Ghanda Roongsang, 43, of Boulder

A 43-year-old Boulder woman who was arrested in October on suspicion of misdemeanor child abuse after police said she burned a 3-year-old boy with a cigarette was re-arrested Monday while appearing in court on the case.

Gahnda Roongsang is back in the Boulder County Jail and being held in lieu of $10,000 bond because authorities -- after further investigation -- upgraded the misdemeanor charge against her to a felony. An arrest warrant for Roongsang was issued Friday. Police took her into custody when she appeared in court Monday morning to enter a plea in the original misdemeanor charge.

The Boulder County District Attorney's Office filed a motion to dismiss the misdemeanor charge and replace it with the felony, said Catherine Olguin, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney's Office. Details about what led authorities to upgrade the charge haven't been made public, but Olguin said the felony allegations stem from the "same fact pattern" as the misdemeanor charge.

According to a Boulder police report, the mother of the boy who was burned went to her neighbor Roongsang's apartment with her young son about 11:30 a.m. Oct. 22 to get a cigarette. While she was there, according to police, Roongsang asked if the boy could stay and play with her children. The mother agreed and returned hours later to get her son, according to police.

When she saw him, she noticed a cigarette burn on his forehead and later noticed one behind his ear. Roongsang told her "the kids were playing with cigarettes," according to the report. When the mother asked her son what happened, he told her, "Gahnda burned me" and said that Roongsang told him to say he fell if anyone asked how he was injured.

The mother eventually called authorities. When officers interviewed Roongsang, she told them that she was smoking a cigarette when the boy bumped into her. At first, she told police she didn't know anything had happened, but when she was questioned again she told officers that she saw the burn and put medication on it, police reported.

Two of Roongsang's four children were home at the time, and police spoke with them. One of them said the neighbor boy was burned; he also told police that he was "not allowed to say" how that happened. He told police that his mother warned him not to tell because "social services takes kids away," police reported.

As police were arresting Roongsang, she said, "I didn't mean to hurt him," according to police.

In an interview after her first arrest, Roongsang told a Camera reporter that the Boulder County Department of Housing and Human Services took her children pending further investigation.

"I didn't mean to hurt the child," she said. "I love children to death, and I wouldn't hurt them."

Roongsang said again that she didn't know how the child was burned.

"Kids run into cigarettes some times," she said. "I don't even know if I did that. He might have had a cigarette already."

The child's grandmother, Robin Marlar, told the Camera on Monday that the child is recovering from his injuries, but he's still struggling emotionally.

"I don't think anyone is safe around her," Marlar said of Roongsang.