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20-year-old woman only defendant released on bail 

SAN RAFAEL – One of the four women in a house full of malnourished children never sought medical help as a “frighteningly small” 19-month-old boy gasped for breath and turned blue before dying, prosecutors told a judge in an effort to keep her behind bars. 

But the arguments weren’t strong enough to keep Kali Polk-Matthews, 20, jailed. She was released overnight Thursday on $100,000 bail, becoming the first member of the cultish Marin County family to get out of jail. She is accused of manslaughter and child neglect while her four adult housemates face second-degree murder charges in the death of young Ndigo Campisi-Nyah-Wright and the alleged mistreatment of his 12 siblings. 

The children lived in a home where they were lashed and forced-fed chili peppers if they misbehaved, according to papers filed with the court where the children’s parents appeared Thursday. 

The surviving children, in protective custody since Ndigo died in mid November, also described harsh punishments for sneaking food during routine three-day fasts. 

One of the girls said she was tied to a playpen at night for two weeks as punishment for eating during a fast, according to the documents. Other children told authorities that discipline included their mouths being sealed with tape and beatings with belts. 

Authorities said they seized a “Book of Rules” from the house where Winnfred Wright allegedly terrorized the children along with four women, according to documents reviewed by a reporter Wednesday but absent from the court’s file Thursday. 

Wright, 45, and the three mothers — Carol Bremner, 44, Deirdre Wilson, 37, and Mary Campbell, 37 — remain in Marin County jail without bail. 

All of the adults were indicted earlier this month and arrested on charges ranging from second-degree murder to manslaughter and child neglect; Polk-Matthews, who only joined the household months ago and did not bear any children, doesn’t face the murder charge. 

Judge Terrence Boren also imposed a temporary gag order preventing lawyers and officials from speaking publicly about the case. He will review that decision March 12 when the defendants are expected to enter pleas. 

“My niece Kali Matthews is a kind and decent person,” Jim Matthews said outside the courtroom. “I hope that she’s able to extricate herself from this matter. It’s a sad affair all around.” 

Ndigo suffered from multiple fractures because he had almost no calcium in his bones, according to forensic child pathologist Gregory Reiber, who did the autopsy on the child. 

“In spite of being faced with the agony of a child gasping for breath and turning blue, she never called for medical assistance,” prosecutors wrote in papers filed Thursday. Those papers also said some of children were “obviously deformed” and Ndigo was “frighteningly small,” but Polk-Matthews did not contact police. 

Medical authorities have said most of the other children were also malnourished, deprived of sunlight and suffering from rickets, a bone-softening disease caused by a lack of vitamin D. 

Just before Boren issued the gag order on lawyers, law enforcement officials and social workers, Wright’s lawyer took a few shots against media coverage of the case. 

“Because the case involves racial and sexual issues and an alternative lifestyle, it creates an atmosphere vulnerable to voyeurism and sensationalism,” attorney Mary Stearns argued in asking wanted Boren to seal any documents related to the case— a motion opposed by a lawyer for the San Francisco Chronicle. 

Boren didn’t order any further sealings in open court, but did in private Thursday afternoon after prosecutors requested affidavits they filed Wednesday be withheld from the public, according to a court administrator. 

Wright has refused requests for interviews. 

Reached at his Sacramento home Thursday night, his father, Leonard Wright, refused to answer questions. 

“I have nothing to say,” Wright said. “Nothing to say.”