A mother whose infants were found dead amid squalid conditions in her Massachusetts home pleaded not guilty Monday to two counts of murder and other charges. Erika Murray, 31 showed no emotion as she quietly answered “not guilty” nine times in Worcester County District court as the charges were read out loud. Besides murder she is charged with neglect, abuse, reckless endangerment, concealing a fetal death and even animal cruelty.

A Crookston man is facing six counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct for alleged sexual contact with a person younger than 13. Eric John Christianson, 31, made his first appearance at the Polk County District Court Monday, according to court officials. Each of the six counts against him is a felony with a maximum of 30 years in prison, according to a redacted criminal complaint.

ORANGE COUNTY, Florida —A convicted sex offender who was on the run for six months has been arrested and booked into the Orange County Jail, according to authorities. Angel Rodriguez was the focus of a news conference earlier this month when deputies said he cut his GPS ankle monitor and went missing. His original charges involved child molestation and child pornography, investigators said.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children and adolescents occurs as a result of a child’s exposure to 1 or more major traumatic events. Such events can take many forms, including physical or sexual assaults, natural disasters, accidents, traumatic death or injury of a loved one, and emotional abuse or neglect.

CHICAGO – Two Crest Hill brothers were arrested at their home Friday morning and charged with possession of child pornography. Andrew Castro, 26, and Levi Castro, 29, both of the 500 block of Theodore Street, were arrested after officers executed a search warrant and seized their computers and electronics from inside the home, said Will County state’s attorney’s office officials in a news release. Investigators were able to identify the computer with an IPO address that linked them to the Theodore Street address.

A father has been charged with murder after the body of his two-year-old son was found dumped in a lake, police have revealed. Steven Blue, 31, is being held without bond following the death of Tristan Blue in Raleigh, North Carolina. Police announced on Thursday that Blue had been arrested following the disappearance of the child a day earlier from their apartment complex.

CANADA – The six-year-old Alberta girl who was nearly beaten to death on the Paul Band First Nation awoke on Christmas Day and asked for Santa Claus. “She said Santa,” elder Taz Bouchier said Friday. “It was her grandmother who heard that word. And she was encouraged to say it again and then she drifted back into her sleep.” The girl had been unconscious since she was found lying naked and severely injured on the reserve west of Edmonton on Dec 20. Bouchier met the girl and her family in the hospital on Christmas Day.

Charles was sobbing violently when I came upon him in the woods. The sight of it still haunts me, all these years later. He was tall and blond, popular with the girls and one of the best all-around athletes. And I… I was the boy who liked comic books. We’d both spent multiple summers at that sports camp, passing our days in some form of competitive activity played out over acres of partially manicured Maine forest. We were 13 at the time, and I liked him, so when I saw him so visibly upset and so uncharacteristically vulnerable, I did what many adolescent boys might not have done: I leaned in.

EVERETT, Washington— An Everett optometrist’s license has been permanently revoked after state health officials say he sexually abused a 10-year-old girl during an exam. Authorities said John P. O’Brien and the girl were alone in an exam room at Eye Doctors LTD in August when he removed her shirt, touched multiple parts of her body and then took cellphone photos of her face and breasts.

PERRY — A hair stylist and former Centerville salon owner was sentenced Tuesday to 30 years in prison without the possibility of parole for molesting two teenage boys and sexually exploiting a third in the summer of 2011. Matthew Caleb Pierce, 35, was found guilty by a Houston County jury Nov. 20 of six counts of aggravated child molestation, two counts of child molestation, two counts of sexual battery, one count of sexual exploitation of a child and two counts of distribution of controlled substances.

A former drummer for Cake and Norah Jones has been sentenced to 15 years to life in a California state prison for molesting a 3-year-old girl in 2009. The musician – 48-year-old Peter Ivan McNeal – must also register as a sex offender for life by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Fred Wapner.

JACKSON, Wyoming — The governors of Wyoming and Michigan are trying to speed up extradition of a 94-year-old Michigan man investigators say molested children at a Wyoming youth camp decades ago. Bill Bricker faces three counts in Wyoming of immoral acts with a child. Two men and one woman claim Bricker molested them when they were children at the Teton Valley Ranch Camp in the 1960s and 1980s, Teton County sheriff’s officials allege. Bricker was a volunteer at the camp at the time. Now, citing his age and failing health, Bricker’s attorneys are fighting his extradition to Wyoming.

JAKARTA, Indonesia — An Indonesian court sentenced five janitors Monday to up to eight years in prison over the rape of a kindergartner at an international school in Indonesia. The custodians contracted to work at the Jakarta International School were arrested in April following reports from parents of a 6-year-old boy who claimed to have been sodomized. Police said a sixth suspect committed suicide while in custody after drinking bathroom cleanser.

Coming out as a gay athlete takes courage — just ask Michael Sam, the first openly gay player drafted into the NFL. In his first television interview since being cut from the Dallas Cowboys, Sam opens up to Oprah about the painful experiences he endured as a child. One of eight children, Sam grew up in the small town of Hitchcock, Texas. Of his five brothers, one was killed, and another was declared dead after going missing. Sam says his remaining older brothers were always getting into trouble and known around town as the “damn Sams.”