Kewaskum day care child abuse investigation; woman sentenced to probation
Olivia Hafemann (Left) and Crystall Hafemann (Right)
KEWASKUM, Wis. - A Washington County judge sentenced Crystall Hafemann on March 6 to one year of probation after she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of failure to report child abuse/neglect.
She was also sentenced to six months in jail. However, the judge stayed that sentence.
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Hafemann was accused along with her daughter, Olivia Hafemann, in a child abuse case at Forever Friends Learning Center in Kewaskum.
Olivia pleaded guilty to misdemeanor battery back in February. She was sentenced to one year of probation as well.
Case details
The backstory:
Crystall Hafemann owns Forever Friends Learning Center and her daughter was employed there as a child care provider.
Per a criminal complaint, a Forever Friends Learning Center employee and witness said she observed Olivia Hafemann behaving inappropriately and aggressively towards the children in their care in May of 2024.
The witness said she noticed a mark on a 2-year-old child’s stomach that was being cared for at the facility. She asked the victim what caused the mark, to which the child replied, "Ms. Olivia pushed me."
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Kewaskum day care alleged child abuse; provider sentenced to probation
A Washington County judge sentenced Olivia Hafemann on Tuesday, Feb. 18 to one year probation after she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor battery charge.
The witness said that Olivia Hafemann forcibly sat the child into her chair, pushed the chair toward the table and kicked it, causing the child’s stomach to strike the table. She said she took the child to Crystall Hafemann’s office to discuss the incident, but said Crystall replied that the mark was a rash that was there prior to the incident.
Another employee and witness also noted Olivia had pushed the child into the table, causing the mark. Per the complaint, the victim was holding her left hip and saying "owie."
The second witness said Olivia was rude to the children and aggressive while handing out food.
Parent reaches out
The backstory:
The mother of the child reached out to Crystall Hafemann regarding the mark that evening.
The mother then contacted Crystall about what had happened to her daughter via a Facebook message. The conversation was saved by the mother, and is included below:
Mom: "Hey! I went to give (the child) a bath tonight, and she has some weird bruising on her belly that wasn’t there this morning. Do you know if she fell or got hit or something?"
Crystall: "Olivia mentioned that she was being stubborn about sitting in the chair and was leaning against the table and another child was pushing on the table from the other end."
Mom: "Ok! I just wanted to check. She said it doesn’t hurt. Just looked really strange."
Crystall: "I know they put some ice on it this morning, I apologize that it didn’t get relayed to you. Olivia was trying to get her to sit and push the chair in while the child was pushing on the table at the same time all while she was leaning onto the table."
The mother later had a nurse practitioner look at the bruising in a photo. The nurse practitioner said the bruise could not have been received "simply by the force of another child in that age group" and that it would require a "great deal of force" to cause the injury.
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Child Protective Services Supervisor Beth Wanke later stated that the injury sustained by the child was not reported by Crystall Hafemann to Child Protective Services or to law enforcement, because she said she believed it was a rash.
The Forever Friends Learning Center abruptly closed due to a criminal investigation back in July 2024.
The Source: The information in this post was provided by the Wisconsin Circuit Court Access website as well as information from the criminal complaints associated with this case.