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A Frederick County grand jury has decided against indicting a fired YMCA caregiver accused of abusing a 2-year-old boy, meaning she will not be prosecuted.
Twenty-one-year-old Amanda Markoe was initially charged by police with felony abuse. When prosecutors advised the boy's mother - Rebecca King - that they planned to pursue only a misdemeanor charge, they say King insisted the grand jury hear the case.
The grand jury, however, chose not to indict Markoe for either a felony or a misdemeanor.
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State's Attorney Charlie Smith on Monday released a video recording of the alleged abuse. In the recording, Markoe is seen grabbing the boy by the arm and lifting him off the floor. She is also seen forcefully placing him onto a chair and making kicking motions toward him.
ABC 7/NewsChannel 8 reporter Brad Bell showed the video to a number of Maryland residents and each and every one had a strong reaction.
After viewing the tape, Frederick resident Iris Gilbert said, "[If] that is not her child...that's abuse."
And Steve Freitas, also a Frederick resident, said the incident is "definitely child abuse, [it's] beating a child basically."
However, Frederick resident Amanda Adams-Barney said she doesn't think "that it is assault or child abuse."
And last week a grand jury agreed with her and declined to indict the YMCA child on a felony child abuse charge. They also threw out a misdemeanor misdemeanor 2nd degree assault charge.
Frederick County state's attorney Charlie Smith says the video shows immature behavior by the day care worker, but not a crime.
The child's mother, Becky King, however, told ABC 7/NewsChannel 8 in July after seeing the tape that her child had been abused and was traumatized and feels the child care worker should "suffer like he has."
Though the lawyer representing the King family declined comment, he does say it was a case of assault and the worker should be prosecuted.
Markoe was fired by the YMCA, and the prosecutor in the case said that was enough.
If the grand jury didn't find enough evidence to even indict her, then there's not going to be enough evidence to get past a preliminary hearing, and there sure won't be enough to convict her.
Children need discipline. Grabbing the boy by the arm and making him sit in a chair is NOT abuse. But what is a person to do when a child will not behave himself? Put him in time out? What if he won't stay there? Take away his privileges at YMCA by maybe kicking him out of the program? Perhaps that was too harsh a punishment for the child's unruly behavior. Make him write lines? What if he refuses? You can NOT make a child do what you want him to do unless he understands AND ACCEPTS the consequences for disobeying. If he understands and does not accept the consequences, what is the worker supposed to do about it? What, for that matter, is a parent to do about it?
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