Pa. day-care owner charged in toddler’s heat death

PENNDEL, Pa. (AP) — The owner of a suburban Philadelphia day care center has been charged in the death of a toddler left in a hot minivan for hours outside the center last month.

Bucks County authorities today charged Rimma Shvartsman with involuntary manslaughter, a felony, and endangering the welfare of a child and leaving a child unattended in a vehicle.

Authorities have said Shvartsman drove her neighbor, 2-year-old Daniel Slutsky, to the Fairy Tales Daycare Center in Penndel on July 1 but left the boy in the minivan. She returned to the vehicle late that afternoon to find him unresponsive, authorities said.

“She took on a duty of care,” District Attorney Michelle Henry said. “Ultimately, leaving the child strapped into a car seat on a searing hot day for over seven hours amounts to criminal negligence.”

Shvartsman’s attorney, Michael Mustokoff, called the boy’s death a tragedy and said no punishment the state could impose is harsher than the penalty his client is already paying.

“There are no words to express her sadness,” he said. “She loved this boy as a member of her own family.”