Daycare Owner, Daughter Charged In Van Death
FT. LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – A mother and daughter indicted in the death of a 4-year old boy who was left for hours in a daycare center van were booked into Broward County jail over the weekend.
Cecily Roberts, 43, and Camille Gordon, 20, were arrested Friday in New York where they were allegedly operating another unlicensed daycare center.
The women, along with daycare worker Paris Ward, 19, are charged in they death of 4-year old Jordan Coleman who died after being left in a hot SUV in Tamarac. Each of the women has been charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child. Roberts was also charged with felony child misrepresentation.
Coleman was supposed to be at the 3 C's Day Academy in Sunrise on August 1st. Instead, investigators said Ward and another worker loaded the boy and 7 other children in to the Toyota Sequoia.
Records show the daycare's owner, Roberts, had been cited before for overcapacity so that is why, according to detectives, the kids were taken to the apartment in Tamarac. The other kids were taken to the apartment but somehow Coleman was overlooked.
Several hours later, Ward discovered the boy in the back of the SUV and called 911. She originally told investigators the boy collapsed inexplicably while getting in to the SUV.
The doctor who measured Coleman's body temperature said it was 108 degrees.
Coleman mother, Fantasia Goldson, has filed a wrongful death suit against the former center and its owners.
The Sun-Sentinel contributed to this report.
