Plea deal means brief jail time for abuse of lawmaker’s daughter, other babies at Blaine daycare

Prosecutors have agreed to a brief jail term and probation for a woman caught on video with a fellow staffer violently handling babies at a Twin Cities day care where they worked.

Chloe Kaye Johnson, 25, of Andover, pleaded guilty Monday in Anoka County District Court to felony malicious punishment of a child in connection with the abuse at Small World Learning Center in Blaine, one of nine under the same ownership in various Twin Cities suburbs.

The plea terms include a 30-day jail sentence and five years’ supervised probation.

Co-defendant Elizabeth Augusta Wiemerslage, 24, of Coon Rapids, admitted to aiding and abetting malicious punishment of a child. Wiemerslage was sentenced in May to 90 days in jail and five years’ probation, terms that also were negotiated in a plea deal.

The charges alleged that five babies were abused between October 2023 and July 2024.

Small World’s owner, Anil Jain, told the Minnesota Star Tribune that Johnson and Wiemerslage were fired as soon as the allegations were made.

The Blaine facility’s license was renewed by the state on Jan. 1, 2025, and remains active, according to state Department of Human Services (DHS) online records.

One of the victims noted in the charges is the daughter of State Rep. Nolan West, R-Blaine. West said Tuesday that he attended Monday’s hearing and is “not at all satisfied” that Johnson was offered a month in jail for the incarceration portion of her sentence. He expressed similar disappointment with Wiemerslage’s sentence.

West’s daughter, Sibyl, was barely 9 months old when Johnson’s alleged abuse left the baby with bruising on her abdomen that prevented her from rolling over on her own.

He said Sibyl, now a healthy 2½-year-old, would resist when it came time to drop her off at Small World. The Wests subsequently moved her to a new day care.

According to the charges against both women:

A mother and father told police they picked up their baby July 15, 2024, at the Small World location in the 1300 block of Paul Parkway NE. and noticed fresh bruises on the 5-month-old’s thighs, buttocks and legs. They contacted day care staff, who suggested injuries may have been caused by the baby’s swing.

Under further questioning, Johnson said she was helping the babies learn how to roll over, then admitted she was too rough and might have caused the one infant’s bruising. Wiemerslage also admitted to her abusive actions.

Detectives reviewed surveillance video from inside the day care center and saw Wiemerslage and Johnson abusing three of the five victimized children.

The video captured Johnson as she “grabs [one infant] by her upper thighs, hip and groin area and violently flips [the baby] back and forth from her stomach to her back,” the charges read. “[Her] arms are flailing outward, and her body is consistently rigid as her face contacts the floor mat repeatedly as she is being flipped and her head is unsupported.”

There is no audio on the video as this abuse was occurring, but the baby “appears to be screaming with her mouth open as this is happening,” with Wiemerslage present and facing Johnson.

Video also showed Johnson picking up another infant and holding a cloth to the baby’s mouth and nose in an aggressive manner for several seconds as the child cried. Johnson then gripped the infant by the neck, pulled the baby up by the arm and repeatedly shoved a bottle in the child’s mouth.