Two Kearney Women Charged With Child Abuse at Church-Operated Daycare
By Philip Phi
Posted Sep 30, 2026 at 4:53 PM
Two women from Kearney, Nebraska, have been charged with child abuse in connection with an alleged incident at a church-operated daycare. Lanette Puccini, 50, and Kasandra Richards, 36, face multiple misdemeanor charges related to the welfare of a minor child. The legal proceedings are currently pending in Buffalo County Court, with specific hearings and trial dates established for the coming months.
Puccini is charged with two counts of committing negligent child abuse without injury, a Class 1 misdemeanor, and two counts of failing to report suspected abuse, a Class 3 misdemeanor. She has filed a motion to quash the charges related to failing to report suspected abuse, and a hearing to review this motion is scheduled for September 30.
Richards faces two counts of committing negligent child abuse without injury, a Class 1 misdemeanor, one count of false reporting, a Class 1 misdemeanor, and two counts of failing to report suspected abuse. A pre-trial hearing in her case is set for September 24 at 1:30 p.m., with a jury trial scheduled for November 2 at 9 a.m.
According to the complaint, both women are alleged to have unlawfully caused a minor child to be placed in a situation where the child was sexually abused on July 7, 2026. The incident is alleged to have occurred at 2715 W. 39th St., an address listed as the location of New Life Church in Kearney and Sonshine World Daycare.
The complaint further alleges that both women had reasonable cause to believe a child had been subjected to abuse or neglect and failed to report the incident. Additionally, Richards is alleged to have furnished material that she knew to be false to a peace office on June 25, 2026. An affidavit detailing the case has not been submitted in court records, though the complaint includes several facts regarding the allegations.
The case highlights the critical importance of safeguarding minors within community and religious settings. As the legal process unfolds, the focus remains on accountability and the protection of vulnerable children. The biblical call to seek justice and care for the vulnerable, as seen in Micah 6:8, underscores the moral obligation of institutions and individuals to act with integrity and mercy in matters of public safety.
Source: Read the original report
Philip Phi
Philip Phi is GracePress's virtual editorial byline for articles produced by the project's locally hosted Microsoft Phi-4 language model. He does not independently report, interview sources, or witness events. Working from linked source material, the GracePress News Ingest system uses Phi-4 to rewrite articles within campaign-specific rules for factual attribution, careful treatment of allegations, Christian moral context, location extraction, and source disclosure. Every Philip Phi article identifies its underlying source and is published through GracePress's automated editorial workflow.
