Conditions of release not yet met for compound suspects

3 suspects charged with child abuse, remain in jail.

TAOS, N.M. — Three people accused of child abuse at a ramshackle desert compound remained jailed Wednesday as New Mexico authorities sought to satisfy the conditions of their release set by a judge.

Among other things, authorities must find safe living arrangements for the defendants before they can leave jail. They also must wear ankle monitors and have regular contact with their attorneys.

“The conditions for their release have not yet been met,” Taos County spokesman Steve Fuhlendorf said Wednesday evening. He did not elaborate.

The legal proceedings against the suspects will be staged in Taos, a community rattled by threats against the judge who cleared the way for the suspects to be released.

Lawyer Marie Legrand Miller, who represents defendant Hujrah Wahhaj, said the release of her client is being delayed over concerns about safety.

She said the threats against the judge, heightened security at the courthouse and other factors are “giving people some pause in the community about what they are able and willing to do” to help her client.

“It has to be a safe release or she is safer in the jail,” the lawyer said.

There are few Muslims in the city. The local mosque is a white, domed building the size of a two-car garage. Outside, a staircase winds around a cottonwood tree that serves as a makeshift minaret — though there are seldom calls to prayer.

The defendants, all members of an extended family, face charges of child abuse after authorities raided their remote compound near the Colorado border in early August. Eleven children were found living in what authorities described as filthy and dangerous conditions.

Authorities returned to the compound just days later to recover the remains of a small boy whose body had been wrapped in cloth and plastic and stashed in a tunnel dug on the property.

Taos County officials said security remained tight Wednesday at the courthouse because of the threats that followed the ruling by District Judge Sarah Backus.

Backus’ decision came despite assertions by prosecutors that the group was training children to use firearms for an anti-government mission and should remain in jail pending trial.

In her written ruling, Backus said she was bound by an “extremely high standard of proof ” and that prosecutors failed to present clear and convincing evidence regarding dangers the defendants might pose to the community.

“From this meager evidence the court is requested by the state to surmise that these people are dangerous terrorists with a plot against the country or institutions. The court may not surmise, guess or assume,” she wrote.

AP Taos County officials survey a compound in Amalia, N.M. Investigators said that a body found there has been identified as a missing Georgia boy whose father is accused of kidnapping him and performing purification rituals on the severely disabled child.