Oregon parents guilty of criminal mistreatment of baby daughter for relying on faith healing instead of real medical care

The Oregonian - June 7, 2011

Timothy, Rebecca Wyland guilty of criminal mistreatment in faith-healing trial

By Steve Mayes, The Oregonian

OREGON CITY – A Clackamas County jury spent one hour deliberating Tuesday before unanimously finding an Oregon City couple guilty of felony criminal mistreatment for treating their infant daughter with faith-healing rather than taking her to a doctor. 

A growth covered Alayna's left eye.

Timothy and Rebecca Wyland face up to five years in prison but are likely to receive probation and possibly some time in jail. They will be sentenced June 24.

As the verdict was read, Timothy Wyland slipped his arm around his wife's waist, and the couple stoically faced the judge. The Wylands made no comment after the proceedings. They walked out of the courtroom surrounded by supporters from their church, some of them sobbing.

The couple's daughter, Alayna, was born in December 2009 with a birthmark above her left eye that developed into abnormal growth of blood vessels, known as a hemangioma, that slowly engulfed her left eye and produced a goopy discharge. Despite the growth and accompanying loss of vision, the Wylands did not consult a doctor.

Jurors had the option of convicting the Wylands on the lesser charge of second-degree criminal mistreatment, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.

The case is the latest involving members of Oregon City's Followers of Christ Church, which considers medical treatment a rejection religious faith. The Wylands are the third church couple to be prosecuted over the past two years for failing to provide medical treatment to their children.

In two previous cases, the children died. In the Wyland case, 18-month-old Alayna has improved under court-ordered medical care.

The swift and unanimous verdict stunned the Wylands, their attorneys and about 20 church members in attendance. Defense attorneys Mark Cogan and John Neidig quickly left the courthouse and declined comment.

In her closing argument Tuesday, lead prosecutor Christine Landers spent 29 minutes dismantling defense attorneys' efforts to portray the Wylands as victims of overly aggressive child-welfare workers who snatched their daughter and persecuted the couple for their religious beliefs.

Landers called the defense a smokescreen intended to obscure the facts and distract jurors.The couple had six and a half months to seek medical attention for Alayna and they did not, she noted. "They never would have. The reason why ... is because of their faith."

The facts presented at trial were highly unfavorable to the Wylands.

From January to June 2010 the Wylands watched as the growth on their daughter's face ballooned. Instead of taking her to a doctor, the Wylands relied on faith-healing rituals -- prayer, anointing with oil and laying on of hands.

Under Oregon law, a parent or guardian has committed first-degree criminal mistreatment if that person "intentionally or knowingly withholds ... medical attention."

Doctors who examined and treated Alayna after she was taken into state custody said she was on the verge of blindness in her left eye, and could possibly have lost the eye without treatment ordered by the court.

The Wylands testified during a July juvenile court custody hearing that they wouldn't have willingly taken Alayna to a doctor because it would violate their religious beliefs. The Wylands said they put their trust -- and Alayna's fate -- in God's hands.

The jury heard a recording of the hearing.

Instead of directly challenging prosecutors' contention that the Wylands intentionally withheld medical attention in the early months of their daughter's life, defense attorneys Cogan and Neidig focused on the Wylands' actions after the state intervened. They portrayed the Wylands as loving parents who fully cooperated with DHS and court orders once Alayna was in state custody, diligently attending doctor appointments and making sure Alayna received her medication.

Landers called the defense attorneys' attempt to focus on what happened after Alayna was in state custody misleading. "They want to minimize the conduct of their clients," Landers told the jury. "They don't live in some mountain village in Nepal where they've never hear of doctors."

Clackamas County District Attorney John Foote, who has had several faith-healing trials under his watch, released a short statement: "We agree with the jury's verdict and appreciate their service. There is another case pending trial so we will have no further comment."

Foote was referring to another couple from the church whose son was born prematurely and died nine hours later. They are scheduled to go trial in September on charges of second-degree manslaughter. 

This article was found at:

http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-city/index.ssf/2011/06/defense_says_state_overreached_in_faith-healing_trial_of_timothy_rebecca_wyland.html

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Another child victim of Church of the First Born, mother charged with neglect after 9 year old son dies from untreated diabetes

News On 6 - Tulsa, Oklahoma

Broken Arrow Mother Faces Neglect Charges In Son's Death

Ashli Sims, The News On 6


TULSA, Oklahoma -- A Green Country woman's religious beliefs could send her to prison. She's accused of felony child neglect for choosing prayer over medicine for her sick son.

Tulsa County prosecutors have charged Susan Grady with felony child neglect for the death of her 9-year-old son. Nine-year-old Aaron Grady died in Broken Arrow 18 months ago.

The medical examiner found that he died from complications of diabetes. Investigators say three days before he died, Aaron got very sick.

Witnesses told police he was lethargic, urinating on himself, and breathing hard, but they also say he was still eating. Investigators talked to five people who said they'd visited the boy to pray for him.

The police affidavit says Susan Grady's brother was there when his father tried to get Susan to take her son to the doctor.

According to police records Grady says she knew the boy was very sick, but she didn't consider taking him to the doctor, because she was "trying to live by faith" and she "felt like God would heal him."

The police affidavit says Grady told police she was a member of the Church of the First Born.

The Church of the Firstborn made headlines back in 1999. Tulsa baby Alexis Sandefur was born with cystic fibrosis and a perforated bowel.

