May 5, 2009 7:11 pm US/Eastern
Arsenal Of Weapons Found Under L.I. Daycare Center
Upstairs, 12 Children Played; Downstairs, A Hiding Place For Tec-9 Semi-Automatic, Shotguns, Loads Of Ammo
HUNTINGTON, N.Y. (CBS) ―
A Long Island daycare center was stripped of its license and shuttered by the state on Tuesday after a police raid uncovered a stash of illegal loaded weapons in the unlocked basement. The weapons were unsecured in a yellow laundry bag.
Kathryn Smith, 50, owner and operator of the "Just In Time Day Care Center," was arrested.
Prosecutors said the arsenal of shotguns, handguns, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition belonged to Smith's son, a reputed member of the Bloods street gang, and that when he was jailed recently, Smith and her husband moved them to the daycare for safekeeping.
It's a charge her attorney, J. Stewart Moore, vehemently denies.
"A Tec-9 machine pistol, loaded 30 rounds, can you imagine what a young kid could have done if he had gotten that?" Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said.
The facility inside Smith's Lantern Street home had been licensed to care for 12 young children. Parents and grandparents who live on her street and who dropped off their kids from time to time reacted.
"Horrified, completely dismayed," Helena Bostick said. "I didn't hear any parents complaining. She had the daycare for quite a few years."
"She's a decent refined lady. The kids, she marched them like a little school and I was so proud of her," Phemie Zervos said.
Kathryn Smith and her husband, David, pleaded not guilty to illegal weapons possession and conspiracy. Police said the couple has two younger children who were also at risk along with Smith's daycare children in her charge.
In Nassau County two months ago, a child in a daycare died after taking a carrot out of a teacher's bag and choking.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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