A bail review hearing was delayed Monday for an Arcadia couple charged with conspiracy to commit child abuse and other crimes stemming from allegations that young children born through surrogates were beaten and mistreated at their mansion.
Guojun Xuan, 66, and Silvia Zhang, 39, remain jailed in lieu of $20 million bail each. They pleaded not guilty last Tuesday to charges stemming from what Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman described as an unprecedented case of child abuse.
The couple is now scheduled to appear at the Pasadena courthouse on Friday.
Xuan is charged with one felony count each of conspiracy to commit child abuse, child abuse and accessory after the fact, along with five counts of dissuading a witness. Zhang is charged with one count each of conspiracy to commit child abuse and accessory after the fact, along with four counts of dissuading a witness.
Prosecutors initially sought $100 million bail for each defendant, but Superior Court Judge Kerry L. White said at the couple’s arraignment that such an amount would be “tantamount to no bail.”
The judge said the defendants would be required to surrender their passports and submit to electronic monitoring and home detention if they are released on bail.
Defense attorney Mitchell Krems, who represents Xuan, told the judge that his client has a rare form of leukemia and is recovering from a bone marrow transplant. Xuan appeared in court in a wheelchair last week.
Outside court, Krems accused authorities of treating the couple unfairly because of their Chinese heritage and immigration status.
“This is another example of how my client, Mr. Xuan and Silvia, are being treated unfairly because they’re immigrants, because they’re Chinese,” Krems told reporters.
The attorney maintained that his client “is not abusive whatsoever” and said nannies and staff were fired after Xuan learned about allegedly inappropriate disciplinary practices.
Hochman, meanwhile, described the allegations as particularly disturbing because of the ages of the children involved.
“This house could only be described as a house of horrors for these young, incredibly young children that had been brought to (this) house through the surrogacy process … This case is unprecedented. It is horrific and the physical abuse, beating and punishment that these very young children received is despicable,” Hochman said at an Oct. 6 news conference.
According to prosecutors, the couple operated a surrogacy agency from their 10,287-square-foot Arcadia mansion, where they lived with 14 children born through surrogates, ranging in age from 2 months to 5 years, along with two other children.
Surrogate mothers were paid tens of thousands of dollars, including one who received $135,000, Hochman said. Some were allegedly misled about the couple’s family circumstances.
Prosecutors allege that the couple maintained “learning centers” for children between 1 and 4 years old, where they spent hours each day, and monitored disciplinary practices through a network of 32 surveillance cameras.
The criminal complaint alleges that Xuan entered one of the learning centers while a nanny was striking a child, instructed her to hit the child harder and then participated in the beating.
Hochman said another room had no surveillance cameras, but children’s screams could be heard after they were taken inside.
The investigation began in May 2025 after an infant was hospitalized with a traumatic head injury and bleeding in the brain, according to Arcadia police.
Investigators subsequently recovered surveillance footage showing a nanny violently shaking and striking the child, causing him to lose consciousness, authorities said.
Prosecutors allege that Xuan and Zhang knew about the abuse but delayed seeking medical attention for the infant and later instructed employees and children to conceal evidence of physical punishment.
The couple was initially arrested in May 2025 and subsequently released while the investigation continued. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Special Victims Bureau took over the case in September 2025.
The children were taken into protective custody following the initial arrests.
Xuan faces up to 17 years and four months in state prison if convicted as charged, while Zhang could face up to 11 years and eight months, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
A nanny, Chunmei Li, who was charged earlier this year with a felony count of child abuse under conditions likely to cause great bodily injury or death, remains a fugitive, according to prosecutors. She could face up to 12 years in prison if convicted.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose Fifth District includes Arcadia, called the allegations “horrifying” and praised investigators and prosecutors.
“I am heartbroken for the young children who had to endure this trauma at the hands of those who were supposed to care and protect them,” Barger said in a statement.
“My thoughts remain with these children and their healing,” she added.