Mother plead guilty: Cambodian woman said act with son culturally accepted

By DAVID KIHARA REVIEW-JOURNAL

Picture: Nary Chao appears Thursday in District Court, where she was given a six-month suspended sentence and probation for kissing her young son's genitals. In Chao's homeland of Cambodia, the act is a culturally acceptable expression of parental love without sexual connotations. Photo by Gary Thompson.

A 28-year-old woman was placed on probation Thursday after she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for an act that is culturally acceptable in her homeland of Cambodia but could be considered sexual assault in the United States.
Nary Chao admitted kissing the genitals of her son, who was 4 or 5 at the time, and initially faced a charge of sexual assault of a minor under 14.
In exchange for her guilty plea, the charge was reduced to unlawful contact with a child, for which she was given a 179-day suspended sentence and three years of probation. She also is not required to register as a sex offender.
Her attorney, Robert Langford, several Cambodian groups contacted by the Review-Journal and the Clark County Department of Family Services stated that a mother's kissing of her young son's genitals is a culturally acceptable expression of parental love in Cambodia and other Asian countries.
An August 2006 Department of Family Services report signed by a family therapist, Dr. Debi Bhattacharyya, also noted that Chao didn't pose a threat to her son. Authorities had removed Chao's son from her home and placed him in the county's custody.
The report recommended that he be returned to the family.
"His placement in protective custody is traumatizing and there is no indication that the child was ever traumatized by his mother's actions," the report stated. "It is clear from the parent's interviews that there was no intent for sexual gratification when Mrs. Chao kissed her son's penis/genital area as well as his stomach, face, arms and legs."
The cultural confusion faced by Chao went beyond kissing her son's genitals. Chao stroked her son's legs and arms to comfort him during a visit after he was removed from the home. She was told that such behavior was "inappropriate," the report stated.
Despite the county's recommendations, prosecutors chose to charge Chao with sexual assault.
James Sweetin, chief deputy district attorney for the district attorney's special victims unit, said prosecutors looked at all the evidence against Chao when deciding to charge her. He declined to go into detail on what the evidence was.
He said prosecutors agreed to the plea agreement because they wanted to be fair to Chao. He said they took into account what authorities could prove and whether Chao would be a threat to herself or her family.
But, he said, he didn't believe that Chao's actions were innocent.
Langford said Thursday that his client agreed to the plea deal because she could have faced 20 years to life in prison.
"It was a moral battle we couldn't afford to fight," he said.
On Aug. 3, 2006, Chao's son told a child protective services investigator that his mother had kissed his penis once while he was sleeping, according to a police report.
Authorities removed the boy from the home that day and put him in a shelter home five days later. The family was eventually reunited.
The boy had been interviewed by child protective services in the wake of the July 20, 2006, arrest of Chao's husband. A neighbor's daughter had accused him of sexual abuse, authorities said.
Authorities charged Chao's husband with lewdness with a minor under 14. He pleaded guilty to open and gross lewdness, a gross misdemeanor, and was placed on two years of probation and given a 12-month suspended sentence.
Contact reporter David Kihara at dkihara @reviewjournal.com or (702) 380-1039.