Mother to Stand Trial on Charges of Abusing Daughter

A municipal judge ruled Tuesday that a 41-year-old Colton woman must stand trial on felony charges for allegedly torturing her slightly mentally retarded daughter and never allowing her to attend school--crimes that could lead to a life sentence.

The ruling concluded a preliminary hearing for Maria Carmen Salcedo and came after her daughter, 19-year-old Melissa, gave emotional testimony describing how she was made a virtual family slave. She said her mother regularly beat, burned and choked her, and hid her in the closet when visitors came.

“The defendant must shoulder the responsibilities for her actions. And her actions concerning Melissa were sadistic and cruel in nature,” said Rio Hondo Municipal Court Presiding Judge Peter Meeka.

Salcedo is being held on $1 million bail pending her arraignment Nov. 31 in Pomona Superior Court. She is charged with torture, felony child endangerment, witness intimidation and conspiring with ex-boyfriend Tito Dominguez to commit child endangerment.

Dominguez, 56, remains a fugitive and is charged with five counts of rape, two counts of oral copulation and child abuse and conspiracy.

Salcedo’s defense attorney, Daniel O’Sullivan, contended that his client was forced to hit her daughter by Dominguez, who “terrorized, beat and disfigured” his client.

But prosecutor Christine Weiss said that while Dominguez made comments that provoked some beatings of Melissa, it was Salcedo who “engaged in unthinkable ways to torture her child.”