Cynthia Davis throws her support behind day-care providers charged with child abuse

O’Fallon loon (and Missouri state Rep.) Cynthia Davis is dangerous.

Davis is often the butt of jokes around here. But make no mistake, Davis is powerful even if she appears folksy and dumb. As the Children and Families Committee in the Missouri Legislature, she’s the gatekeeper who decides which bills get a hearing and which die in the committee. And so far, she’s locked the gate on on H.B.

1534, a bill that would stop unlicensed child care providers from babysitting children while they’re facing criminal charges such as child abuse.

The bill — sponsored Rep. Linda Fischer, a Democrat from Bonne Terre — is also called Sam Pratt’s Law, named for a 3-month-old boy who died while in the care of an unlicensed day-care provider in February 2009. Pratt’s autopsy report said he died from “non-accidental head trauma.”

His sitter, Martha Farris, is charged with abuse of a child resulting in death and

involuntary manslaughter. Her trial is scheduled for October.

In an e-mail, Sam Pratt’s aunt Amanda Thrasher tells The Pitch that in the

five-and-a-half months Farris was being investigated, she was still

babysitting other children whose parents had no way of knowing about the charges

against her. Thrasher adds that police even asked Farris to stop

babysitting, but she retained an attorney and found out there’s a loophole that allows unlicensed day-care providers to keep babysitting when facing criminal charges.