Moore, Okla. — A 25-year-old woman who ran an unlicensed daycare out of her home in Moore, Oklahoma, has been charged with three counts of child abuse after surveillance video allegedly captured her mistreating two young children in her care, according to court documents and multiple local news reports.
Samantha Pearson was arrested and booked into the Cleveland County jail following an investigation by the Moore Police Department and the District 21 District Attorney’s Office. She is being held on a $300,000 bond, with court-ordered conditions that include GPS monitoring, a prohibition on drug and alcohol use, and no contact with the alleged victims or their families.
What the footage allegedly shows
According to charging documents, home surveillance video from inside Pearson’s daycare — located near North Santa Fe Avenue and Northwest 6th Street, about 10 miles south of Oklahoma City — shows an incident on June 26 in which Pearson allegedly:
- Stuffed wet wipes into the mouths of two children during diaper changes, apparently to stop them from crying, and pushed the wipes back in when a child tried to spit one out
- Grabbed one child who was attempting to crawl away and slammed the child onto a changing table
- Delivered an open-handed slap to that same child after the diaper change
The two children involved are reported to be 3 and 4 years old; charging documents and some early reports referred to them as “infants,” though outlets that obtained the affidavit list their ages as 3 and 4.
No active license
Court records reviewed by local outlets indicate Pearson had not held a valid state childcare license since 2025, and a search of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services licensing database turned up no record of her operating a licensed facility at the time of the alleged abuse. The home daycare has reportedly been shut down since her arrest.
A woman identified as a former client, Brittany Moser-Moxley, told reporters she had previously pulled her own children from Pearson’s care after her son “turned purple and blue” while in Pearson’s care, prompting her to leave work immediately to retrieve him. “I trusted her with my kids,” Moser-Moxley said. “I can’t believe she did that to somebody else’s kids.”
What’s next
A preliminary hearing has reportedly been scheduled for September 29. As with any pending criminal case, Pearson is presumed innocent unless and until she is proven guilty in court, and the allegations described above reflect the accusations contained in charging documents and video evidence cited by investigators — not a judicial finding of fact.
This account is compiled from reporting by News9 (Oklahoma City), Law & Crime, and Radio Oklahoma News, and reflects information available as of early September 2026. Details such as the exact victim ages have been reported inconsistently across outlets; readers should treat those specifics as preliminary pending court proceedings.
Sources:
- Moore woman who ran home daycare charged with child abuse — News9.com
- Daycare owner stuffed kids’ mouths with wet wipes before “slamming” one into table: Police — Law & Crime
- Moore Daycare Worker Charged With Child Abuse — Radio Oklahoma News
- 25-Year-Old Oklahoma Daycare Worker Charged After Allegedly Putting Wet Wipes in Children’s Mouths — Attack of the Fanboy
