Arraignment date set for Dewey mother of scalded toddler

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. - A Dewey woman facing a child neglect charge due to the severe scalding of her 16-month-old child in Jaunary has been bound over for district court arraignment.

A Washington County District Court judge Tuesday morning ordered 23-year-old Danielle Lynn Conner back to court on April 18. He set the date for the hearing after announcing the court had been presented enough evidence to pursue a child neglect charge against Conner.

According to the affidavit, the investigation began on Jan. 30 when the Wichita Police Department contacted Dewey police about the girl saying her burns were suspicious nature.

Connor's alleged story to hospital staff that the burns were the result of a spilled pot of boiling water, they said, did not match the injuries. A detective said the injuries were submersion burns.

Following interviews with Conner by Dewey investigators, and their confronting her with the evidence, Connor reportedly told them she had placed the girl in a bathtub in water that “was not hot” with a 3-year-old child.

Conner said she left the children for 10 minutes before she heard crying at which time the 3-year-old found her and tried to tell her something she said she could not understand. She said she thought it was about argument over a toy.

She said when she came back to the bathroom and noticed the hot water was on and the younger girl was screaming, Conner said she immediately lifted the child from the water and “the skin fell off her legs.”

It was following this interview on Jan. 31 police arrested her and the 3-year-old was taken into Department of Human Services custody.

Connor is currently being held at the Washington County jail on $50,000.

District Court Judge Curtis Delapp, on Tuesday, made the decision Tuesday to bind her over following arguments made by that state and Connor's defense, attorney Mark Kane, after a morning questioning of expert medical witness Dr. Kerri Meyer on the witness stand.

A member of the hospital staff in Wichita, and an expert in pediatrics, child abuse and child neglect, she saw the girl with her injuries.

On the witness stand, Meyer said 35 percent of the child's body had been burned, the child having suffered apparent “submersion” and “scald” type burns to her buttocks, diaper area and down to the legs and feet.

She said during treatment, the girl required skin grafts and at one point had to be incubated as “We thought she was going to die.”

Following her testimony, Kane told the court Connor's treatment of the child was not willful child neglect, but was rather “just an accident.”

He said she was giving her children a bath and doing laundry, as any good mother ought to do. He said it just happened that the other child in the tub likely turned on the hot water.

“It was a preventable accident,” he said.

Speaking for the District Attorney's office, Jared Sigler answering Kane's argument, said Connor left the children in the tub unattended for ten minutes.

He said the accident could have been prevented if Connor had been supervising her children.

“Connor failed to do what any reasonable parent should do.”