BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
STARKE— A daycare worker who escaped child abuse charges seven years ago is now facing new allegations of abusing children.
In 2015, a witness said she saw Robyn Kelli Bryant, now 52, pick up a four-year-old by the throat and kick the child from inside a daycare facility out onto a playground.
The State Attorney’s Office later dropped those charges after the defendant fulfilled her obligations in a pretrial intervention agreement.
Last week, Bryant was arrested again, this time for three counts of child cruelty allegedly occurring at the same facility where the 2015 incident occurred.
According to a warrant affidavit, Starke Police Detective Courtney Personette said she saw Byant on video abusing children on three separate occasions at Bradford Preschool.
The preschool, across Washington Street from Bradford High School, was closed earlier this year after Florida’s Department of Children and Families suspended its license.
Personette wrote in the affidavit that police obtained the video on Sept. 3, 2021, after a parent filed a child abuse complaint with Starke police.
The detective added that on four occasions from Aug. 10 to 20, she observed the defendant acting violently toward children in her class.
“On August 10th, 2021, at approximately 1127 hours, Robyn throws a bottle at a child who is sitting on his sleep mat,” Personette wrote. “The child begins crying. Robyn then walks over to the child and forcefully slams the child onto his back, which then caused him to hit his head on the ground. Next, Robyn shoves the bottle into the child’s mouth while he is still on his back. The child’s name is unknown at this time.”
The detective added that the following day, the defendant was recorded on video shaking a ruler at children in a threatening manner.
“On August 18th, 2021, at approximately 1007 hours, Robyn places a child, identified as (name redacted) by her mother, on a desk so forcefully that her ponytail rises above the top of her head and she begins crying,” the detective wrote.
“On August 19th, 2021, Robyn picks (a child) up by one arm, at which point (the child’s) feet come off of the ground and Robyn carries her across the room…Robyn then forcefully throws (the child) down onto her sleeping mat, by the arm, and (the victim) lands in a prone position on the mat. Robyn walked
away from (the victim) for a moment and then comes back to her, takes her shoe off, and shakes it at (the child) in a threatening manner.”
Personette added that on August 20th, a child was recorded laying down on her sleeping mat when the defendant walked over to the mat, placed her foot on the mat and forcefully slid the mat into the wall, causing (the child) to hit her head on the wall.
The detective wrote that she interviewed parents to identify victims and ask them if they wanted charges pressed against the defendant.
