BEXAR COUNTY, Texas – Nearly one month after a now-former day care employee was arrested in connection with a child injury case, the child’s family filed a lawsuit against the ex-employee and day care Thursday morning.
The family is suing Veronica Jimenez, 50, as well as Kidus Daycare — Jimenez’s former employer — and the day care’s parent company, JPR International, Inc., the suit states.
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Houston-area law firm Kherkher Garcia, LLP and San Antonio-area firm Ali Law Group, PLLC, announced the lawsuit in a joint news release. In the lawsuit, the victim’s family is seeking $1 million in “monetary relief.” The family would like a jury to decide the final amount, the suit stated.
The lawsuit filing was made in Bexar County’s 288th Civil District Court, records show.
The suit reiterated several details that were outlined in Jimenez’s arrest affidavit and turned in by Bexar County Sheriff’s Office investigators last month. Some of those details included day care surveillance video that appeared to show Jimenez pushing the 3-year-old child into classroom furniture as well as Jimenez’s initial denial of how the child was injured.
The suit alleged that the toddler’s “face and head violently slammed into the exposed metal bars” of the furniture and caused the child “to collapse to the floor.” Additionally, the child’s injury “split the skin on his head” and caused “visible bleeding,” according to the lawsuit.
In court documents, the toddler’s family and their lawyers are accusing Jimenez and the day care of gross negligence. Kidus Daycare and its parent company are also accused of poor hiring, training and retention practices, among other accusations described in the filing.
With regards to her criminal case, Bexar County Sheriff’s deputies booked Jimenez into the Bexar County Adult Detention Center on Jan. 6 and charged her with injury to a child. She bonded out of jail one day later, records show.
According to county court records, Jimenez is expected back in a courtroom on the criminal charge on April 7.
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