ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) – An Anchorage woman accused of inflicting years of abuse on her six adopted children pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to assault and kidnapping charges.
Prosecutors say Anya James, who was arrested on Tuesday, allegedly confined the children to small rooms equipped with alarm-rigged doors and windows, forcing them to use a kitty litter bucket as a toilet.
Some of the children, whom James, 50, adopted and home-schooled while collecting over $750,000 in government benefits, were so malnourished that they did not reach puberty in their teen years, authorities said.
James was ordered held on $100,000 bail during a court hearing on Wednesday.
Outside court her attorney, Rex Butler, told reporters that prosecutors had presented a grossly distorted picture of his client and her home life.
Butler said James took in children with emotional problems, who needed extra care and would not have been accepted by many adoptive or foster parents.
"There were a lot of psychological and emotional issues, and these were tough children to deal with, and yet she dealt with them well and in good faith," he said.
There were no locks on bedroom doors, but the children needed extra watching because they were so troubled, he said. Buckets used as toilets were merely optional, in case children did not want to walk to bathrooms, he said.
Anchorage police spokeswoman Anita Shell said two of the children had already left the home when an investigation into James began eight months ago, and that the other four were removed immediately.
Shell said some of the children removed from the house were so malnourished they had to be hospitalized. The youngest are teenagers and the oldest is now 20, she said.
Authorities said they were investigating the possibility that James adopted other children prior to 2000.
"There were some photos in her house of some other children that we could not identify," she said. "We don't know who the kids are."
(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Jerry Norton)
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