Waukegan woman faces prison for kicking child

A Waukegan woman will serve six to 20 years in prison after admitting Friday that she kicked a 7-year-old boy in the abdomen and severed his pancreas.

Veronica Tennort, 33, pleaded guilty to aggravated battery to a child during a hearing before Lake County Circuit Judge Fred Foreman. Assistant State’s Attorney Ari Fisz said Tennort had baby-sat the boy and the boy’s two younger siblings on Aug. 18, 2009 at her residence in the 700 block on Lennox Avenue. A few days later on Aug. 25, Fisz said, the boy was visiting his grandmother in Chicago, and she noticed scars on his back after he complained about abdominal pain.

The woman took the boy to a hospital, Fisz said, where doctors discovered his pancreas had been severed and notified the state Department of Children and Family Services.

Waukegan police investigators interviewed Tennort, Fisz said, and she originally claimed she had hit the boy with a belt for soiling his pants, and the boy had run into a doorknob while trying to escape the beating.

But police confronted Tennort with a statement from a doctor at the Chicago hospital that said the boy had told him “the baby sitter stomped on my stomach,” Fisz said.

Tennort then admitted she had hit the boy with the belt, he fell to the floor and she had kicked him in the side in the area of his abdomen.

The boy is still being treated for the injury, Fisz said.

Tennort originally faced a maximum of 30 years in prison, but Fisz agreed to limit her exposure to 20 years in exchange for the plea.

Tennort, who is held on $500,000 bond, is scheduled to appear in court July 26 to schedule a sentencing date.