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These two scumbags made the big-time national news when this happened. Machnick and her husband were tried for felony child abuse in 2002. Jury deadlocked. In 2005, facing re-trial, Machnick pled "nolo contendere" (equivalent to guilty) to misdemeanor child abuse in a plea bargain and received 120 days community service. Their child was in junior high, and Machnick was a public school principal in Walnut. When this broke, she got promoted to "administration" so she would have "no contact with children"...  top aide on leave after child abuse allegations surface Comments 11 | Recommend 2 March 20, 2010 11:32 AM Natasha Lindstrom VICTORVILLE * The Victor Valley Union High School District has placed the superintendent's top aide on paid leave after officials discovered she was charged with abusing her teenage stepson 10 years ago, including taking nude photographs of him and forcing him to carry dog feces in his backpack. Deborah Machnick, 54, joined the district in September 2007 as director of curriculum and instruction and was appointed special assistant to the superintendent six months ago. Machnick was placed on leave March 11 after a district employee tipped off officials about prior child-abuse charges, Superintendent Marilou Ryder confirmed. "To be clear now, during her employment there's been absolutely no complaints or any proof of misconduct at all, but we have certain information that we were obligated to investigate," Ryder said. Prosecutors alleged Machnick and her husband, Grady Machnick, a former Los Angeles County Sheriff's sergeant, emotionally and physically abused their then-14-year-old son at their residence in Yorba Linda, the Los Angeles Times reported in 2002. To discipline the unruly boy, the couple allegedly forced him to sleep outside on a dog mat, prevented him from using the bathroom at night and poured water on him as he slept, the Times reported. The boy was forced to "earn" clean clothes, according to the Time