She denies knowing spouse raped stepdaughters

VICTORVILLE, Calif. - A mother pleaded not guilty yesterday to a child-abuse charge that alleges she knew her husband had sexually abused and impregnated her 16-year-old daughter.

Anita Slone, 47, entered the plea in San Bernardino County Superior Court, said Kathleen DiDonato, a deputy district attorney.

Long-haul truck driver Tony Slone, 43, was arrested last week in New York state after his 13- and 16-year-old stepdaughters said he sexually abused them over the past four years.

Prosecutors say Anita Slone knew her husband had fathered a now 13-month-old baby with her elder daughter and continued to allow the teen to have contact with and live with Tony Slone.

No one at the public defender's office, which was assigned Anita Slone's case, would comment.

Tony Slone is a registered sex offender in California. He was convicted in 1995 of lewd acts on a child and did eight years in prison.

Tony Slone was arrested Thursday on a $1 million warrant in Chester, N.Y., where he had arrived for a trucking job. Authorities are trying to extradite him to California to face two counts of continual sexual abuse, one count of lewd acts upon a child and one count of forcible rape. *