Sitter Held in Beating of Baby--It’s on Tape

A 19-year-old baby-sitter was arrested in Palmdale on Tuesday after she was secretly videotaped beating a 2-year-old girl left in her care, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.

Martha Mendez was in custody Tuesday night at the Antelope Valley sheriff’s station on suspicion of willful cruelty to children, Sgt. Ron Spear said. Her bail was set at $20,000.

The child’s father, suspecting that his daughter was being abused, set up his video camera to automatically tape events in the kitchen and family room Monday at his home on Lennox Court, Spear said.

The father, whose name was not released, had become suspicious about the sitter because the child “had become withdrawn and had unexplained bruises” for the last two months, Spear said. Mendez worked for the family as a live-in sitter for the last six months.

When the father returned home late Monday night, he found videotapes showing the sitter throwing the girl to the floor at least once and beating the child with a wooden spoon several times, Spear said.