Bella Kuykendall, now 3, with her mother Kaitlin Kuykendall, an Army spouse. (Kaitlin Kuykendall)
The parents of a toddler who was physically abused by employees at a Navy child care center in Hawaii filed suit Monday in federal court seeking damages for what they say was government negligence.
Jeremy Kuykendall and Kaitlin Kuykendall are seeking unspecified damages for themselves and their daughter, Bella, who was 15 months old in 2022 when she was abused by employees at the Ford Island Development Center in Pearl Harbor.
The Kuykendalls’ administrative claim denied by the Navy in May sought $60 million in damages; the lawsuit does not specify an amount.
Video footage from the child’s three days at the center in August 2022 revealed that employees pinched, slapped, squeezed, shook and smothered the toddler.
Analyn DeGuzman and Marilyn Kanekoa both pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charge of assault in the third degree. Their sentences included less than a month in jail and a permanent ban from working around children.
The complaint contends that the government was negligent for multiple reasons.
Among them: failure to exercise reasonable care in hiring; failure to conduct adequate and timely background checks of employees; failure to train staff; failure to remove staff to prevent harm; failure to provide regular and continuous monitoring of the closed-circuit television cameras to protect children from harm; and failure enforce policies and procedures.
The Kuykendalls moved into military housing on Ford Island Luke Field with their two daughters in December 2021, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court for Hawaii.
In August 2022, Jeremy, an Army captain, was preparing to deploy to the Philippines, while Kaitlin began a new job at an elementary school, the complaint states.
Bella was excited and happy for her first day of day care on Aug. 22, according to the complaint.
But the following day as her mother walked her to the classroom, Bella’s “face went from smiling to visibly afraid,” the complaint states.
The Kuykendalls withdrew Bella from the day care after the third day when the toddler exhibited stark behavioral changes, including increased fearfulness, separation anxiety and “night terrors,” the complaint states.
Video surveillance cameras at the day care had recorded routine abuse of Bella by De Guzman and Kanekoa over the three-day period, but the Kuykendalls did not get access to that footage for many months, the complaint states.
On the morning of Aug. 26, the parents brought their concerns to the day care’s director, Rhodora Kunzweiler, who later that day called them to report that video footage revealed Bella had been “inappropriately touched,” the complaint states.
Kunzweiler offered to let the Kuykendalls view some of that footage, but she withdrew the offer after the parents contacted the military police concerning the abuse, according to the complaint.
Not until four months later did the Kuykendalls get full access to videos and learn the full extent of abuse.
They spent hundreds of hours reviewing 75 hours of footage from multiple angles that revealed their daughter had been isolated, mishandled, neglected and assaulted by caregivers, the complaint states.
“As a direct and proximate result of the Government’s negligence and its failure to exercise reasonable care, [Bella] was subjected to repeated acts of abuse and neglect, causing her to suffer severe and lasting physical injuries, emotional distress, psychological trauma, developmental setbacks, and other damages,” the complaint states.
The parents have “suffered severe and lasting emotional distress, psychological trauma” and other damages, the complaint states.
