It also causes parents to let their children die for the sake of their
delusions. These 'parents' need to start spending decades behind bars
for their inactions.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24357277/
Parents who prayed as child died face charges
Wis. couple could face up to 25 years in prison if convicted
updated 4:58 p.m. ET April 28, 2008
WESTON, Wis. - {AP} Two parents who prayed as their 11-year-old
daughter died of untreated diabetes were charged Monday with
second-degree reckless homicide.
Family and friends had urged Dale and Leilani Neumann to get help for
their daughter, but the father considered the illness “a test of
faith” and the mother never considered taking the girl to the doctor
because she thought her daughter was under a “spiritual attack,” the
criminal complaint said.
“It is very surprising, shocking that she wasn’t allowed medical
intervention,” Marathon County District Attorney Jill Falstad said.
“Her death could have been prevented.”
Madeline Neumann died March 23 — Easter Sunday — at her family’s rural
Weston home. Her parents were told the body would be taken to Madison
for an autopsy the next day.
“They responded, ’You won’t need to do that. She will be alive by
then,”’ the medical examiner wrote in a report.
An autopsy determined that Madeline died from undiagnosed diabetic
ketoacidosis, which left her with too little insulin in her body.
Court records said she likely had some symptoms of the disease for
months.
The Neumanns each face up to 25 years in prison if convicted. The
couple and their attorney did not immediately return messages left
Monday by The Associated Press.
Falstad said the Neumanns have cooperated with investigators and are
not under arrest. They have agreed to make an initial court appearance
Wednesday, she said.
Parents believed illness was due to sin
Randall Wormgoor, a friend of the Neumanns, told police that Dale
Neumann led Bible studies at his business, Monkey Mo Coffee Shop, and
believed physical illness was due to sin, curable by prayer and by
asking for forgiveness from God, the complaint said.
Wormgoor said he and his wife, Althea, were at the Neumann home when
Madeline — called Kara by her parents — died. Wormgoor said he had
urged the father to seek medical help and was told the illness “was a
test of faith for the Neumann family and asked the Wormgoors to join
them in praying for Kara to get well,” the complaint said.
Althea Wormgoor said she “implored” the parents to seek medical help
for the girl, the complaint said.
Leilani Neumann, 40, told the AP previously she never expected her
daughter to die. The family believes in the Bible, which says healing
comes from God, but they have nothing against doctors, she said.
Dale Neumann, 46, a former police officer, has said he has friends who
are doctors and started CPR “as soon as the breath of life left” his
daughterÂ’s body.
According to court documents, Leilani Neumann said in a written
statement to police that she never considered taking the girl, who was
being home-schooled, to a doctor.
“We just thought it was a spiritual attack and we prayed for her. My
husband Dale was crying and mentioned taking Kara to the doctor and I
said, ’The Lord’s going to heal her,’ and we continued to pray,” she
wrote.
The father told investigators he noticed his daughter was weak and
slower for about two weeks but he attributed it to symptoms of the
girl reaching puberty, the complaint said.
A day before Madeline died, according to the criminal complaint, the
father wrote an e-mail with the headline, “Help our daughter needs
emergency prayer!!!!.” It said his daughter was “very weak and pale at
the moment with hardly any strength.”
Grandmother wanted doctor's help
The girlÂ’s grandmother, Evalani Gordon, told police that she learned
her granddaughter could not walk or talk on March 22 and advised
Leilani Neumann to take the girl to a doctor.
Gordon eventually contacted a daughter-in-law in California who called
police on a non-emergency line to report the girl was in a coma and
needed medical help. An ambulance was dispatched shortly before some
friends in the home called 911 to report the girl had stopped
breathing, authorities said.
One relative told police that the girl’s mother believed she “died
because the devil is trying to stop Leilani from starting her own
ministry,” the complaint said.
The Neumanns said they moved to Weston, a suburb of Wausau in central
Wisconsin, from California about two years ago to open the coffee shop
and be closer to other relatives. The couple has three other children,
ages 13 to 16; they are living with relatives.
The family does not belong to an organized religion or faith, Leilani
Neumann has said.
Everest Metro Police Chief Dan Vergin said the parents once belonged
to the Lighthouse Pentecostal Church but later became what he called
religious “isolationists” involved in a prayer group of five people.
“They have gone out on their own,” he said. “... They have a very
narrow view of Scripture and I would say not many people hold to that
narrow of view.”
In March, an Oregon couple who belong to a church that preaches
against medical care and believes in treating illness with prayer were
charged with manslaughter and criminal mistreatment in the death of
their 15-month-old daughter. The toddler died March 2 of bronchial
pneumonia and a blood infection that could have been treated with
antibiotics, the state medical examinerÂ’s office said.
/end article
