State Waited Until Charges Were Filed

Friday, June 8th 2007, 4:05 pm

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- State child care workers waited for criminal charges to be filed before closing a day care where a 2-year-old boy would later die, according to a report by the state agency overseeing the Department of Human Services.

DHS officials could have sought an emergency order to close Vicki Chiles' day care without criminal charges filed against her.

Instead, they waited until May 17, a day after Chiles was charged with felony child abuse, to close the operation, according to a report released Thursday by the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth.

By then, 2-year-old Joshua Minton was dying in Chiles' care.

Chiles, 42, admitted to binding Joshua's hands and taping over his mouth with masking tape because he wouldn't be quiet during nap time at her home day care center. She returned to the room Joshua was in to find him unconscious. He died later that night.

DHS spokesman George Johnson said Thursday it's easier to obtain an emergency order to close a day care when criminal charges have been filed against an operator.

He said sometimes district attorneys will say they will file charges and then never do.

Johnson said he thinks there will be changes in how the department goes about shutting down a day care.