TX- Dallas girl, 12, arrested in sex assault of four children, ages 4-7

7-28-2009 Texas:

A 12-year-old girl was arrested on aggravated sexual assault charges Sunday, accused of coercing four younger children to perform sex acts on one another.

Dallas police say she told the children – two girls 5 and 7, and two boys 4 and 5 – that she would shut them in a closet Saturday afternoon if they didn't do as she said.

One of the children later told a parent, who called authorities Sunday. Police say the children, interviewed separately, gave similar accounts of what happened.

The mother of two of the victims said Monday that she wants to see the arrested girl, who is her niece, get help – but not severe punishment.

"I feel she should be punished, don't get me wrong," the mother said. ."But I think being registered as a child [sex] offender for the rest of her life is going to hinder her from ever doing anything in her life."

"At 12, I think therapy is where they need to be," the mother said. "I really feel that she needs to be in a positive environment, and she needs to get positive help."

Her kids were with two other children playing together with the 12-year-old Saturday at the arrested girl's apartment in the 8500 block of Park Lane in Northeast Dallas, the mother said.

"Their kids play together all the time, and of course my kids go over there periodically as well," she said.

They were in the care of the boyfriend of the 12-year-old's mother.

"According to him," the mother of the victims said, "because they were making so much noise, he told them to go in the other room."

Once inside the room, the mother said, her niece apparently made the girls perform oral sex on the boys. She said her niece has not been in serious trouble before.

"She's stubborn, and she has her own little ways, but I think that she has a good heart," she said. "I was heartbroken every time I thought about them putting her in handcuffs."

She said the family suspects the arrested girl may have been molested years ago by a man who used to be close to the mother.

"Nobody liked him; everybody thought he was giving her too much attention," she said. "Now he's in the pen for molesting an 11-year-old girl."

The mother of the arrested girl waited in tears Monday for the outcome of a hearing, during which a judge ordered the continued detainment of her daughter.

"She really is a good kid," she said. "This is just a random thing that happened.

"The only thing she's thinking about is they're going to take her away," the accused girl's mother said. "That's all she keeps asking me." ..Source.. by STEVE THOMPSON / The Dallas Morning News