HENRICO COUNTY, Va. — A nurse accused of abusing a premature baby at a Henrico County hospital now faces a half dozen new felony charges concerning injuries suffered by that child and two additional infants.
A grand jury returned six indictments against Erin Strotman on Monday, according to court documents. That includes two new counts of malicious wounding and four counts of child abuse.
The offense dates for the new charges are Oct. 29, Nov. 10, and Nov. 13, all in 2024.
Strotman is now accused of abusing three babies.
Strotman, a former nurse in the Henrico Doctors’ Hospital NICU, was previously charged with felony counts of malicious wounding and child abuse in connection with a fracture suffered by a baby on November 10, 2024.
The new charges related to that baby, who prosecutors refer to as baby YH, involve incidents that happened on the same day.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor said she plans to move the two original charges involving baby YH over to circuit court.
“The law allows us to charge three different periods of time and we believe that each of those periods of time reflect some criminal conduct,” Taylor said.
Strotman spent a month in jail before being granted bond last month.
Taylor said Monday’s court appearance was not the appropriate time to contest Strotman’s bond.
If the prosecutors decide to do that, they will do so at her next court date which is scheduled for March 20.
Watch: Henrico Commonwealth attorney Shannon Taylor updates nurse abuse case
As CBS 6 has previously reported, Strotman was placed on paid administrative leave in 2023 after the hospital conducted an internal investigation into four cases of babies that had suffered broken bones, and found that she had had contact with all of the infants in question. However, Child Protective Services documents obtained by CBS 6 show that investigators ultimately could not definitively prove Strotman was responsible for the abuse.
CBS6 asked Taylor if those 2023 cases could also result in criminal charges.
“If we believe that we have evidence to show this pattern of behavior is not lawful, there is argument that one can say well then these patterns of behavior are also unlawful. That is something that is being worked on right now,” Taylor said.
CBS6 reporter Melissa Hipolit asked Strotman if she had anything she wanted to say after Monday’s court appearance, and she did not respond.
This is a developing story. Email the CBS 6 Newsroom if you have additional information to share.
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