County Unable to Find Foster Home for Abused Boy : Social services: Prospective parents are leery of the publicity surrounding the case of alleged torture and the special medical care the 10-year-old needs.

County Social Services officials said Monday that they are running into difficulty finding foster parents for the 10-year-old boy whose aunt has been charged with torturing him at her home in Orange earlier this month.

*

Bob Griffith, deputy director of the Orange County Social Services Agency, said Monday that some would-be foster parents are unwilling to take the boy into their home because of the publicity surrounding the case and his current need for special medical care.

Meanwhile, the boy’s uncle, 45-year-old Edward Medina, was arraigned Monday in Municipal Court in Santa Ana on three counts of felony child abuse, each carrying a sentence of two to six years in prison. Prosecutors allege that he did nothing to stop his wife, 31-year-old Cynthia Medina, from abusing the child on Sept. 7.

According to authorities, Cynthia Medina flew into a rage after she suspected the boy had been playing with her marijuana cigarettes. They say that in order to punish the child, Medina seared the boy’s tongue with knives heated on the stove, beat him with an electrical cord and sodomized him with a miniature baseball bat.

They allege that Medina was in another room when the abuse occurred and refused to intervene despite his nephew’s cries for help.

Because the boy’s injuries were so severe, Cynthia Medina has also been charged with torture--the first such case filed in Orange County.

Medina says the boy’s injuries resulted from a “freak” accident, according to her attorney. The Medinas also are charged with abusing their 9-year-old son, who officials have placed at Orangewood, the county facility for abused and neglected children.

The nephew has been in the hospital since Sept. 8 after having had emergency surgery. His condition has improved, and he is ready to leave the hospital, officials said, though he still requires special medical attention for his abdominal injuries.

The publicity generated by the case, however, has discouraged some potential foster parents, according to social services officials.

“We’ve had a couple of foster parents turn us down flat, saying this case is not one they feel they would be able to handle,” Griffith said, adding that the boy’s medical needs have also made it difficult to find him a suitable, temporary home.

Social services officials are also in the process of trying to determine who the child should live with further down the road. They expect to make a recommendations for longer-term placement to a juvenile court judge within the next few weeks.

The child’s maternal grandmother and his father are locked in a custody dispute, social services officials said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Dist. Atty. Charles J. Middleton said a preliminary hearing in Edward Medina’s case has been scheduled for Friday at 9 a.m. in Orange County Municipal Court.

Middleton said he wants to try the two cases together to spare the boy the ordeal of having to testify twice.