Results of day-care raid reported

Police returned the results of a search conducted at a Herriman day-care center where the owner and two employees were arrested last week.

According to a search warrant affidavit filed in 3rd District Court Thursday, police seized a couple of computers, a cell phone, various forged identification documents and letterhead, canceled checks and bank statements and an empty champagne bottle from the Small Wonders Development Center, 5724 W. 13400 South.

Police raided the center after they received complaints alleging that Michaele Meier, the 30-year-old owner of the center, was plotting to harm either a former employee or the property of a former employee.

She and two employees, Leslie Zimmerman, 26, and Jeremy Stewart, 28, were arrested and booked into jail last Friday for investigation into their involvement in the alleged scheme.

The complaints against the three, as stated in the affidavit, included their poring over the house plans of the former employee while discussing various threats to the woman.

Also stated in the affidavit were concerns that other illegal activities were happening at the center while children were present. Such allegations included "drug use, check forgery, bank fraud, insurance fraud, contract fraud and possible child sex offenses," as stated in the court documents.

According to the court documents, the complainants observed "unusual behavior" by the three employees, and one told police she had walked in on Meier, Zimmerman and another woman locked behind the same stall door in the restroom. When they emerged, she said they "appeared intoxicated," the court documents say.

Other witnesses were contacted by police, and according to court documents, they confirmed the initial reports of drug abuse and other illegal activity at the center.

The affidavit mentions two open investigations in which police are researching the unauthorized depletion of several bank accounts of former clients who brought their children to the center.

Interviews conducted by police elicited information that the reported activities were occurring during normal business hours and in the presence of more than 75 children, as stated in the affidavit.

Meier could not be reached for comment.

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E-mail: wleonard@desnews.com