Deming couple faces new counts in child abuse case

DEMING — Melvin Cordell appeared in 6th Judicial District Court on Monday, where he declined to challenge prosecutors’ request that he remain in custody as he faces 24 felony counts involving child abuse, sexual molestation of his children, aggravated battery and tampering with evidence.

Prosecutors added new counts in an amended complaint as police executed search warrants Monday at the property north of town where police say Melvin and Valerie Cordell, made their children live and sleep outdoors in holes in the ground or in a van, without toilet or bathing facilities. In court records, police said they found the property strewn with clothing and open containers holding human waste.

Prosecutors stated in court records that “the living conditions … were so appalling that it was beyond comprehension.” New Mexico State Police arrested the couple in February following an investigation begun last October.

The new complaints add detail to allegations that the Cordells molested or allowed other adults to molest the children and punished them by withholding food for up to two days at a time. Melvin Cordell, 50, faces two counts of criminal sexual penetration of a minor.

Police allege that one child was impregnated twice. Two charges of aggravated battery involving great bodily harm accuse the father of performing non-consensual abortion procedures on one daughter, three years apart, according to the complaint. The evidence-tampering counts stem from disposing of the remains, prosecutors allege.

Valerie Cordell, 41, has been charged separately with 16 counts of child abuse, plus one count of criminal sexual penetration of a minor and conspiracy to commit abuse of a child, in an amended complaint. Prosecutors are seeking to join the cases. District Judge Jennifer DeLaney, presiding over both, had already granted prosecutors’ request to hold Valerie Cordell through trial, citing the seriousness of the allegations and the children’s safety.

The eight children, spanning the ages of 6 months and 16 years, are in foster care, and the parents are being held at Luna County Detention Center.

Melvin Cordell’s attorney, Mario Carreon, did not indicate whether the defendant would waive a preliminary hearing to examine the evidence and witness testimony, which prosecutor Cynthia Clark indicated would require a full day in court, currently set for early April.