Day care worker to be sentenced for drugging toddlers

CINCINNATI - Up to six months in prison could be the sentence handed down Wednesday morning to a former day care worker convicted of drugging toddlers to get them to sleep.

Donna Scott, 42, of Elmwood Place will be sentenced on three counts of endangering children during a 9 a.m. hearing in a Hamilton County courtroom.

Scott and her boss were arrested last March for giving at least four children the dietary supplement melatonin at the Covenant Apostolic Church Day Care Center in Springfield Township.

Charges say Scott laced the young children's candy and baby formula with melatonin to get them to go to sleep faster.

The drug was given to the youngsters for over six months.

A jury convicted Scott on three counts of child endangering earlier in September.

Scott's boss, Pamela Hartley of Whitewater Township, has already been sentenced to serve six months on the same charges, but is now appealing.

Reports say the day care center has been closed and all the workers, including Scott and Hartley, have lost their jobs.

Some of the parents of the children have already filed civil lawsuits.

Stay with 9 News and WCPO.com for the latest on this sentencing.