Woman accused by boyfriend’s kids of battery

A jury found a woman not guilty of battery after her then-boyfriend’s children told police she had hit them.

Megan Quillen, 23, Indianapolis, had been charged with battery on a person younger than 14 in 2015. Last month, a jury found her not guilty of the felony crime.

Quillen had maintained her innocence since her arrest, and the jury believed her, said Mike Kyle, Quillen’s attorney.

“From our point of view, the system worked,” Kyle said.

“She had the courage to go forward with a trial and she won.”

Quillen was arrested in October 2015 after her then-boyfriend’s children told police she had hit them while their father, a member of the Indiana National Guard, was away from their Bargersville home.

Police were called after a relative noticed bruises on a 6-year-old boy. Police interviewed all three children in the home, and they reported abuse by Quillen.

Quillen told police the boy had fallen off a bed and that was how he had gotten the bruises. That is the same report the jury was told, Kyle said.

The jury did not believe beyond a reasonable doubt that Quillen was guilty, Kyle said.

“Obviously, we are disappointed with the outcome, and wish the evidence gathered by the investigator in this case had been enough to overcome our burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The jurors expressed a desire for more evidence than witness testimony, and as with many cases involving child witnesses that evidence was not available,” Johnson County Deputy Prosecutor Carrie Miles said in an email.

Quillen, who previously worked as a detention deputy in the Marion County Jail, lost her job due to the allegations, Kyle said.

She now wants to move on with her life, he said.