TAOS, N.M. (AP) - The father of a child found dead in a filthy New Mexico compound earlier this month has pleaded not guilty to new charges of child abuse resulting in death.
The dead boy's father, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, and his partner Jany Leveille, who also is charged with the same crime, remained silent in court as the new charges were read.
The pleas followed a decision by a judge to dismiss initial child neglect charges against them. They were arrested this month at a remote compound where 11 children were found living in filth and the body of a 3-year-old boy was discovered.
Authorities say Wahhaj and Leveille denied the boy proper medicine and health care as he died in December 2017 during a religious ritual aimed at casting out demonic spirits.
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