Posted on 02/06/2004 9:28:14 PM PST by yonif
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Los Angeles couple accused of offering to circumcise young girls for $8,000 were indicted on federal charges on Friday in what prosecutors say is the first U.S. case of its kind.
Todd Cameron Bertrang and Robyn Faulkinbury, who were arrested in January after agreeing to circumcise the fictional children of undercover FBI agents posing as parents, were also charged with making and possessing child pornography, prosecutors said.
An affidavit filed at the time of their arrest said that Bertrang, 41, referred to the 24-year-old Faulkinbury as his slave and offered to show the FBI agents her circumcised genitalia.
Female circumcision is widespread in parts of Africa, where it is seen as a right of passage to womanhood that limits promiscuity. Health workers describe the practice as female genital mutilation and say it causes long-term physical damage and psychological trauma.
A 1995 federal law banned the procedure in the United States, though exceptions are made for cases of medical necessity. Authorities have said there was no evidence that Bertrang and Faulkinbury, who were apparently born in the United States, were acting out of religious or cultural beliefs and did not have the medical training required.
Prosecutors said Bertrang and Faulkinbury are the first defendants charged under the 1995 law.
Bertrang, who was convicted of perjury in 1994, was also accused of possessing six firearms and could face a maximum of 40 years in prison if convicted, though federal sentencing guidelines typically call for less. Faulkinbury could face 35 years behind bars.
The FBI agents had posed as a married couple who wanted to have their two girls, ages 8 and 12, circumcised on the advice a British friend who had done the same to his daughter.
The affidavit said undercover FBI agents approached Bertrang over the Internet after getting a tip that he had recently circumcised a young girl and had displayed pictures of a surgically altered teenage girl on a Web site.
Prosecutors say Bertrang bragged to the FBI agents that he had performed more female circumcisions than anyone in the Western world."
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