Couple Agrees To Fla. Abuse Trial

Foster Parents Accused Of Torturing Children Waive Extradition

(AP)  A couple accused of torturing five of their adopted children, agreed to return to Florida to face charges. They are being held in Utah.

John and Linda Dollar are accused of beating the children with hammers and pulling their toenails out with pliers.

They were captured in Utah on Friday after being tracked through their cell phones. They face charges of aggravated child abuse.

The couple left Florida after their seven adopted children were removed from their Tampa-area home last month.

One 16-year-old boy weighed less than 60 pounds and had injuries on his head and neck.

The children range in age from 12 to 17. They all were malnourished, and five told investigators they were beaten and given electric shocks. Authorities say the two other children were not abused.

Twin 14-year-old brothers were severely malnourished, weighing 36 and 38 pounds each, about 80 pounds below the normal weights for their age, police said.

Five of the children also told deputies they were forced to sleep in a locked walk-in closet because the Dollars accused them of stealing food and misbehaving, the sheriff's office said.

Officials declined to describe the relationship between the Dollars and the children, citing privacy concerns. The Dollars were not the children's biological or foster parents, child welfare department spokesman Bill Daiuto said.

The Dollars had moved with the children in August from Tennessee to the tidy home in a wooded neighborhood about 70 miles north of Tampa.

The children did not attend school and no other adults had regular contact with them, preventing authorities from intervening sooner, Sheriff spokeswoman Gail Tierney said.

"My impression was that they were basically prisoners in this home," Tierney said.