Costa Mesa Woman Found Not Guilty of Burning Girl

A Costa Mesa woman accused of burning the lips of a 2 1/2-year-old child was acquitted Friday when jurors agreed that she struck the child to stop the girl from biting her.

Donna Perren, 24, broke down and cried when she heard the verdict. Her attorney, Deputy Public Defender Lewis Clapp, said later that “this poor woman has been through hell, and it will probably continue even though she’s been acquitted.”

The jurors deliberated for half a day.

The defense contended Perren was at home on Feb. 22, 1984, when she was trying to break up a fight between her own 3-year-old daughter and the daughter of a friend living with her.

When the friend’s daughter bit Perren hard on the chin, Perren pulled the girl’s hair, tried to pry her jaws open and struck her in the mouth to try to stop the biting, the defense claimed.

Perren called the girl’s mother immediately when it appeared the child’s lips were swelling, according to the mother’s testimony at the trial. The girl was taken to a doctor, who reported it as a case of possible child abuse. Perren was arrested by investigating police officers after she admitted she struck the child.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Molko brought in two doctors to testify that the child’s lip injuries were burns. But Clapp countered with an expert from the UCI Medical Center’s burn unit, who testified there were no burns at all on the child. Clapp also produced evidence showing that Perren had been bitten.

Clapp contended the child was already suffering from a lip infection and that the slap Perren gave her aggravated it. The child was hospitalized for five days but recovered fully. She now lives with her mother in another state.

Although she was acquitted, Perren, the mother of two, has lost her job, had to drop out of cosmetology school and has been shunned by neighbors since the incident, Clapp said, adding: “There will still be people who think she abused that child.”