DAY-CARE PROVIDER QUITTING BUSINESS; DESPITE ACQUITTAL AT TRIAL, WOMAN SAYS RISK TOO GREAT.

Byline: Sylvia L. Oliande Daily News Staff Writer

A veteran day-care owner said Friday that she will not seek to renew her state license despite her acquittal on charges that she had abused a toddler left in her care.

Margaret Major, 49, was found not guilty Thursday evening by a jury of four women and eight men who said there was reasonable doubt she had shaken an 11-month-old boy so hard he suffered permanent brain damage.

On Friday, she said she has made the very painful decision not to go back to child care, a career she began 18 years ago.

``It's been so distressful not to have my children, not to have them here every day and be a part of their lives,'' she said. ``But it's been made very clear that because I was the only adult in the house, it would be my word against theirs.

``If it ever happened again, it would put me, or any licensed care provider, in the position of having to defend themselves. I could never do this to my family again,'' she said.

Prosecutors charged Major with felony child abuse and inflicting great bodily injury, asserting that she violently shook Jack Read when he fussed and cried at her home-based Finchley Court day-care center. The jury deliberated two days before acquitting Major.

Deputy District Attorney John Blair, who argued that Jack's was a classic case of shaken-baby syndrome, said Friday he was very disappointed with the verdict.

``But the jury has spoken and we respect that,'' he added. ``We think the evidence showed beyond a reasonable doubt that (Major) did it and that's why we proceeded with the case.''

The toddler's mother, Jessica Read, had testified at the trial that she was dissatisfied with Major's day-care center and had decided to change sitters. That was the day, Major said, that the boy let out a scream and fell limp as she was changing his diaper.

He fell into a coma as a result of brain swelling, which prosecutors said came from an injury equivalent to the boy falling from a two-story building.

During the course of the trial, the jury heard from expert witnesses who had differing opinions about the causes of the boy's injuries.

A pediatric neurosurgeon who treated him told jurors that Jack's injuries happened only a short while before the boy fell ill under Major's care in September 1997.

But a neuro-ophthalmologist who also treated Jack said his injuries could have been the result of a stroke brought on by a fall and knock on the back of his head when he slipped on a hardwood floor the night before.