Ohio woman denies abusing adopted children

The Associated Press

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — A southwest Ohio woman on trial on charges that she abused her five adopted children weptas she denied the accusations.

Forty-six-year-old Vonda Ferguson told jurors Thursday that she only used mild forms of corporal punishment including hitting the children on the bottom with her hand or a ruler and making them take time-outs.

Prosecutors say she hit the children with hammers and sticks until they bled and burned them with irons between 2000 and 2004.

Ferguson is charged with 20 counts of child endangering, two counts of rape and five counts each of permitting child abuse and felonious assault.

Ferguson's husband, 49-year-old James Ferguson, was convicted on similar charges last year and sentenced to 65 years in prison.