Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
How would this be a federal charge, does anyone know?
Sue
Woman Accused of Endangering Sons
> SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- A 31-year-old mother, already under
> investigation in the deaths of two sons, was arrested
> on federal charges of injuring and endangering two
> other sons.
>
> Hours after her arrest, Cynthia Martinez Lyda was
> released Wednesday on $50,000 bond and ordered to wear
> an electronic monitor.
>
> Authorities said the arrest culminated an investigation
> that began almost 3 1/2 years ago when they suspected
> that Ms. Lyda had Munchausen's syndrome by proxy, a
> rare disorder in which mothers and other caregivers
> cause illnesses and trauma in children to gain
> admiration and respect as devoted caregivers.
>
> The arrest came as Ms. Lyda began civil proceedings to
> be reunited with a 1-month-old son. Because of her
> diagnosis and the long history of unexplained injuries
> and deaths of her children, the state took the
> 1-month-old and his 16-month-old brother from her at
> birth. The boys live with a foster family.
>
> The woman's attorneys contend that she doesn't suffer
> from the rare disease and that her sons suffered from a
> genetic disorder.
>
> The indictment alleged that Ms. Lyda injured another
> son four times during his stay at a hospital at
> Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio during November
> and December 1994, when the child was 8 months old.
>
> A suspicious doctor persuaded hospital officials to use
> a hidden camera to videotape the mother in her son's
> hospital room. Ms. Lyda was accused of putting gauze in
> his gastric tube, among other acts.
>
> The boy, now 4, made a complete recovery after his
> mother was prohibited from seeing him.
>
> The indictment also charges that Ms. Lyda turned off a
> machine monitoring the respiratory and heart rate in
> 1993 of another son and failed to seek medical
> assistance when he went into cardiac and respiratory
> arrest. That boy, now 6, remains in a vegetative state.
>
> Ms. Lyda also is under investigation in Arizona for the
> deaths of a 25-month-old son in 1990 and for the death
> of a 2-year-old foster son in 1993 while the family was
> living at Williams Air Force Base in Mesa, Ariz.
>
> Though the investigation continues, it's unlikely Ms.
> Lyda will be prosecuted, Mesa Police Sgt. Earle Lloyd
> said.
>
> ``Through all the investigations, they've come up with
> nothing that can prove she harmed the child,'' Lloyd
> said.
>
> Her former husband, David Martinez, obtained custody of
> three of the boys. She has since remarried.
>
> At the hearing Wednesday, federal prosecutors asked
> that Ms. Lyda be prohibited from contact with her five
> sons or any child under 14.
--
Two rules in life:
1. Don't tell people everything you know.
2.
Subscribe/Unsubscribe, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
In the body of the message enter: subscribe/unsubscribe law-issues
