..Friends defend accused mom
CO, USA — A 34-year-old Ghanaian woman residing in the United States, already accused of beating her 3-year-old daughter to death, now faces an additional charge of sexual assault on a child by someone in a position of trust.
Arapahoe County prosecutors announced the charge, along with two others – second-degree assault with a deadly weapon and child abuse resulting in injury – during a court hearing for Susie Ida Quartey this morning.
No additional details about the nature of the alleged sex abuse were disclosed during the hearing.
Quartey was arrested Saturday after she called police to her home at 11307 E. Utah Place to say that her young daughter, Jolyn Torpoh, had stopped breathing. Quartey, a health care worker, told police she had tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate the girl.
When officers examined Jolyn’s body, they found what appeared to be fresh injuries. Her mother says they were caused when she fell in the backyard while being carried on Quartey’s back in a sling that is customary to Quartey’s homeland.
But an arrest affidavit said that police found a coat hanger with blood or bodily fluids on it, along with a broken towel bar inside the home.
Quartey’s lawyer has said she is innocent of any wrongdoing.
Source: GhanaWeb
