A babysitter in Indiana who is 31 years old will not go to prison for abusing and neglecting several kids in her care by hitting, slapping, and punching them when they got bad.
Law&Crime looked at court records and found that Meleiah Fisher was given three years of house arrest and an extra two and a half years of probation by Hancock County Circuit Court Judge R. Scott Sirk on Thursday.
Fisher was arrested and charged with 10 felonies in 2022. These included multiple counts of neglecting a dependent child and hurting them physically and battery on a person under 14 years old.
She did, however, make a deal with the prosecutors: she would plead guilty to five counts of neglect in exchange for the other charges being dropped.
The Indiana Department of Child Services called the Greenfield Police Department on September 15, 2022, to say that Fisher was allegedly abusing children at her home, where she was babysitting several kids.
A detective from the Greenfield Police Department responded to the call.
When police went to Fisher’s house, they reportedly talked to her about a child in her care who had been hurt, including getting cuts and bruises on his forehead and nose.
She said that the child got hurt when they fell a few days before. She also said that other kids had been hurt, but she said that when they were at her house, they just “play rough.”
But when the police talked to the kids, the victims gave details that were very different from what Fisher said. One of the kids even showed the police how the abuse looked by acting it out for the detectives.
A report from Indianapolis Fox affiliate WXIN says the affidavit says, “[The victim] stood up and started kicking his legs and throwing his arms around while grunting.” It was said by the victim that Meleiah Fisher does that when she is angry.
When the mother of another child asked him how Fisher punished kids who behaved badly at her house, including his younger sibling, the boy reportedly said, “Mom, you get beat up.” He said that he would be “punched” or “slapped” if he “spill something or make a mess.”
Police say that the victim repeated that answer when asked how Fisher punishes his brother during an interview at Zoey’s Place Child Advocacy Center.
According to the Daily Reporter, police wrote in the arrest report, “She beats him up.”
It was noted by the authorities that only a few of the kids Fisher was caring for were old enough to talk about the abuse.
