Judge puts day-care worker in prison
The Rocky Mountain News | October
25, 2000
Relatives of 3-year-old Hunter Rodriquez shared tears and hugs Tuesday after his former day-care provider was sentenced to five years in prison for leaving him brain-damaged. "Justice prevails," the boy's father, Greg Rodriguez, said after a judge refused to grant probation to Shawna Pint. Pint, 31 of Aurora pleaded guilty in June to negligent child abuse. At a sentencing hearing in September, the boy's father urged that Pint be sent to prison for the maximum term of eight years. District Judge John Leopold had put off imposing sentence until Tuesday so Pint could request acceptance into Arapahoe County's community corrections program. She was rejected. The sentencing came two years and five days after Hunter was injured while in Pint's care. Doctors saidhe was shaken so severely that his brain was damaged and the retinas in his eyes became detached. Hunter, who initially was in a coma, has made dramatic progress since doctors told his parents that he might not improve much. "I accepted that, and then he got better," said his mother, Jacqueline Rodriguez. She said Hunter has permanent brain damage but can walk and talk. He no longer is blind but has impaired vision. "He's a miracle," she said. Pint never admitted that she shook Hunter, who was 14 months old at the time. "That simply could not have caused the severe retinal hemorrhaging that he had," Hower said.
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