A North Texas daycare has landed in legal trouble following allegations that one of its employees sexually abused a child.
By the Barnyard Gate in Sachse could be forced to dole out over $1 million in damages to a mother whose son was allegedly touched inappropriately by one of its employees — Efrain Jesus Bonilla — in January 2023.
According to a press release from The Button Law Firm, the victim’s mother, Emily Markley, learned about the alleged groping incident from her 4-year-old son and took the matter to the school. An investigation later revealed that surveillance video footage appeared to have captured the encounter between Markley’s son, referred to as “P.M.” in the lawsuit, and Bonilla.
Alone in a room of napping children, Bonilla can reportedly be seen sitting with his legs crossed between P.M. and another child, rubbing them on their heads and patting them on their backs.
In the video, Bonilla moves closer to the alleged victim and “proceeds to raise P.M.’s blanket and, with his own body, blocks P.M.’s body from the camera view to obscure what he does to P.M. next. It is at this point that Efrain Jesus Bonilla puts his hands down the front of P.M.’s pants and underwear and touched and squeezed P.M.’s genitals,” the lawsuit states.
When another employee entered the room, Bonilla quickly moved away from P.M. and pulled his blanket over his body.
According to the lawsuit, By the Barnyard Gate reviewed the video footage, and Markley was “assured by the daycare that a report would be made to the state and that the incident would be investigated.”
However, Bonilla was still allowed to work with children at the daycare until the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services put a stop to it during its investigation. He was eventually arrested on charges of indecency with a child, for which he will stand trial on August 5, and terminated by the daycare.
“I am heartbroken over the abuse that my child experienced at By the Barnyard Gate and furious that the school allowed it to happen to him,” Markley said in the press release. “My son’s innocence should have been protected at this school. I am filing this lawsuit and speaking up for what is right to shield my child and other children in our community.”
The Button Law Firm also alleged that By the Barnyard Gate has a history of safety issues, pointing to 20 state citations — half of which involve lapses in the supervision of children — recorded between August 2019 and January 2023.
“Sexual abuse is a horrific crime with lifelong psychological impacts to victims, including the young child in this case,” Russell Button, Markley’s attorney, said. “This incident and the response of By the Barnyard Gate are deeply disturbing. The school failed to prioritize the safety of our client’s child and other children numerous times.”
Markley is seeking monetary relief of over $1 million for four counts of alleged negligence.
Button represented another plaintiff whose two-year-old was injured under the care of LMNOP Children’s Academy in Carrollton, as covered by The Dallas Express.
The two-year-old was dropped on a cot before an LMNOP worker yanked the cot beneath him, resulting in him falling, hitting his head, and biting through his bottom lip, Button told The Dallas Express previously.
“The kids don’t have a voice and really know what’s going on, and so these daycares feel like they can get away with it. Thankfully, we’re able to uncover a lot of the actual things that happen in our investigations. Our goal is to make daycares a safe place for families,” Button told DX.
In Dallas, the local police department has logged 286 sexual assault offenses so far this year as of June 19, according to data from the City’s crime analytics dashboard. Black and Hispanic women and girls continue to be the most common victims of such crimes.
Faced with a significant officer shortage, DPD has been hindered in its efforts to curb crime. It fields around 3,000 uniformed officers despite a City report calling for closer to 4,000. City leaders also budgeted the department only $654 million this fiscal year, far less than the sums allocated to police in other high-crime jurisdictions, such as Chicago and Los Angeles.