Lida Sharaf waits in the holding area at Superior Court for arraignment on felony and misdemeanor child abuse charges in Pleasanton, Calif., Thursday, April 25, 2013. The attorney for two Northern California women facing charges that they endangered infants' lives by binding them too tightly in swaddling blankets says the women did not intend to hurt the babies and maintain what they did was not abuse. Timothy Rien, the attorney for Nazila and Lida Sharaf, says the sisters contend they did not commit child abuse. Rien spoke Thursday, when the women were arraigned in a Contra Costa County courtroom on three counts of felony child abuse and neglect and four counts of misdemeanor child abuse and neglect. (AP Photo/Bay Area News Group, Jim Stevens) (The Associated Press)
PLEASANTON, Calif. – Two sisters in Northern California facing charges that they endangered infants' lives by binding them too tightly in swaddling blankets have pleaded not guilty.
The Oakland Tribune (http://bit.ly/11T42tt0 ) reports that Nazila and Lida Sharaf entered their pleas Monday in Alameda County Superior Court.
The sisters have been released from custody after posting $340,000 bail each. They are each charged with three counts of felony child abuse and neglect and four counts of misdemeanor child abuse and neglect.
Authorities say the women wrapped seven babies up like boa constrictors at their Livermore preschool, impairing the children's ability to move and breathe.
Their attorney says the women did not intend to hurt the babies.
Both sisters are pregnant and expecting their second child.
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