Tennessee mom gets $700,000 in settlement of son's day care burn case

Jet, August 11, 2003

A child whose skin peeled off his hands after he suffered from unexplained burns at a Chattanooga, TN, day care center last March will receive more than $700,000 from a lawsuit settlement.

The settlement, which as designed will total $838,437, includes a $100,000 payment for attorneys of the victim's mother, Crystal Johnson, with payouts for the child starting in 2013 and continuing through 2041.

Richard Marcus, an attorney representing Horatio Lee, the owner of the privately owned day care center, Imani Cultural University, LLC, agreed the base $300,000 settlement which will grow from interest earnings, is "in the best interest of the child ..." The settlement does not acknowledge any negligence.

At JET press time the center and school was padlocked for the summer.

A police report shows that on March 18, 2002, the day then 14-month-old Jaylen Johnson's burns were discovered, his mother dropped him off at day care, around 9 a.m.

Tiffany Lewis, a center employee, previously told authorities that she fed Jaylen and washed his face and hands. At about 10:15 a.m., as she dried his hands with a paper towel, skin on Jaylen's right hand peeled off from the wrist down. His left hand was blistered and peeling. The child started crying and the center owner drove him to a hospital.

Emergency room doctors said they were not sure what happened. A child protective services worker and a state day care case worker who investigated were also baffled, unable to find any evidence the day care center was responsible. Lab tests showed no sign of any chemical on Jaylen's skin samples, and police did not find evidence of a possible cause during their walk-through of the Johnson home.

Crystal Johnson contended in the suit that her son was scalded because of the center's negligence. She said Jaylen has suffered physically and also emotionally from ridicule by other children when they see the scars and skin grafts.