Mother Guilty of Not Reporting Daughter’s Rape : Courts: Girl, 7, was attacked by woman’s AIDS-infected groom on their wedding day.

A mother was convicted Friday of child endangerment and of being an accessory to the rape of her 7-year-old daughter, who was attacked on the woman’s wedding day by her AIDS-infected groom.

Jurors deliberated four days before convicting the 38-year-old woman on both felony charges. She faces a maximum sentence of nearly seven years for failing to notify police that her daughter had been beaten and raped.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Robert McIntyre scheduled a Jan. 10 sentencing hearing.

The girl, who now lives out of state, was infected with the AIDS virus during the attack.

The woman’s husband, Frank Bridges, 43, who has a different last name from the girl, pleaded guilty in June to five felony counts in connection with the Jan. 15 attack. He is serving a 38-year sentence. He refused to testify against his wife at her trial.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Tim Schaaf called Bridges a “monster,” but said the mother failed to intervene during the attack and provided an unsafe environment for her daughter and two sons, ages 8 and 10.

On the couple’s wedding day, Bridges lured the child upstairs to a bedroom, promising to reward her with a dollar. Once there, he locked the door, hit the girl and raped her.

Hearing his sister’s screams and then seeing her bloodstained dress, the 10-year-old brother dialed 911. Jurors heard a tape of that call and the mother’s voice screaming, “Don’t! Don’t!” just before the line went dead.

Schaaf said that the mother hung up the phone and refused to answer when the operator called back.

Defense attorney Bruce Cormicle argued that his client was confused and distraught, and was more interested in comforting her child than in summoning police.

Schaaf said Bridges lived with the woman and her children before the wedding. He routinely left drug paraphernalia, including needles, all over the house, Schaaf told jurors. The AIDS virus can be transmitted by contaminated needles as well as through sexual intercourse.

During the couple’s marriage ceremony, the groom talked of pawning his wedding ring to buy drugs. A videotape of that incident was shown during the woman’s trial.