HENRICO COUNTY, Va. — A nurse accused of abusing vulnerable infants at a western Henrico County hospital now faces more criminal charges.
Erin Strotman was served with six new indictments Tuesday, and now officially stands accused of hurting four different babies from 2022 to 2024.
She has also been charged with class 6 felony child abuse and neglect related to the treatment of a fifth baby, but that child was never injured, according to prosecutors.
Strotman, a former nurse in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital, was first arrested in January and charged with injuring a baby in the NICU in November of 2024.
A grand jury then indicted her on new charges last month.
One of the babies at the center of the new charges is a baby that Strotman was already charged with allegedly hurting, but two of the babies are new.
The first of the two new babies was injured while in the Henrico Doctors’ Hospital’s NICU between July and September of 2022, and the second was injured while there between October and November of 2024.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor said her office became aware of the 2022 baby when the family and their civil attorneys reached out to her office after the news about Strotman’s arrest broke.
“That was in large part because of the efforts of the civil attorneys who were able to have documents reviewed very quickly, and we are very appreciative of their assistance in that matter,” Taylor said.
Taylor said nobody contacted Child Protective Services (CPS) back in 2022 about that baby’s injuries so a criminal investigation did not occur at that time.
“Certainly when you’re talking about a process where mandated reporters are supposed to notify the agency who oversees whatever area we are covering, and there is a failure to do that, that is always concerning,” Taylor said.
Her office has still not brought any charges related to the four babies that were found with fractures in 2023, but she said detectives are still diligently investigating those cases.
“We are getting there,” Taylor said when asked about the 2023 babies. “I can’t get into the details about what the process is that we may be engaging in as to why we are going forth and presenting the 2023 babies in a different way.”
Cameras were installed in the NICU at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital after those babies’ injuries were discovered.
That video evidence has helped prosecutors charge Strotman in connection with the 2024 babies, but even without video evidence, Taylor said they were confident bringing charges related to the 2022 baby.
Strotman is currently free on bond. She is scheduled to return to court on Wednesday to be arraigned on the latest charges.
Strotman has elected to have a bench trial in this case, which means that when the trial takes place, it will just be a judge, not a jury, that hears the arguments.
As CBS 6 has previously reported, Strotman was placed on paid administrative leave in 2023 after the hospital conducted an internal investigation into multiple 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 abuse.
Watch: NICU doctor sounded alarm about babies with broken bones. Why didn’t hospital call CPS right away?
CBS 6 is following this story. Click here to email the CBS 6 Newsroom.
📲: CONNECT WITH US
Blue Sky| Facebook| Instagram| X| Threads| TikTok| YouTube
