Ex-Goodyear official, wife to face new child-abuse trial
by Jackee Coe - Apr. 3, 2012 01:55 PM
The Republic | azcentral.com
The former Goodyear engineer director and his wife will face a new trial this summer for allegations they abused their 4-year-old adopted daughter after jurors were unable to reach a verdict in the first trial.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Connie Contes scheduled the new trial for Raul and Tricia Varela for June 25, according to court records.
The jury couldn't agree on a verdict Thursday for five of the six counts in the 14-day trial following more than 14 hours of deliberations over four days, records show. Tricia Varela was found not guilty of intentional child abuse but guilty of reckless child abuse, a domestic violence offense. The judge declared a mistrial on the remaining five child abuse counts, two of which were for Raul Varela, 43, and three for Tricia Varela, 42.
The Varelas were indicted in June 2009, two months after they were arrested and accused of abusing their adopted daughter during a potty-training war.
The couple was arrested in April 2009 after Tricia Varela brought their daughter, then 4, to West Valley Hospital in Goodyear early in the morning covered from head to toe in bruises that caused severe pain any time she moved, according to a Goodyear police report.
They since have been released but are prohibited from having unsupervised contact with anyone younger than 18, court documents state. The judge reaffirmed the release conditions after the mistrial.
Goodyear fired Raul Varela June 3 from his $121,000-a-year post as engineer director, which he had held since September 2006, city officials said.
Tricia Varela initially took the girl to the hospital for abdominal pain, but doctors discovered severe bruising on her legs, arms, upper and lower back, abdomen and head, as well as what appeared to be a broken arm, according to the police report.
Deemed to be in critical condition, the girl was taken Maricopa Medical Center's Pediatric Unit, the police report states. Further examination revealed the girl had abdominal bruising on both sides of her body extending to her lower back.
Initial police reports said she also had two broken legs and a fracture to her upper right arm, but additional tests revealed she didn't have any broken bones but had an abdominal tear that led to two abscesses, which could have killed her, Maricopa County Attorney's Office spokesman Jerry Cobb said.
The Varelas told police they caused the girl's injuries three days earlier during a "potty-training war," according to the report. They said they forced her on the toilet by restraining her with her hands held behind her back, pushing on her stomach, back and legs, and pushing her head down between her legs.
The girl, who was one of four sisters the Varelas had adopted, was released from the hospital almost two months later and placed into the care of Child Protective Services, police said.
The Varelas had six children living with them at the time: two biological sons, ages 7 and 9, and the four adopted sisters, ages 2 to 8. They also were placed in the care of CPS.