A Duluth woman has entered a Norgaard plea of guilty in Olmsted County District Court after being accused of assaulting a disabled child in her care.
Laura Jean McArthur, 58, was charged in January with malicious punishment of a child, a gross misdemeanor, in addition to two counts of misdemeanor fifth-degree assault. She pleaded guilty May 15 to the punishment charge; sentencing has been set for Nov. 23.
A Norgaard plea means the defendant claims to be unable to recall facts of the case because of intoxication or amnesia.
The investigation began in late September, after a social worker with St. Louis County reported abuse that allegedly occurred while the victim was visiting Mayo Clinic.
McArthur, the child's personal care assistant, accompanied her to Rochester. Part of the care the child received at Mayo Clinic involved continuous video monitoring. While reviewing the videos, it was revealed that McArthur repeatedly had threatened to physically harm the girl when she was misbehaving, the report says.
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McArthur also carried out some of the threats, the complaint continues, by forcibly restraining the victim, slapping her and pinching her face. The woman also allegedly grabbed the child's legs and used them to strike the child's own stomach, bound the girl's hands with a pillow case and forced the victim's hands into her own mouth.
According to the complaint, the victim can be heard screaming at various times during the video. McArthur was "responding to the victim's behavior while being treated for inappropriate aggression," the report says.
McArthur told investigators she didn't remember treating the child that way.
The alleged victim's parents said McArthur had been caring for the girl for about seven years, spending about 20 hours per week with her.
