Lawsuit filed against Lexington SC day care center, ex-employees in child abuse case

The guardian of a child whose leg was allegedly broken while at a state-licensed Lexington County day care center has sued the center and three former employees, according to a lawsuit filed in Lexington County state civil court.

Erika Garcia, guardian of child “N.Q.,” has alleged that on March 11, former Windsor Academy employee Shayna McKnight twisted N.Q.’s “leg into a pretzel and then threw N.Q. over the rail of her crib while holding onto her leg,” the lawsuit alleged.

N.Q. was a 10-month old girl at the time of the incident, said attorney Marion M. Moses, who, with attorney Brady Thomas, filed the lawsuit against the day care center.

After McKnight and the other two defendants in the lawsuit — Amy Marie Grice and Jeannie Locklear — realized the child’s leg was injured, they “attempted to cover up the incident by attempting to destroy video of the incident and creating a false narrative as to how the incident occurred,” the lawsuit said.

Also named as a defendant in the lawsuit is H&H Inc. of South Carolina, the corporate owner of Windsor Academy.

Employees of H&H declined to comment when a reporter with The State newspaper called.

McKnight, Grice and Locklear all face criminal charges in the incident brought by the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department in late April.

McKnight, 36, is charged with inflicting great bodily harm on a child. Grice, 38, and Locklear, 49, are both charged with obstructing justice.

All have been released on $15,000 bond, according to court records.

Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon said after the arrests that detectives investigating the case asked to see day care video and Grice and Locklear told them that “the camera system wasn’t working when the child was injured.”

But, Koon said, detectives “eventually recovered the video and determined both women took steps to delete the video after they watched it.”

The video shows McKnight forcefully folding the child’s legs under her body and flipping the child into a crib, Koon said.

Video also showed the child crawling and playing “without any visible pain before the incident,” then crying and unable to put weight on the leg after the incident, Koon said.

Court records show that only Grice has a lawyer, Stephen “Chip” Burn Jr., of Lexington. He could not be reached for comment.

Suzanne Mayes, 11th Circuit deputy solicitor, is prosecuting the case.

Windsor Academy is located on Old Cherokee Road between the northern edge of the town of Lexington and Lake Murray.

State Department of Social Services records said the facility is licensed to care for 144 children, including 67 infants.

In a May 1 Facebook post for Windsor Academy, owner Elaine Harkey, wrote, “The safety of the children in our care has always been our number one priority. I would rather die myself than to see any child harmed.

“Recent allegations of events at Windsor Academy are extremely distressing to us, and they do not reflect our values or the principles upon which the center was founded. We trust the judicial system to determine the circumstances and appropriately address these allegations.”

This story was originally published May 19, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Lawsuit filed against Lexington SC day care center, ex-employees in child abuse case."