Judge expunges records of Huntley woman acquitted in day-care case
Despite prosecutors' objections, a McHenry County judge today expunged all official criminal records related to the arrest and trial of a Huntley woman found not guilty of allegations she abused an infant at her home-based day care.
The ruling by Judge Sharon Prather erases from public purview all traces of the criminal case against Eva M. Walton, 34, about 2½ months after a jury acquitted her of an aggravated battery to a child charge she had been facing since May 2005.
Although anyone who would have searched for the case would have learned of the acquittal, Walton lawyer Jamie Wombacher said it is not the kind of information someone would want turning up on a background check.
"It's basically a scarlet letter," Wombacher said. "She doesn't want to be carrying that around with her forever."
Walton has no plans to return to work as a child-care provider, Wombacher added.
The McHenry County state's attorney's office opposed Walton's request to erase the records, citing the seriousness of the allegations and the age of the child involved.
"In our view, there was overwhelming evidence of guilt," said Nichole Owens, chief of the state's attorney's criminal division.
Wombacher, however, said jurors who heard and viewed the evidence concluded Walton was not guilty.
The jury deliberated about 7½ hours before returning the verdict that cleared Walton of claims she violently squeezed and shook a 10-week-old boy in her care, causing dozens of rib fractures, a fractured skull and bleeding inside his head. Jurors found her not guilty even after a U.S. Secret Service agent testified that Walton confessed to him when he was brought into the investigation to give her a lie-detector test.
Walton's defense claimed the agent tricked her into making a false confession.
A lawsuit filed against Walton by the boy's parents, Jolyn and Joseph Schiola, remains pending. The boy, according to trial testimony, did not suffer any permanent injuries from the incident.