Day-care trial stems from girl's injuries

In her photos, Crystal Ly is a smiling, giggling 10-month-old with shiny black hair and adoring parents at her side. She squeals with delight over her first bites of solid food and squirms on her tummy as she learns how to roll.

Today, the life has all but gone out of Crystal. She is immobile, cannot grin, walk, play or talk. She's fed through a tube in her stomach and will never communicate with the world around her.

Police, prosecutors and Crystal's parents place the blame on Thanh Chi Phan, the woman who ran an unlicensed home day-care facility where Crystal spent her days until two years ago. Phan, who is on trial for first-degree assault of a child in King County Superior Court, is accused of shaking and slamming Crystal so hard that the girl was rendered brain dead.

But Phan, through her attorney, has maintained her innocence.

Though the jury is restricted from hearing about the Skyway-area day-care facility's legality, the case highlights the problem of unlicensed home day-care facilities in the state: They go unregulated, uninspected and are largely unknown to authorities.

If convicted, Phan could face a standard range of eight to 10 years in prison.

Finding day care

To learn more about day-care licensing in Washington and to check if a facility is licensed, visit www.del.wa.gov/lccis or call 866-482-4325.

Other tips when looking for day care:

• Visit all the sites you are considering.

• Ask to see the provider's license.

• Find out how many children and adults are on site, and what the age range of the children is — the fewer the children per adult, the better, and the smaller the group, the better.

• Ask what training and education the caregiver has.

• Find out if the caregiver is accredited, which means the caregiver has met voluntary standards that are higher than state licensing requires.

• Talk to other parents at the site.

Source: Washington State Department of Early Learning

The case, expected to last a month, is complex. Prosecutors will try to prove that Crystal's injuries, often referred to by the familiar but medically imprecise term "shaken-baby syndrome," were inflicted by Phan.

Defense attorneys will try to cast doubt over the legitimacy of police interviews of Phan, a Vietnamese immigrant who speaks little English.

During opening statements last week, Deputy Prosecutor Jimmy Hung introduced jurors to Crystal, who had just learned to say "Mama" and "Dada" and had been healthy and developmentally normal all her young life. Crystal's parents, Yen Nguyen and Nhi Ly, are both Vietnamese immigrants who worked at a factory and nail salon and had spotted an ad in a local Vietnamese newspaper for Phan's day-care facility.

They felt lucky to have found Phan, who has three young children of her own and who also watched two other young children besides Crystal. But, Hung said, "their trust was misplaced."

"Very tragic injuries"

Jan. 13, 2005, began like most other days, Hung said. Crystal's mother woke up and played with her daughter, gave her a bottle and kissed her goodbye before leaving for work. The girl's father spent a couple more hours playing with her, then dropped her off at Phan's around lunchtime, Hung said.

About four hours later, Phan placed a hysterical call to 911 saying that Crystal had fallen out of a foot-high bouncy seat and was having trouble breathing, according to the police report.

Paramedics and emergency medical technicians who testified on behalf of the state last week said that as soon as they saw Crystal's behavior and symptoms, which included loss of consciousness and body stiffness, they felt her injuries could not have been due to a fall from such a low seat onto the carpeted floor, and police were called.

Crystal was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, found brain dead upon arrival and rushed into surgery. There, according to Hung and police reports, doctors learned that Crystal had suffered massive brain bleeding and that the right half of her brain had shifted onto the left side, creating immense pressure that pushed down onto her brain stem and caused a stroke. Much of her skull was removed to relieve the pressure.

During the defense's openings, attorney Terri Ann Pollock told jurors that Phan loved Crystal like a family member and had cared for her lovingly since she was 2 months old. She suggested that a police interpreter initially used during Phan's questioning misinterpreted Phan's explanation of events.

"Clearly, Crystal Ly suffered very tragic injuries. But as traumatic as these injuries are ... testimony from all these fancy doctors ... does not mean that Chi Phan intentionally injured this baby," Pollock said.

Unlicensed facility

What jurors likely won't hear during the trial is any testimony about the legitimacy of Phan's day-care facility. King County Superior Court Judge Richard Eadie ruled that such information could prejudice the jury.

According to the state Department of Early Learning, which licenses and investigates day-care facilities, Phan was not licensed to provide care in her home.

Though the majority of home-based day-care facilities are licensed — there are 6,000 in Washington — unlicensed ones are a problem, said Roger Long, special assistant for provider relations and licensing operations. Licensed facilities are inspected regularly, and providers must meet educational guidelines and follow child-provider ratio restrictions.

In Washington, anyone caring for children they aren't related to in their own home as a business must be licensed.

Long said the agency doesn't have an estimate of how many unlicensed day-care facilities are operating.

"It's difficult for us to find out about unlicensed facilities, unless someone complains or something like this happens. This really brings to the forefront how risky it is to use an unlicensed care facility; the rules are there for a reason," he said. "Do your research, that's the message."

Natalie Singer: 206-464-2704.