Wis. jury: Father guilty in prayer death case
WAUSAU, Wis. – A central Wisconsin man accused of killing his 11-year-old daughter by praying instead of seeking medical care was found guilty Saturday of second-degree reckless homicide.
Dale Neumann, 47, was convicted in the March 23, 2008, death of his daughter, Madeline, from undiagnosed diabetes. Prosecutors contended he should have rushed the girl to a hospital because she couldn't walk, talk, eat or drink. Instead, Madeline died on the floor of the family's rural Weston home as people surrounded her and prayed. Someone called 911 when she stopped breathing.
Sitting straight in his chair, Neumann stared at the jury as the verdict in a nearly empty courtroom was read. He declined comment as he left the courthouse.
Defense attorney Jay Kronenwetter said the verdict would be appealed. He declined further comment.
Prosecutors also declined comment, citing a gag order.
Leilani Neumann, 41, was convicted on the same charge in the spring. Marathon County Circuit Judge Vincent Howard set Oct. 6 for sentencing for both parents, who face up to 25 years in prison.
Their case is believed to be the first in Wisconsin involving faith healing in which someone died and another person was charged with a homicide.
Last month, an Oregon jury convicted a man of misdemeanor criminal mistreatment for relying on prayer instead of seeking medical care for his 15-month-old daughter who died of pneumonia and a blood infection in March 2008. Both of the girl's parents were acquitted of a more serious manslaughter charge.
Neumann's jury — six men and six women — deliberated about 15 hours over two days before convicting him. At one point, jurors asked the judge whether Neumann's belief in faith healing made him "not liable" for not taking his daughter to the hospital even if he knew she wasn't feeling well.
Neumann, who once studied to be a Pentecostal minister, testified Thursday that he believed God would heal his daughter and he never expected her to die. God promises in the Bible to heal, he said.
"If I go to the doctor, I am putting the doctor before God," Neumann testified. "I am not believing what he said he would do."
The father testified that he thought Madeline had the flu or a fever, and several relatives and family friends said they also did not realize how sick she was.
Assistant District Attorney LaMont Jacobson told jurors in closing arguments Friday that Neumann was "overwhelmed by pride" in his interpretation of the Bible and selfishly let Madeline die as a test of faith.
Neumann knew he should have taken his daughter to a doctor and minimized her illness when speaking with investigators, Jacobson said, calling Neumann no different than a drunken driver who remarks he only had a couple of beers.
Doctors testified that Madeline would have had a good chance of survival if she had received medical care, including insulin and fluids, before she stopped breathing.
Kronenwetter told the jury that Neumann sincerely believed praying would heal his daughter and he did nothing criminally wrong.
"Dale Neumann was doing what he thought would work for his daughter," Kronenwetter said. "He was administering faith healing. He thought it was working."
(This version CORRECTS Corrects year from 2003 to 2008 in 2nd graf)
I read somewhere that John Travolta is having second thoughts about Scientology since the death of Jet...
ReplyDeleteNot surprising, though I have always found Scientology to be particularly nutbaggy myself, what with all of the nonsense about Xenu and body thetans and what not. Still, to sit there and watch your child die while hoping for some divine intervention strikes me as callous. They really can't lock buffoons up like this guy fast enough for my liking.
ReplyDeleteI'm really torn on this issue. As you are well aware I'm not a huge fan of religion but taking out the religious factor when did it become mandatory that anyone has to seek medical treatment when they are ill?
ReplyDeleteIf a parent chooses not to vaccinate a child & then dies of a medical condition there is a vaccine for, should they be prosecuted? what about blood transfusions for children of Jehovah witnesses? should parents be forced to allow their children to have a procedure that goes against their religious beliefs?
Absolutely. Hey, you don't want to seek medical treatment for yourself, that's one thing. You start putting your kids lives in danger because you are busy waiting for some guy in a flowing robe to drop down from the heaven's with some sort of miracle cure, that's another. We really need to stop treating idiocy like this as having equal value with such things as common sense, or we need to start sterilizing those that subscribe to it, so they don't leave their kids lie on the living room floor to die. They can't lock this guy up fast enough for my tastes, and when he gets there, the general population can't fuck with him enough. Maybe his God will keep him from becoming another prison bitch, but I doubt it.
ReplyDeleteugh. I guess I can't wave the cheerleader pom poms after your last comment. Although patient autonomy and right to refuse treatment have long been subjects of much controversy throughout the world are we to decide as a society that "we know better than the parent?". Let's just save the grief and take very kid from it's biological parent "in case" they make a decision society doesn't agree with
ReplyDeletewhat about that personal beliefs and lifestyles (including religion) deserve to be fully respected, so freedom of religion in America is a joke.
ReplyDeleteChild welfare laws supersedes religious beliefs for a reason... or... God has allowed Child Welfare Laws to supersede religious beliefs for a reason...look upon it how you wish depending on your vantage point.
ReplyDeleteBecause all lifestyles don't deserve to be fully respected, and the law recognizes that fact. A man whose lifestyle is that of raping little kids doesn't get to hide behind the argument that it is his lifetsyle so you have to respect it, because there are limitations on what you can and can't do and as a general rule it ends when your behavior harms another. How would this have been any different if the man had starved his kid and hid behind the argument that if God wanted his kid to live, God would have made sure he or she was fed? I think we can safely say we know better than the parent when the parent believes that neglect is a viable option.
ReplyDeleteI guess I just don't see this issue as black and white as you do.
ReplyDeleteI would be interested to know if this man & his family ever sought conventional medical treatment in the past for other illnesses. If they had then yes this may be seen as neglect. But I do know people that have never seen a doctor in their life, why should they be forced to make their child undergo medical treatment when it goes against their beliefs?
Because some beliefs are wrong. Many people used to believe in a flat earth, but that has proven to not be the case. I again go back to the starving kid argument. Had the man never fed his kid and hid behind the argument that the Bible says that God will provide, and cites arguments of Jesus seeing that others would be fed (loaves and fishes and all that jazz), it still doesn't change the fact that the man starved his kid to death, religious nonsense be damned. If you leave you kid lie on the living room floor to die while you sit their with your thumb up your ass, then you should go to jail. Worse still is to leave your child suffere for the better part of a month while doing nothing.
ReplyDeleteAnd as it turns out, they did take her to the doctor before.......http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,341574,00.html
ReplyDelete