Sexual assault charge added in child's death
Mom could face more counts after autopsy
Betsy Lehndorff, Rocky Mountain News
Published April 13, 2007 at midnight
AURORA - A Ghanaian health care worker now has been charged with sexual assault on a child in the wake of her 3-year-old daughter's death early Saturday.
Susie Ida Quartey, 34, was in Arapahoe County District Court on Thursday to hear the charges against her.
In addition to the new charge of felony sexual assault, she is accused of second-degree assault with a deadly weapon, another felony, and child abuse resulting in an injury, a misdemeanor.
Arapahoe County Deputy District Attorney Melissa Drazem-Smith said she could not comment on the evidence or discuss the basis for the sexual assault charge.
An investigation began after Quartey called police to report that her daughter, Jolyn Torpoh, had stopped breathing. Quartey told investigators she was carrying the youngster in a sling across her back, as is customary in her homeland, when she slipped Friday on her icy, gravel-covered yard, injuring the girl.
An arrest affidavit indicates that Jolyn Torpoh was "found lying on her back naked" on the master bedroom floor. Investigators noticed scratches on her thigh and reported puncture wounds and bruises on her body.
After the charges were announced, Drazem-Smith asked presiding Arapahoe County District Court Judge Marguerite Langstaff to make sure Quartey would not be allowed to plead guilty to any of the charges unless the district attorney's office was notified.
It is possible Quartey will face additional, and more serious, charges after an autopsy is completed. The coroner's office is awaiting the results of toxicology tests that could take up to eight weeks.
Defense attorney Thomas "Doc" Miller said the child's position on the floor and bruising on the body were consistent with Quartey's assertion that she had given her daughter CPR. Miller tried unsuccessfully on Thursday to have her bail reduced.
"We assert that it was an accident, and the district attorney asserts it was felonious, and somehow between the two is her right to bail," he said.
Quartey's 5-year-old son, who was removed from the modest house she is renting at 11307 E. Utah Place, was scheduled to be released from Human Services to members of Quartey's extended family, which includes her ex-husband, Ernest Torpoh Tematey.
He was in court along with eight members of the Ghanaian and Nigerian communities as a show of support.
Accused mother
• Susie Ida Quartey is charged with felony sexual assault, second-degree assault with a deadly weapon and child abuse resulting in an injury in the death of her 3-year-old daughter, Jolyn Torpoh.
• Quartey, 34, could face additional charges after an autopsy is completed.
lehndorffb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2792
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