Child Abuse

The great-grandmother of a 5-year-old South Los Angeles boy at the center of torture and abuse allegations noticed about a year ago that he had scratches across his back. When she asked him about it, the boy replied: "A dog attacked me." Another time, Barbara Moreno saw a large knot on his forehead. "I fell down some stairs," he told her. Then, a family friend ran a bath for the boy and saw something troubling: scratches from his chest down to his ankles.

In Starkeisha Brown's small circle of South Los Angeles, it was no secret that her 5-year-old son was the victim of abuse. Friends and family said they suspected that Brown beat the boy -- and a few even witnessed it. They talked among themselves about what to do, and confronted Brown on at least one occasion. But no one called authorities.

Los Angeles County supervisors on Tuesday proposed a radical shift in the way the county monitors children who have been reported neglected or abused, saying "opportunities were missed to intervene earlier" in the recent case of a 5-year-old boy who allegedly endured ritualistic torture at the hands of his mother and two other women.

The polygamist sect preached that Dan Fischer was a heretic who had turned his back on God's chosen children. But for Enos Deloy Steed, who was banished at age 17 for kissing a girl, Fischer was like a guardian angel, the kindest man he had ever met. Steed's father disowned him and left him wandering southern Utah in search of menial work. Fischer gave him a place to live -- and volunteered to put him through college.

A suburban Chicago man locked his two young daughters in a wire cage hidden in the back of his pickup truck because he didn't have a baby-sitter, officials said. Ricardo Gonzalez, 35, of Midlothian was arrested Monday after a woman at a gas station in Posen heard a crying child and spotted him pushing small hands back into the cage, police said. Gonzalez told police he wanted to keep the girls, ages 2 and 5, from running away.

Texas authorities on Tuesday indicted the leader of a polygamous sect and four of his followers on charges of felony sexual assault on a minor, the first criminal charges to stem from a massive raid on the group's West Texas compound in April. The indictments were handed down late in the afternoon in San Angelo after a grand jury hearing. According to a statement by Texas Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott, they contain nine counts against a total of six individuals.

Four Philadelphia social workers were among nine people charged in the death of a disabled 14-year-old girl who authorities say wasted away from neglect and died weighing just 42 pounds. Danieal Kelly's mother was charged with murder; counts against other defendants range from involuntary manslaughter to perjury. Danieal's emaciated body was found covered with bedsores in her mother's squalid house in August 2006.

Child Protective Services asked a judge to place eight children from a polygamist sect's ranch back into foster care, saying their mothers refuse to limit their contact with men accused of involvement in underage marriages. The children will stay with their mothers until a hearing scheduled for Sept. 25, a CPS spokeswoman said. None now lives at the Yearning For Zion Ranch in Eldorado. Two of the girls are daughters of Lloyd Hammon Barlow, a doctor indicted last month on three misdemeanor counts of failing to report child abuse, according to court filings.

A Dayton mother was convicted of killing her month-old daughter by burning her in a microwave oven, with jurors rejecting defense claims that someone else was responsible. China Arnold, 28, lowered her head after the verdict was read. Relatives in the courtroom cried and covered their faces with their hands. Arnold, who was found guilty of aggravated murder, could be sentenced to death. The jury was scheduled to return Tuesday to begin hearing evidence in the penalty phase.

When divers finally pulled the red leather bag from the murky water of the Yarkon River, it provided closure and a sad sense of relief for many Israelis. At least now they know. At least now, 4-year-old Rose Pizem could be laid to rest with more care and protection than she got during her short life. The disappearance and death of the girl, whose body was found Thursday and identified Friday, have transfixed Israeli society for more than a month.