Source: Atlanta Journal Constitution, By Zachary Hansen, August 25, 2018
A sheriff in New Mexico told the Associated Press Friday that charges have been upgraded for a woman and the father of the 3-year-old Georgia boy whose body was found on a New Mexico compound earlier in August.
Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe said that Siraj Ibn Wahhaj and Jany Leveille have been charged with child abuse resulting in death and conspiracy to commit child abuse, the AP reported.
Siraj Ibn Wahhaj is the father of Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, whose remains we
re discovered Aug. 6, which would have been his fourth birthday. The child, who was from Clayton County, was previously missing since November.
The defendants were among five adults and 11 children found living in primitive conditions during an Aug. 3 raid on the compound, the AP reported.
An attorney for Leveille told the AP she has not seen the charges and her client maintains her innocence. A lawyer for Siraj Ibn Wahhaj could not be immediately reached.
But because the couple was still married and there was no formal custody arrangement at issue at that date, officers had no legal authority to take the child from his father.
