Taxpayer-funded babysitter accused of brutally beating New York toddlers with a belt as horrified family demand answers

Sky News AU

5 days ago

Disturbing surveillance video obtained by The Post shows a city-funded babysitter repeatedly walloping three little kids with a belt and donning a creepy Santa Claus costume to scare them — and the horrified family is now demanding answers.
La'keysha Jackson, 24, began working for Bronx mother Geraldine Jaramillo a year ago via a contractor paid for by the city's Administration for Children's Services that provides struggling families with babysitters to help with caretaking.
The single mom said she discovered the alleged violent treatment last month when the kids' Pennsylvania-based grandma checked a home surveillance camera in the bedroom — and was horrified to learn that the babysitter was beating the children, boys ages 2, 4 and 6.
But despite the family reporting the horrifying behavior to ACS and the NYPD — and filing a complaint against Jackson on what would be felony charges — she has yet to be arrested, the family said.
'We called the police and filed the report and we went to the hospital,' Jaramillo told The Post of the aftermath of the shocking May 6 incident.
'They promised to arrest her and it's been three — almost four — weeks and nothing has happened yet.'
The video shows the brutal babysitter beating two of the crying children nearly 60 times, according to a notice of claim filed by Jaramillo's attorney Monday indicating her intent to sue.
In the footage, the callous caretaker can be seen whipping the underwear-clad children's behinds and restraining their tiny arms as they try in vain to deflect the blows.
'Guess what's about to happen?' she can be heard saying, apparently upset that the two older kids, aged 4 and 6, did not clean up their room.
'Belt?' one of the young boys answers as Jackson, wearing a T-shirt with the words 'Heaven Sent,' pulls a thick brown belt out of a cross-body bag.
'You're right — I warned y'all,' she replies cheerily, chillingly adding: 'Drop 'em.'
The babysitter also bizarrely wore a grotesque Halloween mask from gory slasher flick 'Terrifier II' and a Santa Claus outfit — which Jaramillo discovered in her home — to apparently frighten the children, footage shows.
Jackson was employed by home aid provider Selfhelp, contracted by the troubled ACS, through its homemaking program that provides struggling city families with a babysitter to help with caretaking, according to Jaramillo and documentation shared with The Post.
But what was supposed to be miraculous help turned into a living nightmare for the mom, who first got connected with the homemaking service while fleeing a domestic violence situation, she said.
Until her own mom found the video, Jaramillo said she and her parents considered Jackson a member of the family, celebrating holidays together and letting her sleep in a spare bedroom occasionally to avoid the long trek back to Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn from the Bronx.
But the family then came to learn 'she was beating the kids every other day,' said the kids' grandpa Rudy Enamorado, who drove two hours from his Pennsylvania home once he saw the footage.
'Hitting the kids with the [clothes] hangers, hitting them with belts, throwing the baby,' Jaramillo recounted, claiming that the babysitter also doled out emotional and verbal abuse to the children.
Jackson was the second sitter sent to the family after the first from the same ACS-contracted agency was discovered drinking and smoking at a playground while watching the kids, Jaramillo claimed.
'The worst thing we did was let our guard down,' said Enamorado.
His wife, the kids' grandmother, only checked the nannycam on May 6 because Jaramillo started a new job and had asked her to make sure the babysitter was putting the boys to bed on time, she said.
After the family reported what they saw, and brought the kids to a hospital to get checked out in the aftermath of the beating, Enamorado recalled how there were 'maybe like 10-12 police and detectives in the house' — and said a 'seasoned detective' wept upon viewing the video.
'That made us assured that she was going to get arrested that same night,' he said. 'But to this day, nothing has been taken care of.'
Jackson did not reply to requests for comment, but in her last text message to Jaramillo, shared with The Post, she professed her 'love' for the boys.
'It's a learning experience for us all,' the message read — which Jaramillo said was 'infuriating.'
'I am their number one supporter when it comes to their safety and well being,' it concluded.
Jackson's brother told a Post reporter outside of their Bed-Stuy home Monday that what the video depicted was normal in black families.
'Abuse my ass,' he said, 'That happens in black families all the time.'
It's unclear how much Jackson was paid, but Selfhelp currently has a $1.23 million contract with ACS for homemaking services, records show.
A recent exposé by The Post revealed that seven children have died while in ACS care since the start of last year, with many more suffering abuse.
Despite the troubling data, oversight over the agency is lacking, said the city's Department of Investigation commissioner, Jocelyn Strauber, in a Saturday opinion essay for The Post calling for a change in current onerous oversight rules — unique to ACS.
Jaramillo alleged that after the May 6 incident, ACS did a home visit, and apologized after viewing the video, but then opened an investigation into her — instead of Jackson — claiming she lacked documentation from the kids' hospital visit that day.
'I'm under investigation too,' she said, adding that ACS workers have been doing home visits every other week since. 'They say it's protocol.'
An ACS spokesperson did not address that claim, but said that Jackson no longer works for Selfhelp and that ACS was working with the NYPD in its investigation.
'We are taking these despicable actions very seriously, and we have commenced a review of the contracted provider's procedures,' the rep said.
A Selfhelp spokesperson confirmed that Jackson had been terminated and that the company is fully cooperating with the NYPD, claiming that it performs drug testing and background checks on all their workers.
Police sources said cops attempted to arrest Jackson Monday morning on assault and child endangerment charges, but were unable to.
'I don't want the service no more,' Jaramillo said of the ACS homemaking program. 'I had two very bad experiences with that agency and with the homemakers.'
Her kids are now scared to take off their clothes, leave their bedroom — or even use the bathroom, their mom said.
'They say the bathroom is scary,' Jaramillo told The Post, 'we don't understand why.'
The boys are also now intensely aggressive with each other, fighting, hitting and even sitting on the baby to the point of suffocation, the mom said.
'They're so traumatized,' Jaramillo said. 'I don't know where they're learning these things, I don't know if they're repeating stuff that was happening to them.'
The grandfather, Enamorado, added: 'They were never like this before … They have rage.'
The family's lawyer, Daniel Szalkiewicz, said he hopes the story can serve as a 'wake up call to parents.'
'No matter who recommended your childcare provider – a friend, family, or even if it's the agency that holds itself as the paragon of good childcare — don't let your guard down,' Szalkiewicz said.
'Even if there are cameras, even if they're supposed to be trained, even if you trust them implicitly. It can happen to anyone.'
Jaramillo — who works as a caseworker for senior citizens — said that nobody suspected the babysitter could have been beating the children because everyone, including at the kids' school, 'loved her.'
'When I found some bruising, she would always tell me 'oh, they were fighting, or they were playing, or they fell at school,'' the mom recalled.
Jaramillo, whose aunt is now helping with childcare, said she wants justice for her kids — and to figure out what exactly happened in her home.
'I really want to get to the bottom of this,' she said. 'Just seeing them — it's like they are completely different kids. They are going through a lot. They may not verbalize it, but they are.'
Originally published as Taxpayer-funded babysitter accused of brutally beating New York toddlers with a belt as horrified family demand answers