BOSTON (AP) — A mother accused of allowing her 13-year-old daughter to waste away from a massive infection caused by a botched navel piercing was ordered held on $10,000 bail.

Deborah Robinson, 38, pleaded innocent to child endangerment charges at her arraignment Thursday in Suffolk Superior Court. She was ordered by the magistrate to stay away from her daughter and a 15-year-old son.

The girl had perforated her intestine in June when she attempted to pierce her belly button. Prosecutors say Robinson failed to seek medical attention for her daughter even after her condition became life-threatening.

By the time her daughter arrived at the hospital on Aug. 3, infection had spread through her abdomen, fluid was oozing from her navel, and she had pneumonia. The former middle school track runner had lost up to 40 pounds and weighed just 75. Doctors did not think she would survive the night.

Assistant District Attorney David Deakin said Robinson was lucky she wasn't facing a manslaughter charge. He said the girl is recovering well, though she's still hospitalized and faces at least one more surgery.

After Robinson's arrest in August, she was examined by psychiatrists who found her mentally competent to stand trial.

And another story showing women have a propensity for violence, as if you guys didn't know that.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

BRENTWOOD — The second of two women charged in the drowning death of Dewey the dachshund has filed a notice of intent to plead guilty at Rockingham County Superior Court.

Newmarket resident Shannon Walters is set to change her plea during a hearing Nov. 30. The hearing had been scheduled to take place Wednesday but was postponed at the last minute.

A guilty plea for Walters would effectively end a yearlong legal battle in which defense lawyers disputed the methods police used to obtain information that led to the arrest of the women.

Walters's alleged accomplice, Erin Wylie, 28, of 50 Harvard Street in Portsmouth, has already pleaded guilty to counts of cruelty to animals and conspiracy for her role last year in stealing and killing the dog that belonged to Eliot, Maine resident Pat Collins, her boyfriend at the time.

Rockingham County Superior Court Judge Tina Nadeau sentenced Wylie to a year in the Rockingham County Jail. Nadeau also prohibited Wylie from owning or controlling any animals for seven years and ordered her to get a mental health evaluation.

Authorities say Wylie and Walters conspired to kidnap the dog in May 2004 and drown it in a bathtub at Wylie's apartment because she was jealous of the attention Collins paid to the dog.

The plea came after a decision last month by Rockingham County Superior Court Judge Tina Nadeau, who ruled to allow crucial evidence in the case after previously denying it. Nadeau had initially thrown out e-mails between Wylie and Walters that were obtained by Tracy York, a neighbor of Walters, because she said they had been illegally intercepted. York had obtained these e-mails by looking into a folder on a computer server that she and Walters had shared through a local-area network in their duplex apartment.

Walters's computer had a key-logging program on it and York used information from that to obtain Walters' e-mail password. She then retrieved correspondence between Walters and Wylie detailing the killing of Dewey and plans for a meeting to dispose of the animal's body.

Nadeau changed her mind after the state had filed a motion for reconsideration arguing that the key-logging program did not constitute an interception because it did not record any telecommunication transmitted through a communications common carrier.

A trial had been set for September, but was continued. The trial for Walters was to begin Monday. Both women face similar charges in Maine.