DAY-CARE PROVIDER ARRESTED IN ABUSE.

Byline: Jesse Hiestand Daily News Staff Writer

A longtime home day-care operator was arrested and charged with felony child abuse for allegedly shaking a 1-year-old boy so violently he will likely suffer permanent brain damage.

Margaret Mary Major, 48, turned herself in Tuesday at the East County Jail in Thousand Oaks, and was booked on a $20,000 warrant stemming from a criminal complaint filed last week by the Ventura County District Attorney's Office, Simi Valley police said.

No date has been set for Major to enter a plea to charges of corporal injury to a child and a special allegation of inflicting great bodily injury. Together, those charges carry a maximum of 11 years in prison, prosecutors said. Major was freed after posting bail.

Major and Jennifer and Jack Read, the parents of the victim, Jack Read Jr., could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Amber Littleton, 19, a neighbor of Major's, said she was surprised by the arrest of a women she knew as quiet, private and dedicated to her home business.

``I couldn't see her doing anything like that,'' Littleton said. ``She doesn't seem like the type of person who would hurt a child.''

According to a Simi Valley Police Department report, the toddler was injured Sept. 24, the youngster's third day at Major Family Day Care, which Major ran out of her Finchley Court home.

Paramedics were dispatched to a ``baby not breathing'' call and the boy was taken to Simi Valley Hospital. He was later airlifted to Childrens Hospital in Los Angeles and treated by a team of doctors with expertise in shaken-baby syndrome.

A report prepared by Detective John Parks included statements from Dr. Gordon McComb, a neurosurgeon, who told police the injuries were consistent with violent shaking. McComb likened the trauma to a child falling from a two-story window onto a driveway.

``Dr. McComb added Jack will likely suffer permanent, significant brain deficit as a result of the injury,'' Parks wrote in his report.

The toddler spent five weeks in the hospital and is now home undergoing outpatient therapy.

Major, who has operated a day-care center in Simi Valley for 18 years, told police the boy would scream every time she wiped his runny nose. He did likewise when she changed his diapers and after he ate a waffle, she said.

Major told detectives that while she was changing the child's diaper, he let out a ``blood-curdling scream'' fell silent and went limp. She called 911 at about 1:30 p.m. At the time, she was the only person present with the children, ages 5 months to 3 years.

Major's license to run a day-care center was suspended Oct. 2 by the Community Care Licensing Division of the California Department of Social Services, said program supervisor Flo Furuike.