ALBANY — As Albany County Family Court Judge Gerard Maney read through the facts surrounding the treatment of the White sisters, a handful of women in the court gallery held hands on April 10.

The girls — Cheyanne and Christine — are the sisters of Berne-Knox-Westerlo kindergartener Kenneth White, who was slain in December.

As Maney read his guilty verdict on an abuse and neglect petition brought by the county’s Department of Children, Youth and Families against the girls’ aunt and legal guardian, Brenda VanAlstyne, the women, in tears and unable to cheer, squeezed their hands together and shook them, their leader, Michelle Fusco, said on Wednesday.

They’re members of a group they call “Kenneth’s Army,” formed to raise awareness about child abuse and the boy’s case.

At the beginning of the court appearance last Friday, Fusco said, Maney denied a motion by VanAlstyne’s attorney, Jeffrey Berkun, to have the women leave the courtroom or cover their “Kenneth’s Army” shirts.

Kenneth’s sisters were at the center of the trial that Maney presided over in March. Linda Dunn, the girls’ foster mother since Kenneth was found dead in mid-December, when Christine was 4 and Cheyanne, Kenneth’s twin, was 5, testified that Christine had bruising from her cheek to her feet. And she told the judge that one of the girls said Tiffany VanAlstyne, their cousin who lived with them and is facing a criminal trial for Kenneth’s murder, once used a baseball bat on one of them.

Listening to the information by Maney last Friday, Fusco said she found the description of bruising, some healing and some fresh, the most upsetting. She said the judge reported that the children were found to have rotted teeth and impaired speech, as Dunn said in her testimony, describing the two girls as frustrated or angry when trying to communicate with other children.

“He said he found her guilty of abuse and neglect and just neglect on the twin sister because she didn’t have the amount or quality of bruises on her that the younger sister had," said Fusco.

In finding that Brenda VanAlstyne was guilty of abuse as well as neglect, Maney said VanAlstyne told investigators that both she and Tiffany VanAlstyne, her daughter, were responsible for discipline in the house, Fusco said.

Tiffany VanAlstyne is being held in Albany County’s jail, awaiting her next court appearance after a mental health review ordered by Albany County Court Judge Stephen Herrick.

White was initially reported missing when his then 19-year-old cousin reported that two men dressed in black had broken into their trailer on Thacher Park Road and taken the boy, resulting in an amber alert being issued. Several hours later, Kenneth’s body was found buried in a snowbank a few hundred feet from his home and Tiffany VanAlstyne was in custody.

At her arraignment, VanAlstyne said she took several medications, including some for bipolar disorder. The prosecution during the family court trial pointed out that Brenda VanAlstyne was aware of her daughter’s mental issues, but Berkun, her attorney, said no evidence had been given to establish Tiffany VanAlstyne’s mental condition, and he accused the prosecution of assuming a connection between mental health issues and violent tendencies.

Fusco said last Friday was an emotional day for her organization, formed through Facebook, since Kenneth’s mother, Christine White, also gave permission, after resisting, for them to have a headstone made for Kenneth’s burial plot, which Christine White owns. Now, Fusco says, her group’s next big objectives are conducting a letter-writing campaign to ask the Albany County District Attorney David Soares to prosecute Brenda VanAlstyne on criminal charges and to have legislation drafted that would heighten the oversight and awareness of Child Protective Services.