A former employee of the Sweet Angels Daycare location in North Tonawanda has pleaded guilty, in a deal with Niagara County prosecutors, to charges stemming from her alleged endangerment of three young children.
Savanna Huntington, 20, the daughter of the daycare chain owner Kelly Doel, had been expected to go to trial on three counts of endangering the welfare of a child, a class A misdemeanor. But during a hearing Wednesday afternoon, in North Tonawanda City Court, her defense attorney, Frank LoTempio III, said his client was “willing to accept a plea” to three violation counts of harassment.
Huntington answered “yes” and nodded her head three times as City Court Judge Shawn Nickerson asked her if she had “harassed” three children in her care on May 1, 2024. When Nickerson asked Huntington how she pleaded to three counts of harassment she replied “guilty” and hung her head.
Assistant Niagara County District Attorney Heather Nicholson told Nickerson she had consulted with the victims’ parents on the plea offer and that “not all the parents were in agreement,” but she added, “We do believe this plea is fair and just.”
Nickerson agreed to a request from LoTempio and sentenced Huntington to a one-year conditional discharge, 45 hours of community service and a $100 fine. He also issued an order of protection for the three children.
“This just came together today,” LoTempio said of the plea deal. “It’s been a very difficult time for Ms. Huntington.”
LoTempio said his client has been undergoing counseling and has no criminal history.
“You’re never gonna see her again,” he told Nickerson.
Outside the courtroom, Samantha Winger, a Sweet Angels parent who said her child was abused at the daycare center, called the plea and sentencing “a slap in the face.”
“I’m really disgusted,” Winger said. “Community service is a slap in the face to us and the kids. It’s been a complete waste of our time. Physically assaulting a child is harassment? We have a legal system, not a justice system.”
The Sweet Angels location at 1307 Erie Ave., North Tonawanda, was closed on May 10, 2024 after North Tonawanda Police Department began investigating claims of child abuse there. The Niagara County District Attorney’s Office, along with the county Child Protective Services division, the Child Advocacy Center of Niagara and the New York State Office of Children and Family Services also took part in the investigation.
The initial complaint against Sweet Angels involved allegations of the use of corporal punishment by staff on children in their care.
Investigators determined that some staff inflicted punishment “directly on the body (of some children) including, but not limited to, physical restraint, spanking, biting, shaking, slapping, twisting or squeezing; demanding excessive physical exercise, prolonged lack of movement or motion, or strenuous or bizarre postures; and compelling a child to eat.”
In late 2023 and early 2024, three employees of the now-closed Sweet Angels location in Newfane pleaded guilty to reduced charges of harassment involving four children there. A Newfane town justice ordered each of them to pay a fine of $125 or $250 and complete 50 or 100 hours of community service.
Sweet Angels continues to operate two daycare centers in Lockport.