Page 18 - IAV Digital Magazine #446

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
Bend Woman Gets 21 years for Drugging Kids So She Could Go Tanning, Do CrossFit
By Eder Campuzano, The Oregonian/ OregonLive
A Bend day care owner who had been accused of slipping children melatonin so that she could hit the gym and go tan- ning was sentenced to 21 years and four months in prison by a Deschutes County judge Friday.
January Neatherlin, 32, had been run- ning an illegal child- care operation called Little Giggles for approximately four years and pleaded guilty to 11 counts of first- degree criminal mis- treatment and one count of third- degree assault, according to court records. She had also lied to parents about being a regis- tered nurse, even though she had no such qualifications.
Bend police, based on tips provided by a former boyfriend and a former room- mate, surveilled
Neatherlin last March and saw her leave the house twice while she was supposed to be watching seven
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 sen- tencing 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 hospi- tal 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 let- ters 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 docu-
ments 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 origi- nally angled for a 35-year sentence.
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine