A licensed childcare center in Buhl has been forced to close, its owner charged with felony injury to a child after a baby left her care with a fractured femur.

Betty Bridwell of Betty's Baby Care has run a widely known business providing professional care for children for more than 10 years. But in the wake of the criminal charges state health officials took her license on Feb. 21.

"The people that know me and have done business with me for 10 years - they know I wouldn't do something like that," Bridwell said, with tears breaking up her words. "Everybody I talk to who has heard about it calls me and says I just know that's not true. They have taken my business. They have ruined my character. They have taken my integrity."

But they won't take any of it without a fight, she said.

Bridwell will have to wait until March 21 to appear in court for a preliminary hearing to determine if there is probable cause to believe she committed a felony. With no clear explanation of what fractured the baby's leg, that hearing may pit her word against that of investigators.

The only indication of what might have happened, in court records, comes from a doctor who said the baby's injuries are inconsistent with Bridwell's statements.

Bridwell said she is outraged that without clear evidence she is being accused of "intentionally" hurting the baby and lying - crucial elements to the charge against her.

Bridwell, in court papers and in an interview with the Times-News, gives the following account:

At 9 a.m. on Jan. 24, Alicia Murillo dropped off her four-month-old baby, Dominyk. Bridwell says she noticed nothing wrong.

At 3 p.m., with five babies sleeping in the home, Dominyk woke first - fussing, with dirty diapers.

While changing his diapers, Bridwell said she lifted his left leg and rotated it to be able to clean him, a police affidavit says. Bridwell said she heard "a really low pop."

Police say she told them that the baby started crying. Later, she said the baby only whimpered.

She said that before she had finished dressing the baby, she was on the phone with the baby's mom.

Murillo, who could not be reached for comment, later had her baby checked at St. Luke's Magic Valley Medical Center. Doctors found the baby had suffered a spiral fracture of his left femur.

Dr. Mitchell Moffitt examined the child and told police, "there would have to have been great force for a spiral fracture to have happened."

Moffitt said the injury could not have happened by accident during a diaper change.

Murillo told police that she had heard of other problems at the childcare center. According to court records, police then interviewed Kathy Owen, the aunt of another child who had been in Bridwell's care. She told police she had pulled her nephew from the center a year ago, after he suffered bruises on five separate occasions.

Karen Trent, a Buhl Police officer, informed Bridwell the doctor said "just lifting the baby up could not cause this," the officer wrote in the affidavit.

Bridwell told the Times-News she never claimed that changing the diapers caused the injury.

"Duh," Bridwell said. "Of course it cannot happen by changing a diaper, if his leg was healthy and he did not have any previous injury. Of course it happened before."

Bridwell said she never accused anyone else of hurting the baby.

"I am not here to blame anybody because who knows what happened to that baby," Bridwell said. "But what I am saying is that I could not have caused that to happen."

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare has already taken action. Six days after the incident, her license was suspended.

Last week, they revoked her license because of "the seriousness of the injuries" and "the seriousness of the charges," said spokesman Tom Shanahan. Bridwell is prohibited from "watching the kids until the investigation is complete," he added.

Bridwell, who has yet to fight against the department revoking her license, has until March 14 to appeal that decision.

Cassidy Friedman can be reached at 735-3241 or cfriedman@magicvalley.com