Mom charged in son’s death made cult abuse claims

NEW YORK — A woman charged with murdering her 8-year-old son in a luxury Manhattan hotel was once detained by police in Wyoming after claiming the boy was being molested by devil worshippers.

Cheyenne Detective Tom Hood told the New York Post that Gigi Jordan wrote letters to a sex crimes investigator more than two years ago saying that her autistic son was being abused by a cult.

Hood says that when she flew to the area, they detained her for psychiatric evaluation but then released her. An examination of the boy showed no signs of abuse.

The boy was found dead Friday. Police said it appeared he died of a drug overdose in a murder-suicide attempt by Jordan.

Jordan’s ex-husband says he’s shocked by the accusations and she appeared to be a devoted mother.

Therapist kills 10 year old, goes to jail

Therapists get 16 years

Women plan to appeal convictions in death of 10-year-old Candace in rebirthing therapy

Peggy Lowe, News Staff Writer
Published June 19, 2001 at midnight

GOLDEN — One therapist told of “the dark night of my soul” and another wished she could rewrite history as each woman was sentenced Monday to 16 years in prison for the rebirthing death of a 10-year-old girl.

Connell Watkins, 54, and Julie Ponder, 40, who both said Candace Newmaker’s death was a tragic accident, will serve at least six years before becoming eligible for parole. Both plan to appeal their April 20 convictions for child abuse resulting in death.

Jefferson County District Court Judge Jane Tidball said she believed neither woman intended to hurt Candace.

While saying she didn’t have much discretion on the 16-to-48 year mandatory sentence, Tidball said it will send “a powerful message” to other mental health practitioners who might consider the controversial therapy.

Still, Tidball called the crime “horrific,” and mentioned the “unrelenting intensity” of the three-week trial where the videotaped procedure was played several times.

“As the mother of a 10-year-old, I can’t fathom the loss of a child at that age or any age,” said Tidball, who added that she also couldn’t bear the “heavy weight that a child died while under my care.”

Candace died April 19, 1999, a day after the rebirthing session in Watkins’ Evergreen home. Candace was wrapped in a sheet and placed under several large pillows. Watkins, Ponder and two other adults then pushed against the child to simulate contractions, urging Candace to be “reborn” to her adoptive mother, Jeane Newmaker of Durham, N.C.

Candace screamed and begged for air, telling them she would die, to which the therapists replied: “Go ahead and die.” The therapy was supposed to help cure Candace’s attachment disorder, characterized by violent behavior towards her adopted mother.

Both Watkins and Ponder made tearful appeals Monday to Tidball, pleading for the more lenient sentence. Watkins, in a 10-minute dramatic statement, told Tidball that she had experienced “the dark night of my soul” since Candace’s death.

Watkins said she has “profound sorrow and regret and remorse” over the child’s death.

“I failed Candace and I failed her mother and I failed to keep Candace out of harm’s way,” Watkins said.

Watkins has hired former Colorado Supreme Court Justice Jean Dubofsky for her appeal.

Ponder said she retraces the rebirthing in her head every day, wondering where she went wrong.

“If I had only stopped five minutes sooner or checked on her one more time,” Ponder said. “I was trying to help her and something unexpected happened.”

Four of the jurors who convicted Ponder and Watkins, who said they fell in love with the little brown-haired girl while watching the videotapes of her therapy, cried again Monday during the sentencing.

“I think 16 years was perfect,” said juror Marcia Hagan. “(Watkin is) not a hard criminal, but she needs to pay for what she’s done.”

Prosecutors urged Tidball to give Watkins and Ponder the maximum sentence, calling the rebirthing “torturous cruelty of a sickening and depraved nature.” Watkins ridiculed, belittled, physically abused and finally smothered the child, said Steve Jensen of the Jefferson County District Attorney’s office.

“The defendant literally tortured Candace Newmaker before killing her,” Jensen said.

Laura Dunbar, another Jefferson County prosecutor, said Ponder was the lead therapist for Candace’s rebirthing and is the most culpable for her death.

“She was the one who could have stopped this procedure at any time,” Dunbar said. “It was her call.”

Tidball also sentenced Watkins to another year and four months in jail for three lesser charges, including criminal impersonation, unlawful practice of psychotherapy and using another’s signature for deception. Those sentences will run concurrently with the longer time.

Three other people are scheduled to stand trial in Candace’s death: her adopted mother, Jeane Newmaker, who witnessed the rebirthing session and is charged with criminally negligent child abuse resulting in death; and Brita St. Clair and her husband, Jack McDaniel, who participated in the therapy and who are charged with child abuse resulting in death.