Her parents were members of the Church of the Firstborn and refused to get her medical treatment, believing prayer would heal her. The state took custody of Alexis, and she underwent several surgeries against her parent's wishes.

After a nine-month legal battle, baby Alexis left the hospital and went home to her parents. She was terminally ill and died a week later.

The case in 1999 did not lead to criminal charges. Susan Gray is not in police custody, but a warrant for her arrest has been issued.

This article was found at:

http://www.newson6.com/Global/story.asp?S=13756611

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Tulsa World - Oklahoma December 31, 2010

Faith-based healing reviewed

The death of a boy whose mother failed to seek medical care puts focus on her church and others.

By BILL SHERMAN | World Religion Writer


Child neglect charges filed against a woman whose son died of untreated diabetes has put the spotlight on a church with a long history of court cases over its rejection of medical aid.

Susan M. Grady, formerly of Broken Arrow, was charged in Tulsa County District Court on Tuesday, 18 months after her 9-year-old son, Aaron, died of complications from diabetes mellitus.

She told detectives she was a member of the Church of the First Born and "believes in faith-based healing through prayer."

The Church of the First Born is one of the most frequent offenders in religion-based child medical neglect, said Dr. Seth Asser, a Rhode Island pediatrician who has published a study about children who died after their parents offered them prayer without medical help.

Asser said the Church of the First Born, well-known in Oklahoma, and Followers of Christ, an offshoot of the church that is located in the Pacific Northwest, together are responsible for more child deaths than any other group.

He estimated that one to two dozen American children die each year because their parents neglect to get them medical help, choosing instead to pray for their healing. That is about 1 percent of all child-abuse deaths.

"It's not a big number, but unlike a lot of the others, these are entirely preventable," he said.

Asser and child advocate Rita Swan worked together on a study of 172 child deaths due to what they called religion-based medical neglect and found that 140 of them would have had a 90 percent chance of survival and 18 others a 50 percent chance of survival with proper medical care.

"Most were ordinary illnesses that no one dies from - appendicitis, pneumonia ... - and many of them died slow, horrible deaths, without the benefit of (pain-relief) medicine," he said.

Swan is a former Christian Scientist who left that church after her young son died without medical attention while a Christian Science practitioner prayed for him. She founded Child Inc. in Sioux City, Iowa, to fight religion-based medical neglect.

"In Oklahoma, the Church of the First Born is the big offender," she said.

Nationwide, her organization knows of six children who died in 2009.

"It's quite haphazard. Many are unreported," she said.

"We're not against prayer," she said. "Parents have a right to pray for divine healing. But when parents see the situation is critical, they have a responsibility to seek medical help in addition to prayer."

Members of the Church of the First Born have been involved in several child-death court cases over the last three decades, including an Enid case in 1982 that motivated the Oklahoma Legislature in 1983 to limit the so-called "religious exemption." The exemption was part of an earlier law that said parents cannot be prosecuted for failure to provide medical treatment for their children, if their decision was based on their religious convictions.

Based on the exemption, an Enid couple was acquitted of manslaughter in the death of their 9-year-old son, who had a ruptured appendix.

Under Oklahoma's current law, parents can rely solely on prayer for their child's healing as long as the child is not in danger of death or permanent physical damage.

Religious groups that eschew medical help are a tiny minority in the United States.

Thomson Mathew, dean of the Oral Roberts University School of Theology and Missions, described them as misguided.

"They are very much in the fringe today," he said.

"In many cases, they are not theologically trained, and they teach that dependence on medicine demonstrates a lack of faith in God. That puts pressure on people," he said.

He said that worldwide, charismatic and Pentecostal Christians believe in supernatural healing as one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

But the accepted theological position is that all healing is from God, who heals through both natural and supernatural means.

The merging of medicine and prayer was a major theme in the ministry of Oral Roberts, who founded the former City of Faith medical complex, Mathew noted.

Christian Scientists and Jehovah's Witnesses are two other groups that have found themselves at the intersection of religious freedom and court-ordered medical care.

Leroy Gatlin, with the Christian Science Committee on Publication for Oklahoma, said the death of Aaron Grady was tragic but has no connection to the practice of Christian Science.

He said the Christian Science Church emphasizes the healing power of prayer but leaves it up to the individual to decide the best thing to do under the circumstances.

"For me, the decision regarding the care of children should be made wisely and quickly," Gatlin said. "Certainly prayer is something I naturally turn to as my first option, but not my only option. If I'm not seeing quick and effective results from prayer, I would turn to other options.

"There's no prohibition against seeking medical assistance, ... and it's never God's will for a child to be sick or to die."

Jehovah's Witnesses believe that blood transfusions violate the biblical command not to ingest blood.

Spokesman Mark Snead said the denomination works with doctors and hospitals to use nonblood alternatives to medical care and to make it a rare instance when medical authorities seek court intervention to give blood transfusions to patients who are Jehovah's Witnesses.

Earl Weir, one of the Tulsa leaders at the Church of the First Born, said Wednesday that he doesn't preach about denying medical attention but that God's word proves that faith is all that's needed. He said church members are free to do what they want.

National church leaders did not respond to an e-mail request for an interview.

This article was found at:

http://www.tulsaworld.com/webextra/content/2010/crimesite/article.aspx?subjectid=450&articleid=20101231_18_A1_Childn608615&allcom=1


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