DALLAS -- A former worker at a Dallas center that cares for babies with HIV and other young patients has been arrested on a charge of reckless injury to a child, Dallas police said.
Tanisha Lacy, 27, is suspected of unintentionally breaking the leg of a 5-month-old boy in her care at Bryan's House, a police supervisor said Friday.
Child Protective Services had placed the child at Bryan's House, established 20 years ago to care for AIDS babies and other children with severe medical problems. The child's injury prompted CPS to remove all 18 of the foster children it had placed there, effectively shutting down the residential facility.
Dallas County Jail officials said Lacy was released on $2,500 bail. Lacy could not be
reached by telephone Saturday for comment.
Both David Thomas, executive director of Bryan's House, and Dallas police Lt. C.L. Williams, supervisor of the department's crimes against children unit, said the injuries to the 5-month-old did not appear to be intentional.
"It appears that while caring for the child, she just pushed on one leg too hard and caused the injury," said Williams, who described the baby as a good-natured but "sickly child" with a host of medical problems.
After the baby's injury was discovered during a medical exam in March, Bryan's House was investigated by Dallas police and state authorities.
Thomas said that now that an arrest has been made, he's hopeful the state will once again place children there. He said Lacy was a reliable worker with a clean record during her four years at the facility.
Patrick Crimmins, a CPS spokesman, said the agency would consider resuming placement of children at Bryan's House "if they ca
n provide us with a plan to ensure, to the best of their ability, that this won't happen again -- that the children we place there will be safe from harm."
Williams said X-rays also showed that the 5-month-old had a broken collarbone. But he said the timing and cause of the collarbone injury could not be determined.
The crime that Lacy is accused of is a state jail felony carrying a potential penalty of 180 days' to two years' incarceration, Williams said.
Founded in 1987, Bryan's House is a favorite of high-profile Dallas philanthropists. It was named for Bryan Allen, the son of Dallas nurse Lydia Allen and a grandson of the Rev. Jimmy Allen, one-time president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Bryan died of AIDS as an infant in 1986.
His mother and an older brother later died of the disease as well. All three were infected after Lydia Allen got a tainted transfusion while pregnant with the older boy.