ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 8, 1996 TAG: 9612090072
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: HAMPTON
SOURCE: Associated Press
A woman convicted of beating her son will be able to continue running a small home-based day care center, a court order says.
In Friday's decision, Chantel Robinson-Ellison will still be allowed to run a home day care as long as she does not care for more than five children at a time and no more than four of the children are under 2. Robinson-Ellison was convicted in 1989 of assault and battery on her son.
To care for any more children requires a state license, and Robinson-Ellison would be ineligible because of the conviction, according to the state attorney general's office.
But the day care center can continue operating as long as it is not large enough to require licensing. ``There's no prohibition under the law at this point,'' said Cheryl Wilkerson, an assistant attorney general based in Virginia Beach.
Wilkerson filed for an injunction in Hampton this week on behalf of the Virginia Department of Social Services, asking the court to immediately stop Robinson-Ellison from running a day care center in her Hampton Woods town home.
The complaint stated that licensing investigators had repeatedly found too many children under her care.
In addition, Robinson-Ellison's 14-year-old son, who is a convicted sex offender, was living in the home. Virginia law bars sex offenders from living in the same home where day care is provided, no matter how large the operation. Because of that, Robinson-Ellison now also faces a misdemeanor charge in Hampton District Court.
The son, the same son Robinson-Ellison was convicted of assaulting, was convicted of sexual battery in August 1995.
The injunction allows the state up to three unannounced visits a day to make sure Robinson-Ellison complies.
Her attorney, Theophlise Twitty, said after the hearing that Robinson-Ellison intended to comply with the injunction, including not having a convicted felon in her home at the same time as operating a day care center.
Twitty would not say whether that meant Robinson-Ellison's son would not be allowed in the home or whether she would stop running a day care center.
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