A Gary daycare worker is charged after allegedly ignoring kids and occasionally hitting them — while she was spending most of the day on recorded video jail calls with an inmate.

Laniecia Smith, 31, was charged July 11 with five counts each of neglect of a dependent and battery on a person less than 14 years old. She posted a $3,000 cash bond that day.

Her next hearing is July 30 before Magistrate Kathleen Sullivan.

The calls happened on June 23-27 when she was working at Future Leaders Childcare Ministries, 1010 Roosevelt St., in Gary.State records show it is registered to Ralph Stokes, Sr. and Antoinette Stokes. A representative couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday.

Gary Police Det. David Umbarger wrote Smith appeared to spend most of her shift on the calls, mostly ignoring the children until they angered her. The five child victims were ages 3-4, charges show.

During a call on June 23, she allegedly zeroed in on a 4-year-old autistic boy, who may have hit another child with a broom.

“Why you hit him, now I’m finna whack (you) with this broom,” Smith responded.

She pulled the child by the wrist, then hit him twice on the bottom with the broom, the affidavit alleges. The boy started crying, then went to hug her legs.

“See how he be grabbing me,” she told the inmate.

In another incident on June 24, she pulled another boy, 4, up by his arms, then put him on the ground, upset he wasn’t cleaning up.

Two hours later, she was heard lecturing the children.

“I’m gonna treat y’all like you treat me. No candy, no toys, no outside, no laying down,” she tells them.

While holding a small broom, she tells a child, “sit up before I get my stick. I’m not playing with you.”

She later adds she can “go into mommy mode real quick.”

On June 25, Smith is seen on the call driving without a seatbelt, with unsecured children in the backseat.

Later that day, an unidentified man is allegedly dragging a child by a shirt, then an ankle. Smith laughs and says he’s being too loud, court documents show. The man is later seen “whipping” a kid with a lanyard.

Hours later, the inmate appears to try to calm her down.

“Uh-oh, baby, don’t do it,” he says.

“Close your mouth, before I hit yours,” she tells one child.

On June 25, the recording captured her separating two kids.

“You hit, you gonna get hit,” she said. “That’s not your…child.”

She appears to hit multiple children that day, some partially off-camera.

Antoinette Stokes told police she was “day-to-day operator.” She confirmed Smith worked there and identified the five child victims.

The inmate is charged in connection with a Gary murder. He is not charged in connection with the neglect case.

Ralph Stokes II is charged in another unrelated case with the murder of Jimmijion Bailey. His next court date is Aug. 1.

Stokes’ ex-girlfriend’s mother, Betty Tomlinson, was charged last week after buying cleaning supplies and lighter fluid to help dispose the body.

mcolias@post-trib.com