HP Daycare employee charged with child endangerment in September death of infant

A Martinsville woman has been charged in the Sept. 10, 2014 death of an infant at a Highland Park daycare facility. Tanya Choy, 36, has been charged with child endangerment in connection with the tragic incident. Bail was set at $10,000.  Ms. Choy could not be reached for comment, and at press time, the Highland Park Planet was unable to determine if Ms. Choy had legal counsel or if bail had been posted.

The only information released by the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office on Monday about the case came as a statement given to the Highland Park Planet. The statement revealed that an autopsy was unable to determine the cause of the infant’s death, but it gave no indication why officials consider Ms. Choy to be criminally responsible.

Jim O’Neill, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, did not return several calls seeking comment. What officials have said is that police were dispatched to the Above and Beyond Child Care Center on South Third Avenue at 2:19 p.m. Sept. 10. Police arrived to find the infant “in distress.” The statement failed to disclose what “in distress” entailed.

Police took the infant to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, where he was pronounced dead at 2:45 p.m. The infant and his family have not publicly been identified.

Above and Beyond provides day care for children from 6 weeks old through preschool age from 7 am to 6 pm, weekdays, year-round, in space located within the Highland Park Conservative Temple- Congregation Anshe Emeth at 201 South Third Avenue.

It was unclear whether Ms. Choy remains employed at Above and Beyond. The day care’s web site lists only Director Sharon Raven on its staff page, and no daycare spokesperson would comment.