A judge went too far last year when he permanently shut down a Lexington County day-care center where a toddler was bitten more than dozen times, the state Court of Appeals said.

Family Court Judge Richard Chewning should not have issued a permanent injunction in April 2003 to shut down the Bright Ideas Child Development Center, a three-member panel of the nine-member court said. The panel said there was a “lack of any evidence that Bright Ideas failed to comply” with a court-approved safety plan.

The panel, comprised of Chief Judge Kaye Hearn, Samuel Stilwell and Jasper Cureton, set aside Chewning’s order. Their ruling, issued last week, is unpublished, meaning it cannot be cited or relied on in other court cases, though it has the force of law in the Bright Ideas case.

Virginia Williamson, the attorney for the state Department of Social Services, which sought to close Bright Ideas, said Monday she didn’t think the center could immediately reopen. She said former center director Angela Almeida and her husband, Tim Almeida, likely would have to reapply for a day-care license if they wanted to start a new center.

Williamson would not discuss specifics of the ruling, saying her agency was still reviewing it.

Tim Almeida would not discuss the ruling Monday, saying he needed more time to review it with his lawyers. Efforts to reach his lawyers were unsuccessful Monday.

In April, Angela Almeida pleaded guilty to unlawful conduct toward a child stemming from the biting incident. She was sentenced to five years probation and 100 hours of community service.

Larry Bull, the father of the bitten boy, said Monday he was unaware of the ruling.

“I’m just shocked,” he said. “Apparently, there is no act that a day-care operator can perpetrate on a child that is heinous enough to be put out of business.”

Bull said his son, who turns 3 in September, now attends another day-care center, Windsor West Child Development Center, located in the Augusta Road building that housed Bright Ideas. Windsor West is not affiliated with Bright Ideas, he said.

Bull’s then 16-month-old son was bitten 13 times — mostly to his head and face — by another child while left alone on Jan. 28, 2003, at the Bright Ideas center at 4274 Augusta Road, DSS officials said.

Angela Almeida left 16 1- and 2-year-olds unattended that day while she ran errands, Lexington County sheriff’s deputies said, though a DSS investigation found that nine children were left unattended.

More than 100 children were at the center that day, according to DSS records. Because of staff shortages, there were only five caregivers in the building when Angela Almeida left to do errands, records showed.

In a February 2003 agreement with DSS, Almeida agreed to turn over management of the center to her husband and interim director Tamara Canzater. She also agreed to hire more staff and to improve caregiver-child ratios.

But DSS officials later contended the center wasn’t complying with the agreement and moved to close it permanently. The agency contended the center had a “history of repeated regulatory violations,” and that it operated without a license from 1996-1999.

In its ruling, the Court of Appeals said DSS didn’t immediately seek an injunction to close the center but instead allowed it continue operating under an agreement. The court disagreed with Judge Chewning’s finding in his April 2003 order that the center posed a “substantial threat of harm to the public at large and the children of Lexington County.”

“Because Bright Ideas terminated (Angela) Almeida as the director and complied with DSS requirements, the ‘taint’ of that incident was cured and there was no longer a nexus between the present operation and the threat of harm,” the Court of Appeals said.

The panel said its ruling should “in no way be interpreted that we minimize the misconduct on the part of Bright Ideas.”

“We find deeply disturbing the carelessness and disregard for safety on the part of the Bright Ideas’ staff that contributed to the injury of a child entrusted to their care,” the court said.

Reach Brundrett at (803) 771-8484 or rbrundrett@thestate.com.