ATTLEBORO, Mass. (AP) - Two jailed members of a sect that rejects modern medicine were ordered held for 30 more days Thursday after again refusing to talk about their missing baby.
Juvenile Court Judge Kenneth Nasif ruled that Rebecca and David Corneau remained in contempt of court, and set the next hearing for March 14 with the same order: either produce the baby or say where it is buried. The couple have been jailed since Feb. 5.
The couple, members of a sect known as The Body, were handcuffed and had their legs shackled during the hearing.
Their lawyer, J.W. Carney, has said that Rebecca Corneau had a miscarriage in November. But the couple have not said what they did what the body.
Carney said the couple fear prosecution for illegal burial, and have a constitutional right not to testify - an argument the judge rejected Thursday.
Prosecutor Paula Carton Rossen said that the state "still has concerns that there is a live baby and that this live baby continues to be at risk."
The sect has been in trouble before over the deaths of two children, including a Corneau boy born in 1999. The Corneaus were not charged but lost custody of four other children.
Three other sect members face charges in the case of an infant who prosecutors say was starved to death. The bodies of that child and the Corneau boy were both secretly buried in Maine.
In this latest dispute, prosecutors became concerned when Rebecca Corneau, who appeared pregnant during child custody hearings last fall, suddenly was no longer expecting.