14 DAY TRIAL // A foster mother from Griswold, Connecticut has been found guilty of assault after using a spoon to spank a girl in her care on her buttocks.
The 4-year-old girl's biological mother, Elisabeth Land, reported that the girl had bruises after a visit at the woman's home.
Foster care provider Jami M. Littlefield, 51 pleaded guilty to the charges on Monday. She will be sentenced to serving 100 days in jail and two years of probation, the Day of New London reports.
Land noticed that her daughter was unable to sit properly after visiting her in January, in the presence of a representative of the Department of Children and Families.
“I want the world to know what happened to her (the daughter) because she was in a state-licensed foster home and she suffered these injuries,” Land accuses.
Land explained that she and her husband were unable to care for the girl and her older brother, therefore decided to temporarily leave them in state care.
“We never laid a hand on our kids. [...] We didn't always make the best choices for ourselves. This woman had no intention of getting medical care for these injuries,” she adds.
Littlefield told the court that she hit the girl with a wooden spoon that she was using the prepare soup after the child spat on her and insulted her, making racist remarks. The child also allegedly threatened to kill her.
However, Gary Kleeblatt of the DCF argues that all foster care parents are submitted to training on the proper ways to handle kids misbehaving.
“Foster parents receive extensive training on the proper care of children, including, specifically, how to manage behaviors without resorting to corporal punishment.
“Certainly we expect that they will not use an instrument of any type,” Kleeblatt notes after the incident.
Littlefield, who left the girl with “black and blue” bruises, according to the mother, has had her license to provide foster care suspended.