By Bethany Hooper

Associate Editor

Plea negotiations are underway for a former childcare worker charged with neglect and failure to report child abuse following an investigation into an infant classroom at the Berlin Activities Depot.

While a jury trial was scheduled to start Wednesday, a circuit court judge earlier this week granted a motion to postpone proceedings in the case against Catherine Deutsch, 32, of Ocean Pines, who was arrested earlier this summer on 11 charges of failure to report child abuse/neglect and four charges of neglect of a minor stemming from a child abuse investigation at the Berlin daycare center. In her motion to the court, Worcester County Assistant State’s Attorney Pam Correa noted that “the parties are engaging in plea negotiations and have arranged additional proffer sessions in order to reach an agreement.”

Last November, the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office launched an investigation into the Berlin Activities Depot after law enforcement and Child Protective Services were notified of an eight-month-old who had been admitted to Atlantic General Hospital with a broken tibia. The sheriff’s office alleged that video footage of the infant classroom revealed Heather Ward, 40, of Berlin, had caused the child’s injuries and showed other concerning interactions with several other infants under her supervision.

As a result, a grand jury in March indicted Ward on 90 charges, including 10 felony counts of child abuse and 80 misdemeanor counts of second-degree assault. And in June, Deutsch, who worked alongside Ward in the infant classroom, was arrested on 15 misdemeanor charges.

Ward now awaits sentencing after entering an Alford plea to nine misdemeanor counts of second-degree assault. In her motion this week, Correa acknowledged plea negotiations are also moving forward in Deutsch’s case.

Deutsch’s trial has been rescheduled to Nov. 12-13.