A woman is facing criminal charges for allegedly abusing and neglecting children at an unlicensed day care she was running out of her basement in Northeast Philadelphia.
Edna Leighthardt, 53, is facing over a dozen charges related to unlawful restraint and endangering the welfare of children after, officials said, she strapped children in her care to car seats or highchairs for up to nine hours at a time.
Police said Leighthardt was running an unlicensed daycare inside her home with children aged 4 months old to 8 years old.
The parents of nine children, with ages ranging from 4 months old to 25 months old, reported Leighthardt endangered the welfare of their children by unlawfully restraining them in infant car seats and/or highchairs for five to nine hours, according to the affidavit of probable cause.
“What our investigation revealed was that Edna Leighthardt endangered the welfare of nine children by unlawfully restraining them for hours daily in their car seats or in devices not designed or intended to be used for napping and sleeping,” Captain Margo Alleyne-Parker, Philadelphia Police Special Victims Unit, said.
Police said on or around September 20, 2023, several incidents of physical abuse or neglect was reported to them at the home of Leighthardt who lives on the 3800 block of Kipling Place.
According to the affidavit, an 8-year-old child interviewed by investigators told them he witnessed the babies in Leighthardt’s care, including his younger sibling, being left in their car seats, sometimes crying alone in a separate room of the basement.
Further stated in the affidavit was that she would leave the children in their car seats for feeding and nap time and would only take them out to change their diapers.
Police say video cameras inside the daycare area corroborate the claims.
Captain Alleyne-Parker said that there was almost a months’ worth of video and Investigator Linda Blows spent days going through it all.
“She did an excellent job. She went through 26 days’ worth of video, 9 hours each day—so it was pretty, pretty tedious,” Captain Alleyne-Parker said.
Most of the parents of the very young children reported the same type of maltreatment and said that Leighthardt also gave their children Benadryl to facilitate longer naps. However, according to officials there was no evidence supporting the claim that any type of drug was given to the children.
There were also reports from parents of their children coming home “unusually hungry” or “very thirsty.” Officials said Leighthardt told the parents their children were drinking two bottles in her care, but video showed she did not do that with all the infants in her care and purposely “dirtied” bottles to make them look used.
Additionally, Leighthardt also violated ratio requirements for daycares which require at least three staff to watch over a group of 12 infants and toddlers at all times. Parents reported as many as 10 or more children in Leighthardt’s care and her care alone.
Drop-off and pick-up times were staggered and she would meet the parents outside so they were unaware of how many children were actually in her care.
A warrant for Leighthardt’s arrest was issued on Feb. 5. She is currently out on bond and not able to operate a day care while the investigation is ongoing.
“Ms. Leighthardt denies the criminal allegations and looks forward to defending herself in a court of law,” Leighthardt’s attorney Michael Diamondstein said.
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