A former employee of a day care center in Center Township is seeking dismissal of charges alleging she witnessed another employee abuse children in 2023 at the center, but did not to report it.

At a hearing Tuesday in Common Pleas Court, the attorney representing Megan Anthony, 26, of Butler, argued that four charges of person to report suspected child abuse should be dismissed due to a lack of evidence.

The Commonwealth has no evidence of abuse, witnessing abuse or failure to report abuse except for statements Anthony made during a state police interview, defense attorney Rebecca Black argued in court.

She said prosecutors must show that child abuse occurred before they can look at what Anthony did or didn’t do.

The charges filed do not include any dates or details of abuse, and police have no evidence of a crime or that Anthony witnessed abuse, Black said.

Other day care employees are cooperating with police, but Anthony isn’t, and police charged her in an effort to force her to cooperate in what Black called “procedural gamesmanship.”

Police allege Anthony and six other employees witnessed former employee Taylor E. Titley, 30, of Lyndora, abuse children at Sheryl Buffington’s Daycare and Preschool Palace.

Titley is facing 20 felony and misdemeanor charges — five each of aggravated assault of a victim under 6 years old, endangering the welfare of children, simple assault and reckless endangerment. Her case is pending.

According to an affidavit attached to the complaint against Anthony, police investigated a ChildLine report about a 6-month-old boy who suffered a right arm fracture June 13, 2023, at the center while Titley was assigned to work in the infant care room.

At Anthony’s preliminary hearing last year, police testified that all seven employees are mandated to report child abuse, but none did. Six of those employees are cooperating with the investigation, but Anthony declined to cooperate, police said.

Anthony and the other employees who were interviewed identified four infant victims including the 6-month-old. The others boys ages are 2 years, 11 months and 10 months, according to an affidavit.

Anthony didn’t see how the 6-month-old was injured, but she witnessed Titley forcibly throw four children including the 6-month-old to the floor while she worked with Titley, police said.

Anthony told police she saw Titley aggressively grab children by one of their arms and pull them on the floor to their mats. She told police Titley treated children that way routinely, and that Titley would use a flashlight to look into the pupils of the children to check for head injuries after her contact with them, police said.

There are no documented injuries to the three other children, police said.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Judge Joseph Kubit gave assistant district attorney Laura Pitchford 15 days to file a brief responding to Black’s arguments.