Inset: Maegan Valley (Trempealeau County Sheriff's Office). Background: The Trempealeau County Government Center in Whitehall, Wis. (Google Maps).
A Wisconsin woman who used to run a daycare out of her home has been found guilty of harming one of the children she watched.
Maegan Valley, 36, was convicted by a jury on Tuesday after going on trial for child abuse and child neglect. The charges are connected to an incident from April 2024 that involved a 1-year-old boy suffering second- and third-degree burns after being scalded with hot water while at Valley's unlicensed home daycare. According to a criminal complaint obtained by local CBS affiliate WBKT, the boy had burns on over 24% of his body and needed surgery.
Police said the boy's parents dropped him off at Valley's home at 7 a.m. on April 11, 2024. Ninety minutes later, the parents received a call from Valley, who told them the boy became "really fussy and irritated" and broke out in "hives." Valley's husband was also in the home after the boy's "hives" developed and believed his wife's story that the boy had an allergic reaction. The husband later told police that the sight of the boy "scared [him] to death."
When the boy's parents brought him to the hospital, medical staff told them that the boy had been burned.
According to the complaint, Valley became uncooperative with police when they questioned her at her home. She claimed there was an issue with the home's propane tank. Valley also claimed to have "short-term memory loss" due to cluster migraines. Eventually, she refused to answer any more questions and asked the police to leave.
Investigators determined that the boy's burns could not have come from hot water from the tap, but from a different source. The burns were the result of the boy being "exposed to heated liquid" while under Valley's care.
Valley is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 2.
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