Former daycare workers at Hill Air Force Base charged with 'roughly handling,' assaulting children

SALT LAKE CITY — The U.S. Attorney's Office of Utah announced Thursday that three former daycare workers at Hill Air Force Base have been criminally charged with assaulting children.

Karlie Brook Rainey, 29, of Clearfield, Patricia Michelle Davis, 28, of Layton, and Allison Shea Ferdon, 32, of Carrollton, Virginia, were charged in federal court on Sept. 16 with misdemeanors of simple assault. Many of the alleged incidents were caught on video footage at the daycare, court documents said.

Court documents state that the young children and toddlers who were assaulted were entrusted to their care at the Hill Air Force Base Child Development Center.

Rainey is accused of mistreating one young girl in particular in December 2022. She "unjustifiably held her hand over a little girl's mouth, pushed the girl into the ground, pushed her face into a pillow, and held her down as she covered her face with a pillow," federal prosecutors said in a motion for detention.

She also pulled the girl's hair, dragged her by the arm multiple times and "held her in an abusive 'time out' for over 20 minutes," court documents state.

"She was a mother herself. And she knew better. After the Air Force discovered her misconduct, Ms. Rainey was placed on administrative leave and then removed her from her position," prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said Davis has a "history of pushing and roughly handling vulnerable young children without justification or excuse" and "displayed escalating, inappropriate behavior toward children in her care."

She is accused of shoving, pushing and "roughly handling" several children in her care between January and February 2023.

During one of the alleged offenses, Davis was seen on video pushing a toddler "so hard that the child appears to be at least partially airborne," according to court documents. She also laid a child on the floor "forcefully enough that (the child's) head can be seen bouncing off the floor," court documents state.

During the same time period as Davis, Ferdon is accused of roughly grabbing children several times, spraying a child in the face with a spray bottle, and hitting a child using another child's hand.

Ferdon "unjustifiably and repeatedly grabbed, yanked and roughly handled small children entrusted to her care, while their parents were not there to protect them," prosecutors said in a motion for detention.

She is also accused of lowering a child over a trash can, "suggesting to that child that she was throwing her away — treating her like trash," court documents said.

Rainey and Ferdon face eight counts of simple assault of a victim under 16 years old. Davis was charged with 11 counts of the crime.

"The defendants' alleged conduct toward these toddlers they were entrusted to care for is both disturbing and unacceptable," U.S. Attorney Melissa Holyoak for the District of Utah said in a statement. "Our office will not tolerate any form of abuse against children. We remain committed to working closely with our partners to ensure justice for the parents who entrusted these daycare workers with the care and safety of their children."

The case is being investigated by the Hill Air Force Base Office of Special Investigations.

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