Source

Faith Finley’s death at Parmadale Family Services

Faith Finley’s death at Parmadale Family Services while being restrained has not led to charges nearly 8 months later

Thursday, July 16, 2009
Rachel Dissell
Plain Dealer Reporter

Pictures taken by the Cuyahoga County coroner’s office show Faith Finley’s body sprawled on grungy linoleum at Parmadale Family Services, her baby-blue hooded sweatshirt dappled with vomit.

The photos show Faith’s face, her eyes still slightly open, the skin of her hand already turning blue.

Those pictures of Faith’s body were taken in December after she died while being restrained by the center’s staff.

Nearly eight months later, Faith’s family is waiting to find out if anyone is going to be held responsible for the 17-year-old’s death, which the coroner ruled a homicide.

A Parma police investigation was finished months ago and turned over to county prosecutors.

The coroner’s investigation, also completed, raised questions about the version of events given by Parmadale staff. So did a sworn statement by a 12-year-old witness who apparently was not, at least initially, questioned by authorities.

“They have had plenty of time to investigate,” said Jill Flagg, attorney for Faith’s mother. “As a lawyer who practices criminal law on a regular basis, I believe there is evidence of wrongdoing that the prosecutor should present to a grand jury.”

Prosecutor’s office spokesman Ryan Miday said the Finley case is very complex.

“This office takes all homicide cases seriously,” Miday said Monday in an e-mail. “A team of experienced homicide prosecutors has been independently reviewing this matter. That review is nearing its completion.”

Antionette Finley, Faith’s mother, is demanding answers and wants prosecutors to explain to her what is going on.

They have not returned calls to her or her lawyer.

“Something must be done,” Finley said. “I just feel like they are ignoring Faith’s death, like she was nothing more than an ant squashed under someone’s shoe.”

A coroner’s report, completed shortly after Faith died, noted that members of the Parmadale staff were giving inconsistent stories about how and when Faith stopped breathing.

Coroner’s investigators would not even pinpoint when Faith was last seen alive.

Parmadale staff told a 9-1-1 dispatcher that Faith had been breathing shallowly for about 20 minutes before becoming unresponsive.

An ambulance arrived within minutes of the call.

But emergency workers noted Faith was already cold to the touch when they arrived, according to the coroner investigator’s report, which included the photos.

Stories about how Faith was restrained before dying also differ. Staff told the coroner’s office that they held Faith down by her legs, arms and shoulders.

Coroner Frank Miller ruled in January that Faith died from “near traumatic asphyxia,” which means there was compression on her abdomen and that she also choked on her vomit while being restrained.

At least one youth, who was a roommate of Faith’s, said staff sat on Faith’s stomach, chest and legs, according to a transcript of a sworn interview between the 12-year-old and an attorney hired by Faith’s mother.

Flagg said in January or February she sent a transcript of her interview with the girl to Parma police and the prosecutor’s office when she found out they had not questioned the child.

The girl told her that Parmadale staff ushered them into a recreation room and closed the door when police arrived. Flagg does not know if anyone ever contacted or interviewed the girl after she sent her interview to police and prosecutors.

Flagg said she independently sought out accounts of what happened the day Faith died, while researching for a civil lawsuit against Parmadale and the parties involved. Parmadale is run by Catholic Charities.

According to a transcript of the 12-year-old’s interview, the confrontation between Faith and Parmadale workers began after they took a CD player away from Faith and she swore at one of the workers.

The girl, who was upset and crying during the interview, said Faith was telling the staff who were restraining her that she couldn’t breathe. One of the workers told Faith to “shut up because if she couldn’t breathe she wouldn’t be talking,” the girl said.

The child, who said she was watching in the hallway, said Faith told them seven to eight more times that she could not breathe. And after a little bit, she got quiet, stopped talking.

The girl said the staff then ushered the girls who had been nearby downstairs. The girl said that about 20 or 30 minutes later, she went upstairs to use the bathroom and saw Faith still on the floor.

“But this time her lips were blue,” the girl said, and a staff member was dozing in a nearby chair.

She said another Parmadale resident came upstairs and started screaming for a nurse when she saw Faith.

Parmadale later fired three workers involved in the restraint.

Tears dampen Antionette Finley’s eyes when she sorts through photos of her daughter — the coroner’s pictures along with pictures of Faith and her twin sister, Jordan, as impish toddlers making faces at each other, dressed up in matching Halloween costumes and later as teens.

She said it is for Jordan that she needs to find out why no one has been punished. “I can’t help but think that if Faith had blond hair and blue eyes . . . that something would have been done about it by now,” Finley said.

This past Sunday, the Finleys spent what was supposed to be a blowout celebration of the twins’ 18th birthday at a cemetery in Warren. They brought a birthday cake, Faith’s favorite stuffed poodle, named Fifi, and a pair of cowboy boots stitched with pink flowers that Faith adored.

“All I want is for the women who did this to have some sort of consequence,” Finley said.

