Charges dismissed against woman accused of assaulting boy
All charges were dismissed Tuesday against a Uniontown woman accused of assaulting an 8-year-old boy while she was working at a day-care center. Uniontown police said Erica M. Olech, 23, of 3021 Langley Road was charged with simple assault and harassment following an incident June 10 at Little Kid Zone Child Care.
The charges against Olech were dismissed Tuesday during a preliminary hearing before Magisterial District Judge Michael M. Metros after the alleged victim and his family failed to appear in court.
Patrolman Thomas Kolencik said the boy’s mother, Lisa R. Dorsey, called police to report her son had been assaulted.
According to Kolencik, Dorsey reported that when she arrived to pick up her son that Erica Haynes, night manager at the day-care center, told her that Olech had assaulted her son and that he suffered a small scratch to the neck.
Kolencik said that Haynes gave Dorsey an incident report detailing the injury and the treatment it was given, which involved the scratch being cleaned and iced.
The boy, according to Kolencik, told police “Erica O.” was mad at the children because they were throwing stuffed animals at each other and that Olech told the children she was going to throw the stuffed animals away and began picking them up and putting them in a garbage bag.
Kolencik said the boy told police he didn’t want Olech to throw away the stuffed animals and that he tried to stop her. Olech then grabbed the boy by the front of the shirt, twisted it and pushed him away, according to reports.
Kolencik said that police also spoke to Dorsey’s three other children who attend Little Kid Zone and who were in the same room when the alleged incident occurred, noting that all three provided the same account of incident.
Kolencik said police later made contact with Olech and that Olech told police she had been watching 10 children and that they would not be quiet and were throwing stuffed animals at each other.
Olech told police she began picking up the stuffed animals and putting them in a garbage bag when the 8-year-old boy jumped on the bag. Kolencik said Olech admitted grabbing the boy but denied pushing him, saying that she instead pulled the boy off the bag.
Kolencik said Olech told police she did not mean to hurt the child and apologized.