Couple pleads guilty to child abuse, could face 40 years

Bill Gang

Friday, May 15, 1998 | 2:26 a.m.

The systematic abuse focused on two of a couple's five children began in California and resulted in felony convictions there.

But after the family moved to Las Vegas it continued with the children suffering years of being beaten, choked, splashed with hot liquid and smacked with high heeled shoes.

They had hot chilis rubbed in their eyes and their tongues were pulled with pliers. They were deprived of food and when they were fed, they had to eat their meals naked in a bathroom, Deputy District Attorney Teresa Lowry said.

The children's mother repeatedly told them they "were not loved and were a burden."

"They truly were the scapegoats ... the outcasts of the family," said Lowry, who has been prosecuting their parents in Nevada on felony charges of child abuse and neglect with substantial mental injury.

The parents, whose names are not being used to protect the identities of the children, pleaded guilty Thursday in District Judge Don Chairez's courtroom to the charges that could put them in prison for up to 40 years.

The family has been split apart as a result of the case, with some children living with relatives and others in foster care.

The boy, who is now 12 years old, apparently attracted his parents' wrath because he is small for his age, sickly and, in Lowry's estimation, "slow."

But she said she can't forget the constant smile beaming across his face as they dealt with the travesty he and his sister endured.

The girl, a year older, apparently was victimized along with her brother between 1992 and 1996 because she stood up for him. The mother's vindictiveness resulted in an attempted murder charge for holding the girl's head under water in a bathtub, although that charge was dropped in Thursday's plea bargain.

Lowry said she had not sought an attempted murder charge against the mother and it was the grand jurors themselves who added it to the indictment after hearing the testimony.

Lowry said the abuse had attracted the attention of Child Protective Services workers, alerted by school officials who saw what apparently were high heel shoe marks on the children's heads, strange burn marks and other signs.

The prosecutor said the boy apparently had a reputation for eating other children's food and scavenging in garbage cans for something to eat.

Lowry noted that each time authorities became involved -- including in California -- the parents complied with the social workers' requirements and the family was reunited.

But the events in Las Vegas escalated out of control and it was the girl who, in the end, called police and asked for help.

Sentencing is set for July 2.