SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) - Two defendants arrested on child neglect charges in a raid on a makeshift compound in northern New Mexico are confronting new bail requirements for release from jail pending trial.
Magistrate Judge Ernest Ortega has set a cash bail requirement of $5,000 for Lucas Morton and Subhannah Wahhaj under new charges of criminal trespassing. An emergency appeal of the bond requirement was rejected Wednesday.
Morton and Wahhaj were among five adults arrested Aug. 3 at the compound where 11 children were found living in squalor on someone else’s property. The badly decomposed body of a 3-year-old boy found at the property has been identified as the son of compound resident Siraj Ibn Wahhaj.
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All five defendants remain incarcerated. Defendant Hujrah Wahhaj was charged with trespassing, but a different judge waived bail.
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