Mother Pleads Not Guilty to Torturing Daughter

A 41-year-old San Bernardino County woman pleaded not guilty Tuesday to felony charges that she tortured her slightly mentally retarded daughter for years and kept her out of school--alleged crimes that could lead to a life sentence.

Maria Carmen Salcedo of Colton was ordered held in lieu of $1 million bail as her family and friends watched, some with tears rolling down their cheeks.

Salcedo, a mother of 13, was arraigned at El Monte’s Rio Hondo Municipal Court, about a mile from the Allgeyer Street home where she allegedly committed a series of horrors against her daughter Melissa.

Citing the severity of the alleged crimes, Rio Hondo Municipal Court Presiding Judge Peter J. Meeka refused to reduce Salcedo’s bail despite protests from her attorney that she surrendered to authorities and was cooperating with police.

Prosecutors have charged Salcedo with torture, felony child endangerment, conspiracy to commit child endangerment and witness intimidation. A preliminary hearing was set for Sept. 2.

“Maria Salcedo is presumed innocent until proven otherwise,” her attorney, Daniel S. O’Sullivan, said after the arraignment.

Meanwhile, authorities said Tuesday that they have stepped up the search for the man who lived with her, Tito Dominguez, 56. He is charged with five counts of rape, two counts of oral copulation, felony child endangerment and conspiracy to commit child endangerment from 1993 to 1997.

Dominguez, who faces up to 60 years in prison, was last reported to be living in Texas.

Two of Salcedo’s daughters told reporters outside the courtroom that authorities should use their energies to find Dominguez rather than trying to put their mother in prison.

“Tito is free right now . . . but my mom turned herself in. He was the ringleader,” said daughter Priscilla Gonzales. “He raped three of the girls.”

While acknowledging that her mother has physically abused Melissa, Gonzales said Salcedo herself had been a victim of Dominguez, who would regularly beat or threaten to kill her.

“She needs help. She don’t need to go to jail,” Gonzales said. “He would beat her. She had a miscarriage. He’d wrap socks around his hands and hit her.”

“It wasn’t my mom’s fault. . . . I understand why [my mom] did what she did,” said Pauline Delgado, another daughter, adding that Dominguez is to blame for Melissa never going to school.

The charges follow a Times article detailing accusations that Salcedo and Dominguez treated Melissa like the family slave. They never enrolled her in school, forced her to perform household chores and hid her in the closet when strangers would come around. She was beaten so severely over the years that psychologists later remarked at the number of scars on her body.

“I used to abuse [Melissa],” Salcedo told The Times. “It was my mistake when I used to mistreat Melissa. I cry every day.”

Among the physical abuses Melissa suffered, according to the felony complaint: a broken arm, broken teeth, beatings with a belt buckle, being forced to drink out of the toilet, and denial of medical and dental treatment.

Melissa, 19, was rescued in April 1997, after two of her sisters, both of whom had left the family home, went to El Monte police and alleged that Dominguez sexually abused them as children. Police arrested Dominguez, and the same day, social workers removed Melissa and seven other children from the home. .

Dominguez was released after prosecutors determined that they had insufficient evidence. But after inquiries by The Times last month, El Monte police renewed their probe, interviewing Melissa and her sisters.

They also charged Salcedo with tampering with a witness for allegedly telling Melissa in April 1997 not to reveal the years of abuse to police.

Melissa’s sister Pauline said Tuesday that she also decided not to talk two years ago because “we feared for our lives. We were all scared of Tito.”