Heather Miller’s attorney says there was no abuse captured on surveillance recordings and hard evidence because it didn’t happen. Prosecutors say another day care teacher who witnessed abusive acts can testify otherwise — which she did on the first day of the trial.
The four-day trial began Sept. 23 in Waukesha County with Miller, 51 — the Waukesha woman charged in the alleged abuse of three children at the Lawrence School between November 2021 and August 2022 before her arrest in September 2022 — listening quietly as jurors were selected and prosecutors provided early glimpses of the evidence jurors will hear.
Miller faces five felony counts. She was initially charged on Sept. 15, 2022, with child abuse/intentionally causing bodily harm and second-degree recklessly endangering safety, and on Jan. 26, 2023, was charged with three amended felony counts of physical abuse of a child — one for each victim — by a child care provider.
Calling the case “a parent’s worst nightmare,” Waukesha County Assistant District Attorney J.J. Crawford said in an opening statement that the state’s case would center on “who saw what and what not.” That includes the testimony of Camarie Morris, a day care worker who was employed for about two months in 2022 and told authorities what she had witnessed.
Pablo Galaviz, Miller’s attorney, said he would question subjective evidence that might prompt jurors to believe in something that “never happened.” (Note: Galaviz’s opening statement was heavily obscured in the conference room where media gathered because he made most of it away from the microphone.)
The Waukesha Police Department responded to The Lawrence School on Saylesville Road on Sept. 14, 2022, to investigate a complaint of child abuse and to reunite children with their parents.
Allegations include details of verbal and physical abuse by Miller
According to allegations previously reported and also spelled out in the criminal complaint, a teacher, later identified in court as Morris, reportedly witnessed Miller verbally and physically abusing a child younger than 1 year old, calling him disgusting in part because of difficulties he has lived with because of a cleft lip.
Morris said she reported what she saw to Lawrence School administrators, then, when they took no action, advised the child’s mother to demand that her son be assigned to a different room other than the one in which Miller served as a lead teacher.
The allegation initiated a five-month police investigation and, together with state officials, Waukesha police discovered two additional incidents — in early November 2021 and August 2022 — involving Miller and two other children ages 1 or younger.
Morris was the first to testify, restating what she previously said she had seen on Aug. 17, 2022, and helping prosecutors identify elements of a picture exhibit of the room where the children were reportedly hurt.
Prosecutors and court records also acknowledge that two former Lawrence School administrators — Annemarie Fraker, 29, and Kathryn Ascher, 54 — who have also been charged in the case with child abuse by failing to prevent bodily harm — are expected to testify at some point, as will the parents of each of the victims. A pediatrician is also expected to testify about how the victim’s overt symptoms following the incidents were consistent with the kind of abuse authorities allege.
Jurors are largely unaware of media reports from 2022 until today
Due in part to the media coverage of the high-profile case, which began with a dramatic police action to clear out the school on Sept. 14, 2022, to execute a search warrant, jurors had to be carefully screened ahead of time. They were screened even more carefully during the courtroom selection process, with attorneys and Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge David Maas asking pointed questions about their own experiences with day care centers and childhood injuries.
The final 12-person jury plus one alternate — nine men and four women — agreed they could focus their decision ultimately on the testimony presented during the trial.
Proceedings against all three defendants had been repeatedly delayed for various reasons. The cases against Ascher and Fraker are expected to culminate in a plea deal on Oct. 2, nearly a week following the end of Miller’s trial. They will also be sentenced that day.
The Lawrence School, 3011 Saylesville Road, did not reopen after it was closed during the police investigation in fall 2022.
Contact reporter Jim Riccioli at james.riccioli@jrn.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Heather Miller day care child abuse trial begins in Waukesha court