South Jersey Woman Starved, Beat Child While Other Watched: Prosecutor

GALLOWAY, NJ — A Galloway woman has admitted to abusing a child in her care and making another child watch her do so, the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office said.

Stephanie Gregory, 58, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child, officials said.

In 2021, Gregory was charged after starving the nine-year-old girl she was the legal guardian of to the point of malnutrition, officials previously said.

She had beaten the girl with a metal spatula that caused open wounds and welts on her body, officials said, and when the girl was removed from the home, she was so emaciated she could barely walk. The girl had to be hospitalized for a week, officials said.

Now, Gregory admitted that she was also taking care of a six-year-old, who she made watch as she struck the first child, officials said.

Gregory's guilty plea calls for a five year sentence in New Jersey State Prison. She is also to have no contact with the children or their biological mother, officials said.

These crimes were discovered due to an investigation by DCP&P and detectives in the Atlantic
County Prosecutor's Office's Special Victim's Unit.