Woman Pleads Guilty to Child Endangering
A 31-year-old woman who police say taped the eyes, noses, hands and feet of her two sons and nephew as punishment pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of felony child endangering.
The woman, Dorothy Christina Evanovich, pleaded guilty in exchange for dismissal of two other counts of child endangering against her, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Pargament.
Van Nuys Municipal Court Judge James M. Coleman set sentencing for Aug. 23 before Superior Court Commissioner Sherman Juster. Evanovich faces a maximum sentence of six years in prison.
Evanovich, a transient, was arrested last month by Los Angeles police at the Hiway Host Travelyn Motel, 8424 Sepulveda Blvd., after several hotel guests and employees saw the children, ages 4, 7 and 8, with clear plastic medical tape on them, officials said.
Prosecutors said the woman reportedly also inserted a lit cigarette into the mouth and nose of one child to make him smoke it, forced another to wear his dirty underwear over his head, and forced the third to wear a lamp shade over his head.
Evanovich, who is being held in the Sybil Brand Institute in lieu of $9,000 bail, matter-of-factly told police that she taped the children to discipline them.
The children are in protective custody pending a Juvenile Court hearing into their permanent placement, said Detective Susan Livera.
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