By Sam Stanton
sstanton@sacbee.com
A Sacramento Superior Court judge this morning refused to reduce the $2 million bail an alleged child torturer is being held on in the county jail.
Instead, Judge Lawrence G. Brown said pictures he had seen of the injuries inflicted on the 12-year-old girl are "photos I won't soon forget," and he hiked the bail for Duewa Lee to $3 million.
"This case involves allegations of incomprehensible cruelty to an innocent little girl," Brown said as the alleged victim's family sat weeping and sobbing loudly in the courtroom.
Lee's attorney, John Casey, had for bail to be reduced to $500,000, saying that was all her family could afford to raise. He noted that his client had no previous arrests or convictions for violent behavior.
But prosecutor Nancy Cochrane was having none of it as she read a litany of horrific allegations of the girl's treatment.
Lee was caring for the girl and her own children after the 12-year-old girl's father went to jail in July.
Cochrane said the abuse of the victim began then and included Lee stapling the girl's left ear, then ripping the staple out, forcing her to stand in the corner for hours with her hands over her head, and feeding her only once a week.
When the little girl would beg for food, Cochrane said, Lee's response was, "You can starve."
KCRA: Woman charged with torturing her boyfriend's daughter - Oct. 13, 2011
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