How Could You? Hall of Shame-Margaret Bottone

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Middlebury, Connecticut, former child abuse investigator and foster parent Margaret Bottone, 52, “was arrested Tuesday [March 9, 2021] and charged with four offenses, including felony first-degree assault and risk of injury to a child, court records show.

In early December, the baby boy suffered three skull fractures, seizures and bleeding on his brain and in his eye — injuries that a series of doctors independently concluded could only have been caused by “significant shaking” and traumatic injury in the 24 hours before he was hospitalized, according to court records.

Bottone adamantly denied she or her family could be responsible for the child’s injuries when she spoke with investigators, but an FBI review of her search history in weeks and days before the child was taken to the hospital reveal she repeatedly searched for information online about infant head injuries, shaken baby syndrome and even child abuse charges in Connecticut.

“It doesn’t matter what happens [redacted]. Right now my concern is baby’s safety and recovery, However I’m pretty sure I’m going to jail,” Bottone texted her adult son from Yale New Haven Hospital the night the child was brought in for treatment, court records show.
Bottone worked for about 18 months at DCF, first as an ongoing services worker and later an investigator, before resigning in late October, DCF officials said.

A short time later a young woman with whom Bottone previously had worked with as a therapeutic mentor before joining DCF asked Bottone to foster her infant son. Bottone enthusiastically agreed, telling investigators later she was “overjoyed” to take the baby in, and she took custody of the child from DCF in early November, court records show.

Less than a month later, though, Bottone and her husband brought the child to the hospital the night of Dec. 5 after he waffled unusually between extreme crying and deep sleep and was unable to suck on his bottle and eat, according to an arrest warrant affidavit detailing the investigation.

Doctors at Yale treated the child for three separate skull fractures that could only have been caused by multiple impacts, not if the infant was accidentally dropped, and reported that he suffered from brain and retina bleeding caused by severe shaking, multiple medical professionals at Yale and in Waterbury told investigators.

The night before, the baby boy was cared for by Bottone’s husband and adult son while she worked a night shift at a Meriden group home. They fed the baby twice during the night, together each time, and were relieved by Bottone when she returned the next morning so the husband could go to sleep and adult son could finish college school work, court records show.

Bottone grew concerned with the baby’s deep sleeping and difficulty sucking from his bottle as the day wore on and eventually convinced her husband they should take the child to the hospital for evaluation, they told investigators. Her husband initially thought she was being overly cautious until she reported back to him over text message, because COVID-19 restrictions prohibited him from also entering the hospital, that doctors had intubated the baby and diagnosed his serious injuries.

Both her husband and adult son, whom she also messaged were horrified and confused, according to messages obtained by police. Bottone told investigators she slammed on her brakes to avoid a deer while driving earlier in the week with the baby in a car seat, jerking both of them in their seats and causing him to cry, but she believed that did not cause his injuries.

Bottone and her husband also suggested the child could have been injured during a supervised visit with his biological mother three days earlier, after which he had vomited “violently,” they told investigators. But DCF employees present for the visit said the boy was never alone with his mother and that nothing happened that day that could have caused his injuries. Doctors further concluded the injuries must have occurred within 24 hours of his hospitalization, court records show.

Investigators seized Bottone, her husband and her son’s phones to be examined by FBI analysts, who discovered in January that Bottone had made dozens of online searches about infant head injuries in the two weeks before the baby was brought to the hospital and browsed a series of pages about infant injuries that day, according to the warrant affidavit.

As early as Nov. 21 Bottone’s search history included “what happens if you hit a baby’s soft spot” and “baby hit soft spot on my chin,” court records show.

Over the next three days she searched online for “brain swelling,” “brain contusion” and “cranial swelling,” “shaken baby syndrome” and “how long for brain swelling to go down,” the FBI found.

“Can a baby remember being abused,” Bottone searched on Dec. 1, records show.

She made another 50 online searches the day the baby was hospitalized about the way the baby was acting and various baby injuries, including another search about if babies can remember abuse and the amount of force necessary to cause shaken baby syndrome, according to court records.

The searches turned toward criminality the following morning, including “child sbuse (sic) charges in ct” and “do convicted felons get preventative care,” records show.

Bottone’s husband’s web history included no such searches and her son’s online activity the night he helped care for the child was only related to his schoolwork, police found.

Additional text messages by Bottone showed she told her adult son not to talk to anyone but his father about the incident because police and DCF would be investigating, according to records. She told him to be “honest” but not to provide investigators with other family members’ contact information.

DCF officials confirmed Friday that Bottone resigned from the agency on Oct. 23 and had no disciplinary history during her tenure. They said they are “aware of the allegations” against Bottone but declined to comment further.

Bottone told investigators she left the agency because of the stress of the job, tensions with a supervisor and lack of training due to COVID-19 restrictions, court records show. DCF records indicate she received 217.5 hours of training, a spokesman said.

Bottone was released from jail on $100,000 bond and is scheduled to appear March 24 in Superior Court in Waterbury. She has not yet entered a plea.”

Former Connecticut child abuse investigator arrested on abuse charges after infant suffers skull fractures, brain bleeding
[Hartford Courant 3/12/21 by Zack Murdock]

According to Connecticut court records, Margaret will be arraigned on April 7, 2021.

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