Huntley day-care operator accused of abuse denies charges on stand

A former Huntley day-care operator blamed for a series of grave injuries suffered by an infant left in her home testified Monday that she never harmed the boy and that a U.S. Secret Service agent tricked her into a false confession.

Eva M. Walton spent about 3½ hours on the witness stand in a McHenry County courtroom, denying the allegations that have her on trial on a charge of aggravated battery to a child. The jury deciding the case is expected to hear closing arguments and begin deliberations Tuesday morning.

The charge, punishable by six to 30 years in prison if jurors find her guilty, alleges she violently shook and squeezed the 10-week-old boy in May 2005, causing at least 19 rib fractures, a broken leg, a skull fracture and bleeding inside his skull. The boy, the only child in Walton's care at that time, also suffered a burned tongue and badly bruised penis while in the home-based day care, authorities allege.

Now more than 4 years old, the boy is not suffering any permanent or lingering effects from the injuries.

Walton, 34, repeatedly answered "no" Monday as her defense attorney, Mark Gummerson, listed each of the injuries and asked whether she caused it.

The stood by her account through a tough, two-hour cross-examination in which Nichole Owens, criminal division chief for the McHenry County State's Attorney, attacked her claims that U.S. Secret Service Agent Brad Beeler duped her into giving a written statement admitting she harmed the infant.

Walton gave the statement May 26, 2005, while preparing for a lie-detector test to be administered by Beeler under a federal edict requiring Secret Service agents to assist local police in cases involving harm to a child.

Beeler testified last week he called off the exam after Walton broke down sobbing and confessed during pretest preparations.

Walton, however, told jurors Monday she only wrote the statements after Beeler wrote them first and then told her to copy his writing as part of pretest process.

"I copied what he told me to copy. I signed what he told me to sign," she said.

"Do you believe Special Agent Beeler tricked and deceived you?" Gummerson asked.

"Yes," Walton replied. "I went there for a polygraph exam. I did what he told me to do. Then he told me I had made a confession."

Under the prosecutor's questioning, however, Walton admitted that her husband met with Beeler before she did and returned without any complaints about the agent's tactics.