating a prior probation, according to court records.
“(Burkhead) should not have been working at a daycare center — she was a wanted fugitive; she has an extensive criminal history,” Kelly said.
A Clark County sheriff’s deputy arrested Burkhead on Wednesday night after Brittany Grogean of Kettering reported seeing a needle, capsules, lighter, spoon and tourniquet in the bathroom of ABC Daycare, 11136 Lower Valley Pike, as she picked up her 11-month-old daughter.
“My instant reaction was to freak out and kind of lose my mind,” Grogean said about seeing the drugs in the day care bathroom.
The bathroom is the same used by the children, Kelly said, and four children were still at the center when deputies investigated.
Burkhead allegedly admitted to the deputy investigating that she uses heroin at the daycare, the sheriff said.
Jobs and Family Services had completed an investigation into the business last week, Kelly said, regarding allegations of operating a daycare service illegally.
The Clark County Department of Jobs and Family Services received complaints of Diana Stacy’s business when it was located at 1023 Grissom Avenue in Park Layne, Kelly said.
The DJFS investigation began in August 2015 and was closed on March 16 when investigators determined the daycare on Grissom Avenue was closed, according to sheriff’s office records.
Kelly said DJFS now has reopened its investigation. A call to the DJFS investigator was not returned.
But the business appeared to have moved and was operating on Lower Valley Pike, Kelly said.
Stacy has not returned calls from this news organization seeking comment.
The ABC Daycare ads on the Better Business Bureau and Angie’s List websites said the business has been open since 2009 and claims to have a license.
Grogean found ABC Daycare online a few weeks ago and visited the business before signing up, she said. But the mother had no idea of its illegal operations or the criminal history of its workers.
“I feel completely betrayed — I’m beyond hurt and I feel utterly lied to,” Grogean said.
Burkhead is booked in the Clark County Jail on $5,000 bond, according to court records, and could face two years in prison if she’s convicted of the charges.
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