Woman Charged in Torture of Nephew, 10

An Orange woman was so enraged by the possibility that her 10-year-old nephew was toying with her marijuana cigarettes that she seared his tongue with a red-hot knife and sexually assaulted him with a souvenir baseball bat, causing internal injuries that nearly killed the boy, a prosecutor alleged in court Friday.

Cynthia Medina, a playground supervisor at an elementary school, is believed to be the first person in Orange County to be charged with torture since the law was put on the books in 1990.

Medina, 30, appeared in court Friday to face four counts of felony child abuse and one count of torture. She hid her face from news cameras during the court session, during which she agreed to postpone her arraignment until Sept. 30. Central Municipal Court Judge Richard Stanford raised Medina’s bail to $100,000 after the prosecutor said he considered her a flight risk and possible danger to children.

But defense attorney Richard C. Gilbert said the charges in the case are trumped up and his client is being used as a guinea pig to experiment with a new law.

“She is remorseful for some of the conduct; other conduct she denies,” Gilbert said. He said his client was lacking in parenting skills. The attorney did not concede that she had caused the boy’s serious injuries, which he downplayed.

“You walk over to Juvenile Court now, and you’ll see a hundred of these cases,” he said. The boy remains hospitalized. Medina’s own son, 9, has been placed at Orangewood, the county’s home for neglected and abused children.

Medina’s nephew told police his aunt choked him until he was unconscious, seared his tongue with a knife and made him take off his clothes--so they would not be bloodied--before she sodomized him with a souvenir baseball bat as punishment, according to court records.

“She was concerned he might have been playing around with her marijuana cigarettes” after she found the child’s fingerprints in the ashtray, said Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Charles Middleton, head of the child abuse unit.

As Cynthia Medina allegedly attacked the boy, he called to his uncle for help, but the uncle, Edward Medina, stayed in another room watching television, court records show. At one point, the uncle told his wife the boy might die if the attack persisted, according to the boy’s account to police. Police said Edward Medina remains under investigation.

The county’s child abuse registry received notification from a physician the day after the boy was injured, according to Timm Browne, a spokesman for the Orange Police Department. Doctors are required to report suspected child abuse within 24 hours.

Gilbert said he is attempting to learn why the boy was sent home with his aunt and uncle after the doctor’s examination.