PLEASANTON, Calif., April 30 (UPI) — Two sisters, facing child abuse charges for binding seven infants too tightly in blankets at a Livermore, Calif., day care center, pleaded not guilty in court.
Nazila Sharaf, 35, and Lida Sharaf, 33, were arraigned Thursday and entered pleas in a Pleasanton court Monday. The sisters, each of whom is pregnant, were charged with three counts of felony child abuse and four counts of misdemeanor child abuse, court records said.
They allegedly put the babies in danger at the Universal Preschool in Livermore, where they are employed, by swaddling the infants’ bodies so tightly they could not breathe and could not move their arms and legs, the Bay Area News Group reported.
A police report added the sisters would sometimes throw blankets over the babies’ faces while their extremities were bound, rendering them unable to save themselves if they could not breathe.
Doctors examined all children at the facility, and none showed signs of injury related to the alleged abuse, Livermore police officer Steve Goard said.
Another pretrial hearing is scheduled for June 5.
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