San Antonio attorney Mark Poling faces a charge of tampering with evidence in connection with a case that involved a worker at a day care in Kirby tying a toddler to a chair.
The worker, Gladis Abad, 36, was arrested Tuesday on a charge of unlawful restraint.
Kirby police said the charge stems from an incident they learned about in February, weeks after it allegedly happened at the Nanny-Nite day care in the 3100 block of Ackerman Road.
Sgt. Michael Alonzo said a tipster reported that the day care's surveillance cameras had captured images of Abad tying a 2-year-old boy to a chair.
"In the video, it doesn't appear that the child is hurt," he said. "You can tell the child was in distress. There's no audio but you can tell the child may be screaming or may be crying."
Alonzo said the ordeal lasted about 20 minutes, with the toddler, at one point, freeing himself and then being tied down again.
Workers at the day care saw the video too, according to police.
"I was horrified. I thought it should've been reported," said one ex-employee who didn't want to reveal her identity.
The woman said the video was shown to her and her co-workers soon after the incident happened, during a staff meeting.
"He was screaming, trying to get loose, wiggling," she said. "And the other kids, I'm pretty sure they were being horrified as well ."
"There was some laughing going on while the video was being shown. I personally did not think it was funny at all," the ex-staffer said.
Once police found out about the video, Alonzo said, they tried to seize it as evidence.
"We tried to work with the day care owner on trying to get a copy of the video. Unfortunately, she didn't cooperate," he said.
Even after obtaining a warrant, Alonzo said he was not able to get the video right away.
He said the day care owner's attorney got involved, by removing the video recording system from the business.
Police arrested the attorney, Mark Poling, 42, on a charge of tampering with evidence.
Alonzo said the case has been turned over to the district attorney's office, and that it's possible there could be more charges and arrests.
According to an online database for the state's child care licensing division, Nanny-Nite Child Care has been cited for 41 deficiencies during the past two years.
The records show several of those have to do with disciplining children, including one in December 2012 that stated that a "caregiver did not demonstrate good judgment and self-control when disciplining children."
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