RICHMOND, Va. — Former NICU nurse Erin Strotman’s defense attorney Ted Bruns told a Henrico judge Thursday that in 2023 when four babies were identified with broken bones in Henrico Doctors' Hospital’s NICU, the hospital “offered opinion” to staff that the bone breaks were due to the babies inherent “fragility.”
“In 2023, 'the prevailing view the hospital commonly held was that these fractures happen in infants due to their fragility,'” Bruns said.
Because of that, Bruns said Strotman “was not able to accurately assess her conduct, so she continued to do what she always had,” when caring for the babies.
He claimed the case was more of a “poor treatment case” than a malice case, and his team saw "no evidence whatsoever that Strotman was attempting or intending to hurt anybody."
Strotman pleaded no contest Thursday to nine counts of class six felony child abuse for harming nine premature babies over a three-year period.
The maximum penalty for the nine charges is 45 years behind bars, but sentencing guidelines suggest a maximum sentence of one day to six months.
Henrico Commonwealth’s Attorney Shannon Taylor negotiated with the defense that the county would seek a maximum sentence of three years in exchange for the pleas.
Strotman had originally faced 20 counts in the case, including multiple counts of malicious wounding.
A no contest plea means she denies intent to harm, but admits there's enough evidence for a conviction.
As CBS 6 was the first to report, multiple babies were found with broken bones in late summer 2023.
Strotman was put on paid leave while Child Protective Services investigated, but no perpetrator was identified at that time.
"Strotman was one of two identified individuals who had contact with all the 2023 victim infants and that was the reason she had been placed out of work by HDH. Notably, the other HDH employee was not taken off of the schedule. The offered reason that Strotman and not the other employee had been removed from the schedule was that her employment in the NICU was for a short duration and the other employee had worked there for more than two decades,” prosecutor Allison Martin wrote in her statement of facts that she presented to the judge.
Martin pointed out in court that Henrico Doctor’s Hospital did not contact the Virginia Department of Health Professions, which oversees nurse licensing, at that time to initiative an investigation.
Strotman was brought back to work in September 2024, and within weeks, three more babies were hurt.
Tears and fiery emotions spilled out from family members of the babies during the plea hearing before Henrico Judge Richard Wallerstein and after it ended.
“If you haven’t seen what she did to my baby on that camera, she is evil,” the grandmother of one of the babies shown in the video yelled as she left the courthouse Thursday.
None of the families spoke against the plea agreement at the hearing.
Taylor told the judge the families understood there would be challenges with the case related to a lack of video evidence for some babies, the hospital's delay in reporting the abuse in 2023, and the care model at Henrico Doctors' Hospital prior to 2024.
"The judge could have found some of these cases not guilty. If there was a not guilty that would have prohibited a family from being able to come forward and participate in the victim impact statement, and we did the best we could to be able to identify a term that both sides would be able to agree on," Taylor said.
Prosecutors said the hospital had no reliable system for tracking who provided nursing care to each infant in 2023.
"There was a large spectrum of behavior and the result of injuries, and obviously a spectrum of the type of evidence that we had. But at the end of the day, she is being held accountable for her actions for all nine babies, and in my opinion, that is a win," Taylor said.
Strotman's attorneys and prosecutors said the prevailing view at the hospital in 2023 was that fractures happen in NICU infants due to their fragility, and staff members were told the fractures happened because of that.
"Henrico doctors and its executive staff, I'm not going to say the nurses, the individual employees, maintained a position that these babies were more vulnerable to this brittle bone disease," said Taylor.
Defense attorney Ted Bruns said because of that viewpoint, Strotman was not able to accurately assess her conduct so she continued to do what she had always done.
He claimed she used a compression motion that is a well-known technique for de-gassing that she learned from a travel nurse.
"This was a performance issue more than anything else," Bruns said.
Videos played in court of Strotman providing care to some of the abused babies showed her forcefully pushing down babies' legs toward their belly. The videos also showed her sitting on the floor while holding a baby she was feeding and then falling over onto her side while still holding the baby.
"I mean, could that be an indication of impairment?” CBS6 investigative reporter Melissa Hipolit asked Bruns.
"All we can tell you is that that's in the eye of the beholder. But during interviews with multiple agency investigators, there was absolutely no indication from anybody who worked with her that they had that concern," Bruns answered.
Prosecutors said that after reviewing the videos, both the former director of the NICU at Henrico Doctors' Hospital and the current NICU director stated they did not believe Strotman was safe to practice nursing.
They also said one of their main experts, Dr. Robin Foster, who is the director of the child protection team at the Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU, would have testified that the injuries the babies suffered are avoidable in the context of a NICU setting.
Prosecutor Allison Martin said that in Foster’s 30 years at VCU, she could recall three fractures total in NICU infants there.Many people have asked why the Commonwealth did not charge employees at Henrico Doctors' Hospital for failing to report suspected child abuse within 24 hours in 2023, as mandated by state law.
Taylor said there was an investigation into the hospital, and she will be able to discuss the details more in depth after sentencing on June 5 at 11 a.m.
Judge Wallerstein will determine Strotman’s sentence at that time.
CBS 6 is committed to sharing community voices on this important topic. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
📲: CONNECT WITH US
Blue Sky | Facebook | Instagram | X | Threads | TikTok | YouTube
