panhandling outside a strip joint stunned police by telling them her
Gypsy parents had twice sold her to other families, once for about
$11,000.
Nonetheless, authorities released the girl five days later to her
mother's custody in Fresno, Calif.
It's not illegal in Arizona for a family to sell a
child to another family for reasons other than sex, slavery or servitude, the Arizona
attorney general's office said Friday. Charges against the girl were
dropped.
Although it is illegal to sell another person in California, police
in Fresno decided they could not determine that a crime was
committed there, said Fresno Detective Lt. John Frieze.
The girl told police that her parents had sold her twice, the first
time last year for about $11,000 to a family in Fresno. She said she
suffered a miscarriage and was returned to her family for a partial
refund. Shortly after Christmas, she was resold to another family for
more than $5,000, said Tucson Detective Joel Olson.
"We do know that they sold her as per tradition of their culture," said
a police spokesman in Phoenix, Sgt. Mike Torres.
"We've talked to relatives and they've confirmed the story of her
being sold to other families. It's a very bizarre case," Torres said.
Newspapers in Tucson and Fresno quoted a woman identified only
as the girl's grandmother as saying that selling a child is a Gypsy
custom, "but it's not right. No mother should give away a daughter
for money."
Tucson police arrested Sampson Peres, 19, of Phoenix, a companion
of the girl. He was charged with child molestation, sex abuse with a
minor and sexual conduct with a minor, and is jailed in lieu of
$15,000 bail.
Arizona Child Protective Services refused to take the girl into
custody, without giving any explanation, and Pima County "had no
choice but to release her to her mother," said Gabriela Rico,
spokeswoman for the Pima County Juvenile Court Center.
Arizona officials said that without a state law against child selling,
they had nowhere else to turn.
"According to the FBI office, there is no federal statute that fits
that," Torres said.
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