US Prosecutors accuse Ghana woman of sex assault

..Friends defend accused mom
CO, USA -- A 34-year-old Ghanaian woman residing in the United States, already accused of beating her 3-year-old daughter to death, now faces an additional charge of sexual assault on a child by someone in a position of trust.

Arapahoe County prosecutors announced the charge, along with two others – second-degree assault with a deadly weapon and child abuse resulting in injury – during a court hearing for Susie Ida Quartey this morning.


No additional details about the nature of the alleged sex abuse were disclosed during the hearing.


Quartey was arrested Saturday after she called police to her home at 11307 E. Utah Place to say that her young daughter, Jolyn Torpoh, had stopped breathing. Quartey, a health care worker, told police she had tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate the girl.


When officers examined Jolyn’s body, they found what appeared to be fresh injuries. Her mother says they were caused when she fell in the backyard while being carried on Quartey’s back in a sling that is customary to Quartey’s homeland.


But an arrest affidavit said that police found a coat hanger with blood or bodily fluids on it, along with a broken towel bar inside the home.

Quartey’s lawyer has said she is innocent of any wrongdoing.

Friends defend accused mom

AURORA - Just 3 years old, Jolyn Torpoh was itching to go to the elementary school across the street, so she could be big, like her older brother. But until then, she was content to munch fruit in front of the TV and watch cartoons at home. The youngster's life and dreams ended when she died early Saturday. Aurora authorities say she was beaten to death by her mother, Susie Ida Quartey. But supporters counter that the death was an accident, and the Ghana woman is so emotionally wrecked by the loss of her daughter that she is under a suicide watch at Arapahoe County Jail.


As Aurora detectives and Quartey's friends try to sort out what happened, the 34-year-old health care worker made her first appearance Tuesday in Arapahoe County District Court. After being advised of her rights, a judge denied a request by her attorney to lower her $500,000 bail. She will be formally charged Thursday.


Police said they have evidence Quartey beat her daughter with a plastic coat hanger and a towel rack and that the child had been kicked. An arrest affidavit also reports details Quartey told investigators about the hours before Jolyn died:


Quartey was working Friday in the yard of her rental home at 11307 E. Utah Place, Aurora. Many of the slopes around the home are steep and covered with large pieces of gravel.


The woman bundled her daughter into a piece of fabric, and was carrying Jolyn on her back - as is done in her native Ghana - when the two fell on the gravel. Quartey told police she had been suffering from leg and back problems for some time.

After Jolyn had dinner at 6 p.m., Quartey noticed bruises on her daughter's back, gave her some pain reliever and observed her for "49 minutes." Between 8:30 and 9 p.m., Quartey went to bed with her young son, Jake Torpoh, and her daughter, because the girl wasn't feeling well. When she heard her daughter cough later in the night, Quartey woke and discovered the girl wasn't breathing. Removing her daughter's clothes, she placed her on the floor, began CPR and called 911.


Investigators state that when they examined the child's body, they noticed deep gouge marks on an inner left thigh, as if left by fingernails. They also found numerous bruises, scabs and cuts, and attributed some of the injuries to a broken plastic hanger and pieces of a bathroom towel rack found in the kitchen trash.


Quartey is presently represented by Thomas "Doc" Miller, who called the affidavit "fiction."


"It's a police officer's fairy tale," he said. "They turned the bathroom into a murder weapon."


Miller said Quartey has had numerous health issues, including a swollen leg, and problems with her heart and thyroid. She recently had back surgery, and was on several prescriptions, including pain medication.

He also said Quartey had been estranged from her husband, Ernest Torpoh Tematey, but the two were working on reconciliation. Tematey had been staying at Quartey's rental home in Aurora, but was in New York when the death occurred.


"I think there was a terrible accident," Miller said. "It appears as though both of them fell and the child fell on her head."


Quartey came to Denver from Ohio in September 2006, looking for work in the health care field, said family friend, Mary Somiah, of Lakewood.


"I have always seen her as my younger sister. She is a nice person. She's been a good mom," Somiah said. "My daughter calls her 'Auntie Maatee,' and when she was in Ghana, she was an airline hostess."


Quartey eventually landed a job working with the developmentally disabled at a Jefferson County facility, but missed the past week because of her illnesses.

Somiah, 40, said she received a call at about 4 p.m. Saturday from Quartey, who had been released by police for several hours before being arrested.


"I heard her crying and she said her daughter was dead. She had placed her daughter on her back and slipped in the snow as she was cleaning her yard."


Funeral arrangements for Jolyn have been delayed, pending the investigation by police and the Arapahoe County District Attorney's office, Quartey's attorney said. In the meantime, her son is with social services.