Arcadia surrogacy mansion mom fled U.S. after previous abuse charge, prosecutors allege

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Set us as preferred One of the defendants accused of allowing more than a dozen of their surrogate children to suffer abuse inside an Arcadia “house of horrors” previously fled the country to dodge a child abuse investigation, a prosecutor said in court Friday.Los Angeles County Deputy Dist.Atty.

MacKenzie Teymouri also told a judge Friday that Guojun Xuan, 66, and Silvia Zhang, 39, kept their more than 20 children trapped inside the Arcadia mansion for years, almost never letting them see sunlight.During a search of the home last week, police also found the cremated remains of another surrogate child that had been mailed to the house; the baby died shortly after birth in Florida, Teymouri said.

The defendants never opened the box, according to Teymouri, who said Xuan and Zhang were “indifferent” to the well-being of their children.The Friday afternoon hearing was sparked by Xuan and Zhang’s attorneys attempts to have their clients released on their own recognizance.Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Caroline Lugo instead ordered them held in lieu of $20 million bail.

Teymouri filed a motion last week seeking to have the couple held on $100 million bail, citing their extreme wealth.The couple was charged last week with multiple counts of conspiracy to commit child abuse and witness intimidation.Prosecutors allege the couple directed a half-dozen nannies they employed to constantly beat the children for even the slightest misbehavior inside their home “learning center.” They have pleaded not guilty and denied the accusations through their attorneys, who declined to comment on the new allegations leveled in court Friday by prosecutors.Security system surveillance footage taken from inside the home last year revealed “thousands” of instances of physical abuse over the course of 10 days, according to a ...