Full Notification

On Tuesday evening, 05-14-2019, at approximately 5:44 pm, Sebastopol Police officers were dispatched to the area of SR-116 (North Main Street) and Berry Lane, on the report of a possible impaired driver. The reporting party stated her sister was possibly under the influence of an unknown drug and may have struck her five-year-old daughter in the face, prior to fleeing the residence with the child in her vehicle.

As officers searched the area for the vehicle, the woman returned to her residence with the child. Officers returned to the Berry Lane residence just as the woman returned. The first arriving officer contacted 39-year-old Sebastopol resident Melody Eleni Loukas and her daughter while they were still seated in Loukas’ vehicle.

During the initial contact, the officer immediately recognized the child’s face was red, swollen, had dark bruising around both of her eyes and red marks around her neck. Loukas admitted strangling her daughter to the point she passed out for an undetermined amount of time. Loukas provided no motive for her actions.

The officer requested an emergency medical response due to the child’s obvious injuries. Paramedics arrived and transported the child by ambulance to the Emergency Room at Sutter Hospital in Santa Rosa for evaluation. The child was later transported via ambulance to UCSF Children’s Hospital in Oakland, for additional testing and observation. The child is expected to survive her injuries.

Loukas was arrested and booked into the Sonoma County Jail for violations of PC 243(D) Battery with serious injury (Felony); PC 245(a)(4) Assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury (Felony); and PC 273a(a) Willful injury to a child (Felony). Her bail was set at $250,000.