A former Delaware County home daycare operator, Rhonda Coomes, 53, has pleaded guilty to 14 counts of endangering children. Yesterday, Coomes admitted to the charges that arose from incidents of child abuse at her in-home daycare center in Radnor, as reported by NBC4i.
Following the guilty plea, each third-degree felony count has connected Coomes to a different child victim. Although three kidnapping charges concerning children restrained in a high chair were dropped, the Delaware County prosecutor's office told WBNS about the sustained allegations involving multiple occurrences of physical harm, including striking a 10-month-old multiple times in the face with her hand and a hard plastic diaper wipe container, leading to the child's black eye. These egregious acts took place between January 2021 and September 2023.
The investigation that led to Coomes' arrest in January started after anonymous complaints to the Delaware County Sheriff's Office hinted at child abuse. The Sheriff's office further found footage, which, according to ABC6, showed children subjected to choking with food, physical hits, restraints, shoves, and other abusive actions. Parents started suspecting foul play when their children came home carrying marks of bruises and injuries, some taking the step to bug their children's backpacks before sending them to Coomes.
With the Delaware County Prosecutor's Office, Mark Sleeper shared his reaction to the disturbing evidence: "Been doing this for a very long time," and confessed that "watching these videos turns my stomach. It's awful what she did to these children." Coomes faces up to 42 years in prison, with sentencing due on Jan. 27, 2025. She changed her plea to guilty after initially pleading not guilty because of insanity and had requested an evaluation back in April, as stated by ABC6.
