STATE : Charges Against Mom Called a Hoax

All but one of the 59 charges against an El Cerrito woman who was accused of prostituting her children were dropped after the youngsters told investigators they made the story up, prosecutors said today.

The 29-year-old woman, who has been held without bail since January, and the children’s grandmother had been charged with pandering, aiding in the sexual molestation of children and furnishing drugs to minors.

The woman’s 12-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son accused her earlier this year of forcing them to have sex with dozens of adults and said they were given drugs to make them more compliant. But they said over the weekend that they had been neglected by their mother. She still faces a charge of felony child endangerment. Charges against the grandmother were dropped.