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

rdissell@plaind.com, 216-999-4121

©2009 Plain Dealer
© 2009 cleveland.com All Rights Reserved.

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1247733176222090.xml&coll=2

Former S.D. Boot Camp Remembers Teen Death Ten Years Ago

By CHET BROKAW
and CARSON WALKER

Associated Press Writers

Published: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 12:20 AM CDT

PLANKINTON — The changes are noticeable at the former State Training School since 14-year-old Gina Score died 10 years ago Tuesday of heat exhaustion after a mandatory run.

The razor wire and bars on the windows are gone. The detention cell is hidden by a new wall. A private company runs the facility. And instead of getting in a kid’s face, the goal is to get into his or her head.

“I think we’re reaching kids a lot deeper now,” said Fred Bettner, executive director of what is now the Aurora Plains Academy, a private operation that contracts with the state to treat some juvenile offenders. “We’re not locking them up. We’re not secluding them. We’re not doing more trauma to them. We’re trying to help them get through the trauma that’s happened in the past.”

In July 1999, Score was overweight and had just arrived in the program days before taking part in the 2.7-mile run that was a part of the girls boot camp routine. It was hot that day and the staff members thought she was faking symptoms.

A jury acquitted two state employees of wrongdoing in Score’s death, but it prompted the state to close the reform school in 2001, 113 years after it opened.

Clinicare of West Allis, Wis., opened the academy in January 2007 to help juveniles with extreme verbal, physical and sexual aggression.

The private operation is part of a big change made in the past decade in South Dakota’s juvenile corrections program. Facilities also have moved away from a military style to focus more intensively on what treatment each juvenile needs.

Doug Herrmann, juvenile services director for the state Corrections Department, said the agency now uses proven methods to assess each kid’s problems and provide treatment that fixes those problems.

Positive reinforcement is used in state-run programs and the private facilities that treat some juveniles because that approach works better than punishment, he said.

“I think philosophically we’ve really taken an approach to individualize the services to youth,” Herrmann said.

A decade ago, the Corrections Department had 1,165 juveniles in its care. At the end of last month, there were 856, the lowest number since the juvenile program started more than three decades ago, Herrmann said.

He said 157 boys and girls were in programs in Custer in June and the department paid private facilities to care for another 239 who needed specialized care. Most of the rest were living at home or other facilities while receiving services that are provided after release from institutions.

Judges are sending the same number of juveniles to the Corrections Department, but the number under the agency’s supervision has dropped because of programs better at helping kids avoid more trouble after they are released, Herrmann said.

The department tries to keep the recidivism rate, which measures those who get into trouble the first year after being released from an institution, at less than 30 percent, he said.

Treatment for juvenile offenders includes services to their families and cooperation with other agencies to help kids deal with mental health, drugs, alcohol and other problems, Herrmann said. In addition to the state facilities, the department uses up to 20 private programs that can treat specific problems.

“We obviously use private care, residential care, much greater than we did 10 years ago. Oftentimes, those types of programs are a little more individualized or more specific as targeted to the needs of that youth,” Herrmann said.

Copyright © 2009 – Yankton Press & Dakotan

Source: http://yankton.net/articles/2009/07/21/news/doc4a654f287d44c318760108.txt

Ex-Reform School Student Says He Witnessed Boy’s Beating Death

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Don Stratton, a former student at the Florida School for Boys, with a photo of some of his classmates
As authorities began investigating unmarked graves near a reform school where boys were brutally abused in the 1950s and ’60s, one former student remembered the horrors that happened inside.

Don Stratton, now 63, went to the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys in Marianna, Fla., and says he saw the unimaginable at the place known simply as the “White House.”

“I witnessed them killing a boy, OK. They beat him to death,” Stratton told MyFOXTampaBay.com. “The state of Florida beat him at the White House. And I watched it; I seen it.”

He said the school controlled students with fear. Twice a week, the children — ages 9 to 16 — would be taken into a room and beaten. The boys called it “going down,” according to MyFOXTampaBay.com.

“They turned the fan on, so you wouldn’t hear the screaming. But I could hear the screaming ’cause I was right there,” said Stratton, who was beaten three times.

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist wrote to the head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement on Tuesday, asking authorities to determine the origin of the more than 30 unidentified graves and whether any crimes were committed.

Officials Probe Unmarked Graves at Florida Reform School The agency said it planned an immediate investigation.

The move comes after a group of former inmates, now in their 60s, asked for an investigation into the graves marked only by white metal crosses — which they believe contain the bodies of boys who were beaten to death. The men say they were severely beaten while they were at the detention center.

Stratton also wants retribution.

“I would like to see the state of Florida take responsibility for what happened when I was 13 years old,” he said.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,464748,00.html