A Nashville judge ordered an unlicensed childcare facility run out of a home in Antioch to stop operating on Aug. 3 after state employees learned a man convicted of assault against a 4-year-old was married to the woman running the operation and lived at the residence.
The man, Adeyemi Adebogun, 51, was initially indicted in 2024 with five counts of aggravated sexual battery of a child under 13. The indictment states the victim was 4 years old. A December 2024 court filing by the Davidson County district attorney's office states the alleged assault occurred at the same address as the unlicensed childcare facility between Dec. 1, 2023, and May 30, 2024.
Adebogun reached a plea bargain with the district attorney’s office in April and pleaded “no
contest” to four counts of misdemeanor simple assault. A no contest plea means the defendant did not admit guilt but still accepted the punishment.
Steve Hayslip, spokesperson for the district attorney's office, said the office agreed to the plea after the 4-year-old's family did not want the child to testify.
"The District Attorney’s Office had extensive and ongoing contact with the victim’s family," an emailed statement sent by Hayslip reads. "Despite diligent efforts by prosecutors and victim witness coordinators, the family was either unwilling or unable to cooperate in prosecution on the indicted offenses at this time."
Adebogun is currently serving a four-year sentence of supervised probation for the assault charges.
Adebogun is married to the woman running the childcare operation, Annette Oaihimire, according to a petition filed by the Tennessee Department of Human Services, or TDHS. The department filed the petition Aug. 3 seeking an order to shut down the unlicensed childcare facility.
It did not seem like a childcare operation was running at the home the early afternoon of Aug. 11.
Danielle Cotton, public information officer for TDHS, said there is an “ongoing joint investigation with law enforcement” stemming from the unlicensed childcare facility but did not offer specifics. Operating an unlicensed childcare facility is a Class A misdemeanor for a first offense and a Class E felony if the person had operated an unlicensed childcare facility before in the previous 10 years, Cotton said. Oaihimire could also be found in contempt of court if she continues running a childcare operation in violation of Chancellor Russell Perkins' order to stop operating. Neither Oaihimire or Adebogun have been arrested or charged with a crime in Davidson County recently, according to court filings and information from the Davidson County Sheriff's Office.
The unlicensed childcare facility was run out of Oaihimire’s home on Wagondale Way in Antioch, the petition states. Records show Adebogun also lived at the home. His probation order, signed April 22, lists his address as the one on Wagondale Way. He was also served with a separate lawsuit at that address in December.
Oaihimire told TDHS employees Adebogun does not live with her at the Wagondale Way home, according to the petition, but TDHS employees found aspects of her story inconsistent.
It is not clear whether Adebogun was ever present while children were at the house. Cotton said the department “did not observe (Adebogun) at the residence when children were being cared for or have any knowledge of whether he was present.”
The Tennessean was unable to reach Oaihimire or Adebogun for comment through phone numbers associated with both of them and an email associated with Oaihimire. No one answered the door at the Wagondale Way residence on Aug. 11.
What state employees saw at the unlicensed childcare facility
The case began after TDHS received a complaint on July 30 that Oaihimire was running an unlicensed childcare facility out of her home.
When two childcare licensing consultants from TDHS performed an unannounced visit to the home on July 31, Oaihimire was caring for 12 unrelated children in and around the home, the petition states.
Oaihimire opened the door several minutes after the licensing consultants arrived and then told them she was only caring for five children.
The consultants saw two children in a playpen in the living room, and Oaihimire walked toward a laundry room “to try to lock the door,” according to the petition. Consultants asked her to open the door and discovered a child in a “pack n play,” a type of bed and play area, the petition states.
Oaihimire then walked to the deck door to lock it, the petition states. Consultants asked to see the backyard and saw 10 children playing on the deck and in the backyard.
Oaihimire told the consultants that the children lived in the neighborhood and that she was caring for them for the summer. She told the consultants she is only caring for four kids, and that she has two children and the remaining eight children were “just in the yard playing with her children.”
The consultants asked her to let the kids into the house because of the heat. She would not let them back in, according to the petition. “It was very chaotic with several of the children crying to get back in,” the petition states.
When the consultants came back into the house, they heard a child crying upstairs, where they had not seen any children when looking up there earlier. Two children were in a room with the door closed, the petition says. Oaihimire left the consultants with one child and took the other downstairs.
Then Oaihimire left the house to go to an adjacent home. The consultants were left to care for the kids, at which point they called law enforcement.
Law enforcement arrived, as well as a TDHS field supervisor.
Someone asked Oaihimire who lives at the home with her, and she said her partner, whom she called Felix, lives there but was at work. The field supervisor then asked Oaihimire about Adebogun.
“Defendant looked surprised then claimed (Adebogun) is her legal husband but does not live here,” the petition states.
The consultants asked several of the older children if they lived in the neighborhood, and they said no. When a mother arrived and picked up five kids, she also denied living in the neighborhood, even though Oaihimire said she did.
The petition says there were also hazards in the home including roach spray.
The same day TDHS filed the petition, Perkins issued a restraining order prohibiting Oaihimire from running an unlicensed childcare facility.
A hearing is set before Perkins for Aug. 14.
Have questions about the justice system? Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him with questions, tips or story ideas at emealins@tennessean.com.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Antioch daycare shut down after state links home to criminal
