Sunday, March 23, 2014

Lesbians arrested for child abuse

The worst parents are the psychotherapists, lesbians, and adoptive parents. This story has the combination, along with bankruptcy and welfare.

The Monterey Herald reports:
One of two women accused of starving, chaining and abusing three children in Monterey County is a former correctional officer, while the other was a businesswoman and counselor at clinics in California and New Mexico, according to their online professional profiles and court filings.

Sheriff's deputies rescued three children from the couple's residence on Russell Road north of Salinas on March 14, citing horrific conditions and an "emaciated" 8-year-old girl who looked like "a concentration camp" victim, said Monterey County Sheriff Scott Miller.

Also taken from the home were two boys, ages 3 and 5.

Miller said Eraca Dawn Craig, 31, and Christian Jessica Deanda, 44, are accused of felony child cruelty, false imprisonment and other charges.

Deputies conducted a wel­fare check at the house after the children didn’t show up for an unspecified appoint­ment, detectives said.

They found the children, who were home-schooled, living in squalid conditions and “fairly dire straits,” Miller said.

The girl was the most abused, deputies said, though all three had bruises and other marks and ap­peared to be malnourished.

Officers said they found signs the girl had been chained to the wall about four feet above the floor, and said she may also have been held in a closet.

Investigators believe she had been shackled at times at the ankle and at other times by a collar around her neck.

One deputy reported the girl was chained “to keep her from obtaining food.”

Miller said it appeared she had “hardly eaten for months.”

The girl and the 5-year ­old boy were legally adopted children, he said, while the 3-year-old boy is the biolog­ical son of one of the women, who are domestic partners.

The rescued 8-year-old girl was immediately hospi­talized for around five days, Miller said, and appeared to be “very traumatized.”

“It seems that the little girl was the major target of this abuse,” he said. “It was a particularly heinous case.”

He said there were in­dications the women were preparing to leave the area very soon.

Detectives said moving boxes were already packed and the women told them they were planning to move to the Fresno area.

Miller said when children are rescued from terrifying conditions, they’re not usu­ally “jumping up and down in joy. They may have for­gotten what joy is like.”

Profiles leave no clue

Law enforcement’s de­scription of the grim sce­nario stands inmarked con­trast to the women’s online business profiles.

Posting as Cristian De­anda- Craig on LinkedIn. Com, Deanda wrote about her cactus nursery in New Mexico: “I am currently in a place that makes me happy both personally and profes­sionally. I left me (sic) job to be home with my kids. I loved gardening and soon found myself selling flowers to neighbors. So my partner and I started our business — the best decision ever! I enjoy watching my kids grow and my flowers!”

Under previous jobs, she lists work as an HIV pre­vention case manager at John XXIII AIDS Ministry in Salinas from 2001-2004, and later as a psychosocial therapy manager at Valen­cia Counseling Services in Estancia, New Mexico.

Deanda was also a pro­gram manager at a transi­tional housing facility for men in Gallup, New Mex­ico, according to the profile.

Public records show she has lived in Castroville and Salinas as well as New Mex­ico.

Deanda and Craig were scheduled to be married March 29, according to an online gift registry.

Craig, whose profile is listed under Eraca Craig-Deanda, earned a bachelor’s degree in auto mechanics management from Hartnell College in 2013, according to the site.

Before that, she was a de­tention officer at the Navajo County (Ariz.) Sheriff’s Of­fice in 2005-2006 and a cor­rections officer at a New Mexico corrections facility from Dec. 2006 to May 2010. More recently, her occupa­tion was listed as auto me­chanic.

Records show she left New Mexico in May 2010, moving to the Russell Road address in unincorporated Monterey County.

Soon after moving back to Salinas, Craig filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

Almost immediately, she began defaulting on agreed­ upon monthly payments, federal court records show. The case was ultimately thrown out for failure to pay, just two days before her arrest.

Craig earned around $36,000 a year as a New Mexico correctional officer, according to her filing, but was receiving unemploy­ment assistance and food stamps in Salinas at the time of her bankruptcy pe­tition.

The three children were listed as her dependent sons and daughter in the filing, which was made when her youngest son was 6 months old.

Neither woman appears to have a criminal record in Monterey County, accord­ing to court records.

Asked why his office took so long to announce the arrests, Miller said of­ficials were still investigat­ing the case and wanted to wait until after the women were charged by the Dis­trict Attorney’s Office and arraigned in court.

They were arraigned in Monterey County Court on Tuesday and are being held at Monterey County Jail in lieu of $50,000 bail each, al­though Miller said late Fri­day officers were in court asking for the bail amounts to be raised.

Deanda and Craig are scheduled for a preliminary hearing March 28.
Not too long ago, these unstable lesbians would not have been able to adopt kids because they would not have been considered fit parents.

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