Day Care Provider Cleared Of Abuse
From the Tulsa World
By BILL BRAUN World Staff Writer 
Published: 3/14/2010 3:31 AM
Last Modified: 3/14/2010 5:34 AM
A woman who operated a day care in her Broken Arrow home has been acquitted of charges that she abused two small children there.
Tulsa County jurors on Friday found Sherry Yvonne Smith, 43, not guilty of two felony counts of child abuse by injury.
She was charged with abusing Zachary Sprick — then almost 11 months old — on Nov. 14, 2008, at her home child care business in the 1500 block of North Yellowood Avenue.
Investigators received information that resulted in Smith subsequently being charged with abusing Evan England — then 6 months old — at her child care in June 2008.
Defense lawyer William Lunn said expert witnesses supported his contention that there was no evidence that Smith “did anything to those children that caused their injuries.”
There are other explanations, not involving Smith, for the boys’ medical conditions, he said.
Assistant District Attorney John Lackey maintained that Smith inflicted brain injuries to both boys by shaking them. Lackey theorized that the boys had been “crying and wouldn’t be quiet.”
Both boys were detected with bleeding on the brain. Smith admitted that she “purposely shook” Zachary, the prosecutor said.
A report released in 2009 by the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth, which described this as a “near death” episode, said Smith indicated that Zachary had a seizure during a diaper change on Nov. 14, 2008.
Smith, who called 911 and the baby’s mother, told a doctor
that she shook the boy five to six times in an effort to get him to respond, according to that report.
Lunn said Smith shook Zachary “mildly” and that didn’t cause his injuries and wasn’t “consistent with a genuine shaken-baby case.”
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