In their suit, the parents say they left their son in babysitter’s care based on the recommendation of the associate pastor at Westminster.

An attorney for a Muncie church has denied it shares any responsibility for the events that led to an infant’s death in January.

Westminster Presbyterian Church is a defendant in a lawsuit filed March 15 by Younghong Cheng and his wife, Hongjun Niu, whose four-month-old son, Matthew, died Jan. 19 while in the care of Tina Byrd, a babysitter the parents said they had come in contact with through the church.

Byrd — who faces three criminal charges stemming from the infant’s death — also is a defendant in the wrongful death suit. She is accused of leaving the child alone in her home on the afternoon he died, and also with lying to police about that day’s events.

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The lawsuit, filed by Muncie attorney Scott Shockley, alleges the Associate Pastor was aware, at the time of the recommendation, that a nine-week-old infant, John Wenninger, had died in Byrd’s care “under unexplained circumstances” in early November.

It also alleges church officials took steps, including holding a press conference the day after Matthew Cheng’s death, to minimize its connection to Byrd and the Chengs and “divert attention away from Westminster’s responsibility for the referral to Byrd.”