John Jefferson
Haley Ryan (Montgomery County Jail).
An Ohio mother managed to avoid prison time after a viral video on social media appeared to show her engaged in an extreme bout of child abuse, according to Buckeye State court records.
On Aug. 27, Haley Marie Ryan, 21, pleaded guilty to one count of endangering children, according to Vandalia Municipal Court records. On Tuesday she was given a sentence of five years probation.
In addition to remaining under the purview of law enforcement for the foreseeable future, the defendant was also sentenced to 180 days in jail — with 90 days suspended. In addition to that suspension, she was credited with the 35 days she spent in pretrial detention.
Ryan’s effective jail sentence will be 55 days behind bars — but those bars will be held in place by the county’s walls, not the state’s.
Formal justice was meted out relatively quickly in a case that scandalized southwestern Ohio — and certain corners of the internet where the video of the incident was widely shared.
The since-sentenced mom was arrested on Aug. 14, following “several” complaints and “notifications” about the video in question, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release.
The sheriff’s office described the viral social media content as a “disturbing video of a mother screaming at and hitting her child.”
“Disturbing is the only word that probably is appropriate,” Chief Deputy Matt Haines told Dayton-based CBS affiliate WHIO.
While the video was widely available at the time of the arrest, most iterations that include the full footage and audio appear to have since been removed from the internet.
The video, in various ways, was shared and viewed thousands of times on various social media websites like YouTube and TikTok. Those shares quickly resulted in community outrage.
“It was one of those things that literally went viral for all the wrong reasons,” Haines told the TV station. “We started getting phone calls from as far away that I know of from at least Texas.”
Notably, there is no court sealing order, or victim-focused protective order, entered on the public court docket for Ryan’s case.
In the footage, a woman is seen bent over a crib. She loudly shrieks at the baby lying down inside. Moments later, the woman rears back with at least one of her arms and appears to slap or hit at something inside the crib — presumably her baby boy — over and over.
The video is hectic and blurry, and the frame rate does not offer a clear indication of all of the woman’s quick-paced movements. From the perspective of the footage, it is also unclear the extent to which the woman makes contact with the child — or if she does at all.
As the video ends, the woman storms away, and the person filming the scene appears to stand up from a seated or crouched position and then goes to check on the child in the crib. Law enforcement says the father’s child was the one filming behind the camera.
The child in the footage is less than a year old, authorities say. But the baby boy, in the end, was not harmed, police later revealed.
At the time of Ryan’s arrest, law enforcement suggested that additional charges could be filed. Ultimately, the lone count of child endangerment was all the young mother ever faced.
On Aug. 15, Ryan pleaded not guilty, Vandalia court records show. She was appointed a public defender the next day and a pretrial hearing was held on Aug. 21. Less than a week later, she admitted legal culpability to what the video showed.
On Tuesday, on top of jail time and probation, she was ordered not to have any contact with the victim until several ancillary assessments are made. Ryan will have to eventually attend parenting classes and subject herself to “intense outpatient treatment.”
Law&Crime reached out to the Vandalia Municipal Court’s records department for additional details on this story but no response was immediately forthcoming at time of publication.
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