News of Doom 2.0

A 9-year-old girl testified Tuesday that when she went to “kindergarten,” she was taught how to perform sexual acts with her nieces and nephew.

The girl is one of four victims who were allegedly forced to dance and have sex with each other for an audience at the “Mineola Swingers’ Club” in 2004. The adults who made them perform collected money from the patrons but didn’t share it with the children, the victim said.

Shauntel Loraine Mayo, a woman charged in the sex ring case, was in 241st District Judge Jack Skeen Jr.’s court on Tuesday for the first day of her trial. Ms. Mayo, 29, could face five years to life in prison for engaging in organized criminal activity — forcing two young siblings to have sex with each other for profit. She could also face two to 20 years in prison if convicted of two counts of sexual performance of a child — inducing the two children to engage in sexual conduct or performance, according to the indictments.

The victims in the case include three siblings, who at the time of the outcries in 2005 were a 7-year-old girl, a 6-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl, and their 6-year-old aunt. The children are now 10, 9, 7 and 9, respectively.

Ms. Mayo has been indicted in the case, along with her boyfriend Jamie Pittman, 36, Dennis Boyd Pittman, and Patrick “Booger Red” Kelly, 41, all of Tyler; Shelia Darlene Sones, 48, Mineola; and Jimmy Dale Sones, 33, Brownsboro.

The children were also taken to a club, where they danced inappropriately while nude or wearing revealing costumes and had sex with the other children, she said. The adults collected money for the performances, but the children received nothing, she said.

The children were also given “silly pills,” drugs they took so “we didn’t know what we were doing,” she said. The performances were video recorded by Jamie Pittman, she added, and the children were told that if they told anyone, “they would hurt us.”

ADELANTO, Calif. — A top animal control officer outside of Los Angeles has resigned as he faces charges in the drowning of nearly 50 kittens.

Kevin Murphy, a head of animal control in Adelanto, Calif., was placed on paid leave in March after prosecutors accused the 36-year-old of drowning the kittens over a four-month period. He faces six counts of animal cruelty.

Mazawey said he was merely seeking the scientific data to bolster a February finding by forensic psychiatrist Diana Riccoli that Zarate's diminished mental capacity may be the result of several years of continued use of marijuana laced with PCP and alcohol. The abuse could have contributed to a "state of de-realization" that would have permitted Zarate to detach himself mentally from his actions and precluded him from giving informed consent before talking to authorities.

KOKOMO, Ind. -- Two children endured horrific treatment at the hands of their mothers and two other people at a Kokomo home, police said.

Officers went to the home Monday after the mother of one of the children complained that she wasn't allowed to see her daughter.

Police said they found two 4-year-old children in the home suffering from multiple injuries and open wounds.

According to the Kokomo Police Department, the children were abused daily in the home. They were frequently beaten, bound and kept in a closet -- one of them for three weeks.

Police said the children had been attached to items with zip ties to restrict their movement and were forced to stand in corners, sometimes overnight.

Water and food were also kept from the children for long periods of time, according to officers.

Donald Hawk, 33, Madeline Hawk, 42, Jennifer Leonard, 36, and Melissa Chandler, 30, each face felony neglect charges.

Madeline Hawk was also charged with battery. Leonard and Chandler were also charged with inducing or causing battery.

OLPE, Germany — German police arrested the mother of three infants whose bodies were found stuffed into a basement freezer, a prosecutor's spokesman said Monday.

Police made the grisly find Sunday night in the town of Wenden, near Olpe, in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, after receiving a tip from one of the woman's three grown children, officials said.

The three infants are believed to have been born alive, said Johannes Daheim, spokesman for prosecutors investigating the case. Authorities were awaiting autopsy results to determine for sure how they died, he said.

The 44-year-old woman, who name was not released, was taken into custody on suspicion that she killed the children.

WILMINGTON, N.C. -- Wilmington police have arrested a man suspected of raping a 95-year-old woman inside her home in the city's historic district.

Brian Anthony Reavis, 41, of Wilmington, was arrested Wednesday night. Charges against Reavis include rape, kidnapping and burglary. He is being held on $1 million bond at the New Hanover County jail.

The woman was attacked April 12 as she picked up a newspaper on her front porch.

Police said the man pushed his way inside and demanded money. The woman gave him $20 sitting on a table. Then the man forced her upstairs to get her purse, raped her and beat her, severely injuring her eye, police said.

MIAMI -- A woman is accused of starving and torturing her 7-year-old niece for whom she was supposed to be caring.

Felicia Watkins, 37, is charged with multiple counts of child abuse. She appeared before a judge Thursday in Miami.

Miami police said they were first notified after the girl's teacher noticed her fingers were swollen to the point that she could not hold a pencil.

Police said Watkins, who works in the cafeteria at Miami Beach High School, repeatedly abused her niece inside the Liberty City apartment she shared with her husband.

"The aunt confesses and says this was all a part of discipline and punishment," Miami police spokesman Delrish Moss said. "So she seemed to think her actions were pretty normal. She was rather cavalier about it."

Police said Watkins squeezed the girl's fingers with pliers, whipped her with an electrical cord and starved her to the point that she weighed just 48 pounds.

The girl came to live with her aunt and uncle after her mother was arrested, accused of killing the girl's father.

A Hayward man didn't call 911 after he intentionally dipped his girlfriend's 16-month-old son in scalding water, inflicting critical burns to 70 percent of his body and causing his skin to peel away, according to police.

Instead, 20-year-old Christian Perez phoned his sister and her husband, police said Tuesday. They picked him and the child up in their car.

But they, too, failed to immediately summon authorities.

During the next two hours, police say, the trio drove the toddler several miles across Hayward to a Walgreen's drugstore, bought ointment off the shelf and tried to apply it on the child.

They allegedly called relatives in Mexico to ask for advice, and tried to put the injured boy to bed at the sister's home.

Finally, at 1 p.m. Thursday, while driving around again, Perez called 911 after the child began having seizures and his sister told him he was going to die, Hayward police Lt. Chris Orrey said.

Alameda County prosecutors charged Perez with felony counts of child abuse, child endangerment, mayhem and torture.

His sister, Patricia Perez, 21, and her husband, Jose Gamez, 22, face felony child endangerment charges.

A toddler suffering third-degree burns over much of his lower body may lose his legs because of his injuries.

Authorities say the boy, who is under 2 years old, suffered the burns over about 40 percent of his body after he was dipped in boiling water by his mother and her roommate.

The boy's mother, Latasha Spencer, 21, and her roommate, Krystal Swift, 23, both of the Century Woods Apartments, each face a charge of aggravated battery of a child, a Class X felony, in relation to the child's injuries. Investigators believe he was injured on April 11 at the apartment complex, 1400 5th St., Rock Island.

The boy was being treated at University of Iowa Hospitals in Iowa City, Iowa, and doctors there were unsure if they would be able to save his lower limbs, Rock Island police Detective Patti Jo Dooley said Tuesday at Ms. Swift's preliminary hearing.

Ms. Spencer allegedly dipped the boy into the water to "steam" him, in an attempt to hide beating injuries on his body, Detective Dooley testified. Department of Children and Family Services officials were already investigating the family when the alleged incident took place.

She told police she gave birth to twins in 1996, but one of the babies died a few days later as a result of neglect, and Josef F. removed the infant's body and burned it.