Six more children from a Los Angeles youth athletic group were placed in protective custody, and four people were charged with murder in the beating death of the daughter of the organization's founder.
Bart Wilson, a spokesman for the state Children's Services Division, said authorities plan to recommend during a court hearing Monday that all of the children taken from the Ecclesia Athletic Association be kept in state custody, at least temporarily.The six children, ranging in age from 11/2 months to 12 years, were taken into protective custody Sunday after being interviewed by state workers and deputy sheriffs.
Alice Galloway, a spokeswoman for the CSD, said Monday that authorities had earlier miscounted the number of children, saying they had taken 53 other youngsters from a rural farm house used by Ecclesia. Galloway said authorities actually took 47 kids from the house on Friday, making the total number of children involved to 53, from 18 families.
The house near Sandy, about 25 miles east of Portland, is used by the Ecclesia Athletic Association, a group based in the Los Angeles community of Watts that claims to provide sports and "toughness" training for inner city kids.
"At the moment we have children who have some marks and scars, and we are led to believe abuse has occurred," Wilson said of the children. He believed no children remained in the group's Oregon homes.
Most of the children were removed from the house Friday after the body of Dayna Lorea Broussard, 8, the daughter of Ecclesia's founder, Eldridge Broussard Jr., was taken to a fire station by four staff members of the group. Officials said she had been "severely whipped and beaten."
Two of the people who brought in the girl's body were charged with murder and the other two were held as material witnesses. Two other people also were charged with murder.
Broussard arrived at the Clacka-mas County Sheriff's Department from Los Angeles Sunday and was interviewed by detectives. He later told Portland television station KATU that the media contributed to his daughter's death with bad publicity.
"Now murder is involved and I accuse you . . . of murder in the first degree," Broussard said, referring to the media.