Suspect in viral Henderson day care security video faces 3 felony counts

You may remember a disturbing video out of Henderson we showed you in April. A child care center employee was caught on camera appearing to forcefully grab a small child.

Three months later, a former day care worker is accused of being the employee in that video, Heather Heifner appeared in court Wednesday facing three felony counts of child abuse.

She dragged my child around , she shook my child, she threw her behind the door, she brought her in, she humiliated her in front of the entire classroom and she gets to walk out," said Kayla Zomerdyk, the mom of the 3-year-old girl in the video.

Zomerdyk's daughter Lilliana was the one lifted by her arms.

“She still has behavioral issues, she’s in therapy with a specialist that’s dealing with childhood trauma, so she’s dealing with a lot," said Zomerdyk.

Wednesday, Judge Barbara Schifalcqua ordered Heifner to complete an own recognizance (OR) walk-through. This is a process where she is booked, fingerprinted, and has a mug shot taken at the jail, plus pays the bond.

She then can go home and stay out of police custody as long as she follows the judge's conditions.

“You are ordered to have no work whatsoever at any day care facility or babysitting jobs while this case is pending, do you understand that," said Judge Barbara Schifalcqua of Henderson Judicial Court.

The judge also says she can't contact the family directly or through a third party.

Zomerdyk is not the only person with complaints about this facility though.

KTNV did some digging through the Department of Health and Human Services website. We found there haven't been any formal complaints against the day care according to this site, since April 23, 2024. We did find three other complaints with documentation against the facility dating back to September 2022.

All of the complaints claim inappropriate discipline. According to these documents, investigations were conducted and they were not found to be true.

There were also two other complaints in 2016 with no documentation.

“Don’t trust that day care, take your babies out," said Zomerdyk.

KTNV reached out to DJ's Christian Daycare and Preschool Wednesday, they said they had no comment.

In April, the owner and director of the facility Debby Abendroth told Channel 13, she found the incident disturbing, fired the employee and said she too was upset.

She also said at that time, she didn't believe child abuse had occurred because charges had not been filed at the time.

DJ's Christian Daycare and Preschool remains in operation.

Heifner will appear back in court for a preliminary hearing on October 2 at 9:30 a.m.