NYC daycare owner arrested after toddler dies of likely opioid overdose
Luke Gentile
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A daycare owner in the New York borough of the Bronx was arrested on multiple charges, including murder, on Sunday following the suspected opioid overdose death of a 1-year-old boy.
Authorities arrested 36-year-old Grei Mendez, the owner of Divino Nino Daycare, after the death of 1-year-old Nicholas Dominici and the hospitalization of three more young children, according to a report.
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Dominici and the other children were believed to have been exposed to opioids, and emergency officials treated them with Narcan.
“It’s a tragedy for the children. It’s a tragedy for her because I don’t believe she’s involved in what happened, so it’s really bad all around for everybody,” Andres Aranda, Mendez’s attorney, said.
The cousin of Mendez’s husband and her rentee, 41-year-old Carlisto Acevedo Brito, was arrested along with the daycare owner, according to the report.
One kilogram of fentanyl and two kilogram presses were found at the daycare, and another kilogram press was discovered in Brito’s bedroom. It was also reported that at least one of the three children who survived tested positive for fentanyl.
Brito was renting from Mendez for approximately $200 a month, but Aranda maintains that Mendez had no knowledge of any illicit activity.
“The way those kids got hurt, I think, is something that nobody, nobody deserves that. No mother, no grandmother,” one neighbor, identified as Joanne Martinez, said.
“As a father, you always trust other people to take care of your kids when you go to work,” Hailey Rivera, another neighbor, said. “This is the last thing you could possibly think would happen to your son.”
Divino Nino Daycare passed a city inspection earlier this month, according to the report.
“The city’s going to have to step up more and go through every daycare and investigate them good, because the way things happened in there, I don’t think it was right,” Martinez said.
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Both Mendez and Brito are facing over 10 charges, respectively, including criminal possession of a narcotic, endangering the welfare of a child, and murder, the report noted.
Brito is slated to be arraigned soon, and Mendez is due in court on Thursday.