Warning: The article contains graphic descriptions of physical child abuse.

 

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW)- The Montgomery County Grand jury has indicted a licensed practitioner nurse accused of physically abusing a 6-year-old disabled girl.

Lori Elaine Johnson, 62, was served a sealed indictment on Tuesday, November 20 and booked into the Montgomery County Jail charged with five counts of aggravated child abuse (victim under 8-years-old).

According to an arrest warrant, on June 4, 2019, at 11:25 a.m, Detective Lisa Fatula followed up on allegations of child abuse/neglect at a home on Windhaven Court.

Johnson worked as an LPN for Suncrest, a local home health care provider. The alleged victim is a 6-year-old girl who suffers from a significant handicap due to a brain injury sustained in a car wreck when she was 2-years-old. The child is non-verbal and non-ambulatory, the warrant said.

The girl’s foster mother showed the detective surveillance of Johnson physically abusing her daughter on two separate occasions.

On June 3, 2019, at 6:30 a.m. the child was sitting in her bed and Johnson was standing at her bedside. The child was then observed sitting back suddenly as though she’d been pushed back against the bed. A short time later, Johnson is observed throwing an object at the girl and hitting her in the face and head area.

On June 4, 2019, at 7:15 a.m., the child is observed in a video sitting on the edge of the bed and Johnson is standing in front of her. The little girl’s head is seen violently jerking as if she’d been hit or shoved. Johnson allegedly picked the child up and threw her to the ground.  The child hit the ground and began to cry.

Her foster mother reported she heard a thud from the other room and then looked in the room. She immediately went to look at the video surveillance to view what happened. When she saw what occurred she called the nurse’s supervisor and police.

In the indictment, Johnson is accused of abusing the child on May, 28, 29, and 30, 2019.

Johnson was arrested in June and charged with felony child abuse and posted a $25,000 bond. Her charges were upgraded in the October term of the Montgomery County grand jury and she remains out on the same bond.