Meridian police: No charges warranted in incident between children at gym day care
Meridian police have closed their investigation into a mother’s allegations that her daughter experienced inappropriate conduct by another young child at a Meridian gym — and that gym personnel failed to inform her or police of the incident.
The department is not pursuing any charges related to the allegation, Chief Tracy Basterrechea told the Idaho Statesman. It did forward reports to the Boise City Attorney’s Office, which provides prosecution services for Meridian, but the office also declined charges, according to a police spokesperson.
The incident was reported to police in November, after a Meridian mother learned from an employee at Axiom Fitness, now Villa Sport, that her 3-year-old daughter had allegedly been subjected to the conduct in the gym’s child care center five months earlier.
The employee, Amber Paskett, told the Statesman and Meridian police that in June she observed what she said was inappropriate behavior by a 5-year-old boy toward a 3-year-old girl. Paskett said she reported the incident to her supervisor and later told the girl’s mother after realizing she had never been informed.
The girl’s mother, who wished to go only by her middle name, Rae, to protect her daughter’s identity, told the Statesman that she reported the incident to Meridian police. The Statesman obtained a copy of the police report, which logged the complaint as an allegation of lewd conduct with a minor, a felony under Idaho Code 18-1508.
In January, Jordan Robinson, a spokesperson for the police department, told the Statesman that police were “aware of the situation and have an investigation going.” Robinson declined to answer follow-up questions, and a Statesman public-records request for additional information was denied in February because of the active investigation.
On April 17, Robinson confirmed that the case had been closed and declined to provide additional information, directing the Statesman to submit a public-records request. A request for reports related to the incident was denied on April 23 on the grounds that it would “constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy” and that the records contain “uncharged allegations of criminal activity,” which can be exempt from disclosure.
Villa Sport declined to comment for this story.
MPD officials say ‘no crime occurred’
Basterrechea told the Statesman in an interview May 14 that police did not pursue any charges, because “a child that age cannot form the intent to commit a sexual assault.”
Asked whether the police investigated Rae’s allegation that the gym failed to report the incident to police, Basterrechea said, “It’s not a criminal incident, so it doesn’t have to be reported to the police.”
“It eventually was (reported), and we looked into it,” he said.
Basterrechea said it would have been a different circumstance had the behavior been committed by an adult or even a 10-year-old.
He acknowledged that mandatory reporting and other laws in Idaho are “confusing” and worded “overly broad,” but was firm that “attorneys have reviewed it and have looked at it and they agree that there’s nothing to be charged there.”
The Statesman earlier reported that in February, a Meridian detective told Rae in a text message that he had found “another report” filed regarding an alleged sexual incident at the Axiom child care center involving different children in March 2024.
Robinson told the Statesman in an email on May 20 that the report was made regarding an incident involving “two children, both approximately 4 years old, who were alleged to have engaged in inappropriate behavior while in the facility’s daycare area.”
“An investigation was conducted; however, one of the children involved could not be identified,” Robinson said. “Due to the young ages of the individuals and the circumstances, the case was closed, and the reporting party was referred to Health and Welfare for any additional resources or support they might need.”
Robinson clarified that the two reports were unrelated and that “no crime occurred in either case. … Age is a significant factor, particularly when considering the element of intent, which must be present for a crime to be established.”
Rae told the Statesman she was never interested in pursuing charges against the young boy in her daughter’s case and was more concerned with “the adults that were in charge” in the gym, who she believed failed to keep her daughter safe or inform her, as a parent, of the incident for nearly half a year.
This story was originally published June 16, 2025 at 4:00 AM.
