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DeLeon daughter charged with assault: Woman accused of abusing child.

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DeLeon daughter charged with assault: Woman accused of abusing child.

March 22, 2007 

Benjamin Shors

Spokesman-Review

Mar. 22--Carole DeLeon, who is charged in the death of her adopted son and the mistreatment of a foster child, will be joined by her daughter in the Stevens County court system.

Christina Marie Burns-DeLeon, 30, is charged with third-degree assault of the same foster child, according to Stevens County Superior Court documents dated March 15.

Stevens County Prosecutor Tim Rasmussen alleges that the younger woman abused the boy, identified in documents only by his initials, S.M.M.

Burns-DeLeon lived in Carole DeLeon's house and provided day care there, according to previous news reports.

According to the documents, a teacher reported in May 2004 that S.M.M. showed up at Lake Spokane Elementary School with blistered burns on his nose and upper lip.

At that time, the boy said he put his face in oatmeal that Burns-DeLeon had given him. According to the court documents, the boy "then ran away and didn't want to talk about it anymore."

In a subsequent interview, which resulted in a police report last week, the boy told a detective that Burns-DeLeon had pushed his head into the bowl of hot oatmeal.

"It was unclear at the time (of the injury) how these burns occurred to the child," Rasmussen said. "The situation is more clear now."

Photographs taken by school officials show the burns, according to the court documents.

Third-degree assault, which is a felony, carries a maximum penalty of five years in jail and a $5,000 fine.

Carole DeLeon faces a charge of homicide by abuse of her adopted son, Tyler DeLeon, who died Jan. 13, 2005 -- his seventh birthday. She also is charged with criminal mistreatment of S.M.M.

Carole DeLeon is accused of severely limiting both boys' food and fluids. Authorities say S.M.M. gained 18 pounds and grew 2 1/2 inches in the four months after he was taken from DeLeon's home in October 2004.

2007 Mar 22