LOS ANGELES () — Two people accused of overseeing the abuse of more than two dozen children at an Arcadia mansion pleaded not guilty to child abuse-related charges during their arraignment, as prosecutors sought unusually high bail and described the residence as a “house of horrors.”
Guojun Xuan, 66, and his partner, Silvia Zhang, 39, were each charged with conspiracy to commit child abuse and witness intimidation. The defendants entered not guilty pleas during a court appearance.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman described the allegations in stark terms.
“This house can only be described as house of horrors for these incredibly young children,” Hochman said.
Investigators arrested Xuan and Zhang on Tuesday morning. Prosecutors allege the couple has more than two dozen children and cite evidence of extensive abuse by nannies working at the residence.
According to prosecutors, the couple allegedly misled surrogates they paid to carry their children through their own surrogacy company.
According to court documents, video recordings allegedly show nannies carrying out “bare-buttock spankings, kicks, repeated strikes to the hands with sticks, blows with shoes, hits to the head, body, and hands, and prolonged squatting as punishment.”
Prosecutors asked a judge to set bail at $100 million for each defendant.
Defense attorney Mitchell Krems challenged the request, saying, “The amount is absurd. It’s $100 million per each defendant.”
Legal analyst Neama Rahmani said bail determinations generally focus on two key considerations.
“Bail is based on two factors: risk of flight and danger to community,” Rahmani said.
Rahmani said concerns about flight risk may be heightened by prosecutors’ allegations regarding Xuan’s financial resources.
According to prosecutors, Xuan has access to about 200 bank accounts and at least 70 corporate accounts with a combined value of more than $100 million.
Prosecutors also pointed to Chunmei Li, a nanny accused of beating a 2-month-old boy so severely that he was hospitalized with a brain bleed. They allege Li fled to China after being questioned by investigators.
Rahmani said recovering Li for prosecution could prove difficult.
“I think it’s unlikely that we’ll have Li arrested and extradited to the United States,” Rahmani said. “In a case like this, expect to see finger-pointing. Zhang and Xuan, they’re going to blame the nanny especially when some of this abuse was caught on video.”
The judge ultimately set bail for Xuan and Zhang at $20 million each.
After the hearing, Krems argued his clients were being unfairly targeted because they are Chinese and have a large family.
“He’s being unfairly scrutinized because he has so many children. There’s no law against having all these children, none at all, so my client is not abusive whatsoever,” Krems said.
The case remains pending.
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