A Florida daycare worker has been charged with child neglect after a young boy allegedly escaped from a playground and ran across a busy highway while under her supervision, according to police.
Halee Russo, 27, is accused of failing to monitor the child properly at a daycare in Fruitland Park. Authorities said the boy crossed lanes of traffic on U.S. Highway 27, where the posted speed limit is 50 mph, and narrowly avoided being struck by a vehicle.
Russo has been charged with child neglect without great bodily harm. The allegations against her have not been proven in court, and she is presumed innocent unless convicted.
Concerned motorists began calling the Fruitland Park Police Department shortly after 11 a.m. Friday, after seeing the child running across the highway near County Road 466A, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Several drivers reportedly stopped their vehicles and helped move the boy away from traffic. The child was then returned to the daycare and was not injured, authorities said.
Investigators said Russo initially provided an account that did not match the statements of witnesses.
Russo told officers that she would normally check whether the gate connecting the daycare playground to the parking lot was locked. However, she acknowledged that she did not perform that check on the day of the incident, according to the affidavit.
She initially claimed that the boy left the playground while she was attending to other children and that he was later found by a parent near the daycare’s front entrance.
Russo allegedly told investigators that she began chasing the child about five seconds after he opened the gate. She claimed she caught up to him at about the same time that a parent stopped him.
Police said that the account was contradicted by multiple witnesses who reported seeing the boy crossing U.S. Highway 27. Their statements suggested the child had been outside the daycare and unaccounted for much longer than Russo initially indicated.
After officers confronted her with the witness accounts, Russo became “emotional” and said she was “just doing what her boss told her,” the affidavit stated.
Russo later told police that the last time she saw the boy on the playground, he was preparing to go down a slide. She said she then turned her attention to another child who had become upset.
She estimated that she lost track of the boy for approximately two minutes.
Russo also alleged that her supervisor instructed her to give police a false account of the incident because the supervisor feared the daycare could be shut down. The name of the daycare and the identity of the alleged supervisor were redacted from the publicly available police report.
The affidavit does not indicate whether the supervisor or any other daycare employee has been charged. Authorities have also not publicly disclosed the child’s age or identity.
Russo told officers that she believed the playground gate had been locked. She suggested that the boy may have escaped by crawling underneath it rather than opening it.
Investigators nevertheless concluded that the child was solely under Russo’s supervision at the time and that she failed to maintain adequate awareness of his location.
“The defendant confirmed the juvenile was solely in her care and she was not providing the juvenile with adequate supervision, putting the well-being of the juvenile at risk,” cops wrote.
The case raises questions about the daycare’s playground security measures, staff supervision procedures and response after the child was discovered missing.
The boy’s path reportedly took him from the daycare property to one of the area’s busiest roads. Police said the actions of passing motorists prevented the situation from ending in serious injury or death.
Officers arrested Russo and transported her to the Lake County Jail. Jail records show that she was later released after posting a $2,500 bond.
Her next court appearance is scheduled for July 6.
It remains unclear whether state childcare regulators are investigating the daycare or whether the facility has faced any administrative action as a result of the incident. The police report also does not specify how long the child was away from the property before the motorists returned him safely.
Russo has not entered a publicly reported plea to the charge.