A Florin foster mother was arrested Tuesday for allegedly beating her 2-year-old foster daughter so severely that she could suffer a lifetime of seizures and learning disabilities, officials said. 

          Virginia Spillman, 28, was arrested on felony child abuse charges nearly a month after the toddler was admitted to UC Davis Medical Center with bite marks and bruises, a pancreas injury and a skull fracture a quarter-inch wide from the front of her head to the back, said sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Jim Cooper.

          On Tuesday, Spillman turned herself in to authorities, who have questioned her repeatedly since the little girl was hospitalized on Jan. 27. 

          "Rarely do you see this with foster care. Most serious child abuse cases have been with biological parents," Cooper said.

          Through her attorney, Spillman denied abusing the child, who was one of three foster children in her care at the time of the alleged beating.  The toddler and the two other foster children - ages 3 and 8 - have been placed in new homes, and the woman's two biological children are staying with relatives.

          "She adamantly denies doing anything to this child to injure the child," said the attorney, Bob Blasier. "There's no history of any abuse in this family," which has cared for five foster children in the past two years, he said.

          The little girl received the injuries after running into a wall and falling, according to Blasier. The child had a "documented history of having problems with balance," he said.

          But officials say the injuries came from blunt-force trauma.

          "The injury to the pancreas was not from falling against a wall. That's from a severe blow," Cooper said. "From the looks of the injuries, this child had been abused on more than one occasion," he said.  The bite marks on the girl's body were inflicted by another child, Cooper said. Those injuries won't be used in the charges against Spillman, who has no prior criminal history.

          Spillman's home on the 8100 block of Halbrite Way was licensed as a foster-care home by the St. Francis Home for Children, said Jim Hunt, interim chief of the Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services. St. Francis is a private agency authorized by the state Department of Social Services to license foster homes and provide social workers for foster children.

          Sacramento County contracts with St. Francis and 27 other family agencies for homes to place foster children, Hunt said.

          County child protective services workers placed the 2-year-old girl in Spillman's home last August after she was abandoned by her biological mother, Hunt said. The child had no contact with her biological father, he said. Reports to the county from St. Francis' case workers and a visit to Spillman's home by a CPS social worker a few weeks before the incident revealed no problems, Hunt said.

          "The kids were happy and healthy and well," he said. "There were no signs of abuse."

          Hunt said he launched an investigation of homes licensed by St. Francis immediately after the girl was hospitalized. County officials also have stepped up oversight of homes licensed by other foster family agencies.

          St. Francis Executive Director Michael Carey could not be reached for comment Tuesday evening. Besides contracting with the agencies, Sacramento County licenses about 800 foster homes on its own, Hunt said. "Ultimately, we're responsible for protecting these children," he said. "This is very painful for this organization. We want to do everything in our power to see if this could have been prevented and, if so, how to apply that across the board."

          Neighbors on Halbrite Way expressed shock after learning of Spillman's arrest.

          In a neighborhood where people wave and say hello to each other, neighbors noticed one day when Spillman yelled at a child in her front yard, they said.

          "She was yelling at the top of her lungs," said Vickie Hillburn, whose son Ricky has played at Spillman's home, which was up for sale last month and still has a Realtor's lock on the door.

          "To think that I didn't know the possibility of what was going on, and my son was over there," Hillburn said.

Bee Staff Writer Nigel Hatton contributed to this report 

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