A 45-year-old Brazos County day care owner posted bail Friday morning after being accused of causing a severe head injury to a toddler under her care.
Dana Rene Munyon, who baby-sat children in her home for almost 20 years, was charged with injury to a child causing a serious bodily injury, which is a first-degree felony punishable by five to 99 years or life in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. If convicted, she'd be eligible for probation because she has no prior convictions.
Her attorney, Craig Greaves, declined to discuss the allegations, saying the facts would come out in court.
"This is too early for people to be judging the merits of this case," Greaves said. "It's very emotional, and I just hope people wait and hear all the facts before drawing a conclusion."
Court documents state that Tiffany Verzal left her 14-month-old daughter, Alexis, at Munyon's house at 9:07 a.m. April 3. Thirty-five minutes later, she said, she received a phone call from Munyon, saying "something had happened to Alexis. She went limp. I've called 911. I need you guys to get here," the documents state.
In the 911 call, Munyon said that she had a child who "just seems out of sorts," according to the court documents. She made the statement that the child had been in a "time-out." She did not make mention of physical injuries, and a doctor later would say there were no outward signs of any injuries.
Verzal said in her statement to police that she called Munyon as she was on her way to Munyon's home and was told that Munyon had put her daughter in a time-out but that the child kept getting off a blanket. Verzal said Munyon told her that she turned to look at several boys in her care, and that's when Alexis stopped crying, so Munyon thought she was asleep. When Munyon went to check on Alexis, she didn't respond, so Munyon called 911, according to Verzal's statement.
It was unclear how many other children were at the home off F.M. 2154. It was not a licensed day care, according to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. However, Munyon did not promote it as a licensed facility, and she voluntarily stopped taking children immediately following the incident.
Marissa Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for child care licensing for Texas, said the state requires anyone who baby-sits three or more unrelated children for a consistent period to have a license and to be inspected regularly by the state. Gonzalez, whose agency is investigating Munyon's case, said Munyon probably kept five to 10 children on any given day. The penalties for such a violation are administrative rather than criminal, she said.
"Some people don't know that you have to have a permit, but it is a state law," Gonzalez said.
Munyon's clients have included parents who worked for the Texas A&M University athletic department, including Brandon Verzal, who has said in interviews with the media that he and his wife selected Munyon's care based on word-of-mouth from other families.
A physician who examined Alexis on April 3 told authorities that tests revealed that she suffered from a subdural hematoma behind her right ear, also known as a traumatic brain injury, and from retinal hemorrhages in her eyes, according to a document filed by Brazos County Sheriff's Department investigator John Pollock. The toddler was suffering from partial paralysis on her right side and her vision was affected by the injury, authorities said.
The doctors told Pollock that it was too early to determine the long-term prognosis but that they thought Alexis would have some effects of the injury for the rest of her life.
Pollock wrote in court documents that medical records were submitted to the Forensic Assessment Center Network in Houston. The joint project of the Department of Family and Protective Services and the University of Texas System provides consultations when abuse is suspected. The panel concluded that Alexis had suffered a significant traumatic brain injury that probably had left her with lifelong neurologic disability.
"Dr. [Christopher] Greeley stated that injury was not from a 'temper tantrum' or self-inflicted and the events described in the medical record would not account for her injuries," Pollock wrote in the court documents.
Parents of other children at the home April 3 were called by Munyon that morning and asked to pick up their kids, according to the report, in which one parent described Munyon as hysterical when she told him that she wouldn't be able to baby-sit anymore. At least one of the parents interviewed by authorities described Munyon as "an excellent child care provider."
Parents from two families told authorities that when they picked up their children they talked to Munyon's husband, Brent, who apparently was relaying what he had been told: "[She] was carrying one of the babies and that the baby squirmed out of her hands and [she] dropped the baby." Both parents said Brent Munyon told them that the baby fell on her bottom but became so lethargic that his wife called 911. Munyon, a former Bryan police officer, was not home at the time of the incident, he later told police.
Dr. David Hardy, Alexis' primary physician at Scott & White, told the investigator that a head injury of that severity could not have occurred if a child had been dropped by a person who is 5-foot-1, Dana Rene Munyon's height.
After 25 days at Scott & White Hospital in Temple, the Verzals took Alexis to Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Lincoln, Neb., to be closer to family and to receive treatment at a facility known for having an extensive brain injury program.
Brandon Verzal moved to College Station to work as director of Texas A&M's 12th Man Productions. He met his wife, Tiffany, while both worked as student aides in the University of Nebraska athletic department. They eventually followed A&M athletic director Bill Byrne and other former University of Nebraska staffers to Texas A&M.
The couple said in an interview with the Omaha World-Herald in May that they believed Alexis suffered from shaken-baby syndrome and that they were going to "do everything we can to try to prevent this from happening to another family. Our talents are in video and marketing and design. We'll use them in every way we can. It's going to be a vital part of our lives."
Munyon was asked Thursday evening to go to the Sheriff's Department to be arrested, which she did early Friday. She posted $25,000 bail.
The District Attorney's Office declined to comment on the case, which is expected to go before a grand jury in coming weeks.
• Kelly Brown's e-mail address is kelly.brown@theeagle.com.
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