False Allegations of Child Abuse
The Shaky Science of Shaken Baby Syndrome
Prosecuters have charged parents and caretakers with shaking infants to death. But how valid is that diagnosis, and how reliable is the evidence behind it?
Over the last 30 years, shaken-baby syndrome has come to be considered one of the most heinous forms of child abuse. Thousands nationwide have been prosecuted for harming or killing small children in this way. The scales of justice in these cases often tip on the word of doctors who say they can discern that intentional shaking took place by the nature of the injuries suffered by the young victims. Many physicians and prosecutors remain confident in those judgments, but some critics say those doctors can be wrong. They claim innocent people have been sent to prison. Shaken baby science doubts grow.
After 11-month-old Melissa Mathes died in her care, Mary Weaver of Marshalltown, Iowa was charged with murdering the baby by shaking her. She was tried, convicted, her conviction reversed and then she was acquitted at retrial, all in a relatively short time. The case against Mary is a good example of false or misleading forensic evidence, perjury or false accusation. 20 years later, Mary's case is still garnering national attention.
When San Francisco prosecutors dismissed charges against Kristian Aspelin in early December, 2012, it became just the latest case to raise questions about how shaken baby syndrome is diagnosed. Aspelin, who was accused of causing the death of his infant son, had one thing in his favor: He had enough money to pay for medical experts who cast doubt on the prosecution's theory. Dismissed case raises questions about shaken baby diagnosis.
In 2002, Drayton Witt of Maricopa County, Arizona, was found guilty of shaking his infant son to death. In the intervening 12 years, doctors have learned that ongoing medical problems like Steven’s can account for the retinal and subdural bleeding they used to assume was caused by shaking, or by shaking and blows to the head. More importantly, the Medical Examiner who testified against him changed his mind. The Arizona Court of Appeals has tossed Drayton's conviction, and barred the state from retrying him. It has been a long road home.
In 1999, Pamela Jacobazzi, a Bartlett, IL day care provider, was convicted of killing 10-month-old Matthew Czapski after the child lapsed into a coma while in her care and later died. She was sentenced to 32 years in prison for "shaking" the infant. Matthew's pediatric records, however, show he had sickle cell trait and external hydrocephalus, factors not considered by the state's expert -- factors which could cause the child's death in precisely the manner it occurred. Time for the state to admit its error.
In yet another case that should never have been charged, Michael Hansen of Alexandria, MN, convicted of killing his infant daughter in 2004, has won a new trial. He was released on bail into the arms of his loved ones, telling the media, "I just want to be with my family."
UPDATE: September 16, 2011 -- The prosecutor has dropped all charges against Mr. Hansen. He is a free man.
Related: Ramsey County, MN is investigating the work of Dr. Michael McGee, who has served as the county's chief medical examiner for 26 years, after a Douglas County judge found he gave false testimony in a murder trial. McGee's testimony helped secure the conviction of Michael Hansen for the murder of his infant daughter in 2004. Douglas County Judge Peter Irvine found in July that McGee gave false testimony about infant skull fractures and about an accident that occurred six days before the baby died. Or was Dr. McGee just doing what was expected of him?
It took a jury only 2 hours to acquit former daycare provider Deborah Parlock, of Chesterton, Indiana, of shaking a 6-month-old child in her care and causing his death. The prosecutions experts, doctors with the University of Chicago’s Comer Children’s Hospital, insisted that retinal bleeding meant the baby had been beaten, even though he had no bruises or fractures. (Yes, they get paid expert witness fees.) Fortunately, jurors are beginning to see through the lack of evidence that permeates SBS cases. A case that should never have been charged.
The quasi-diagnosis of Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) started in the UK, and became a cottage industry for prosecution experts there before leaping like a wildfire across the Atlantic to the U.S. When Dr. Waney-Squier, a prominent British neuropathologist, re-examined the criteria she had used as a prosecution expert and realized it was wrong, she became the target of vicious personal and professional attacks. And, as with the SBS "diagnosis" itself, Scotland Yard has carried the fight to the US. Colin Welsh, lead investigator at Scotland Yard’s child abuse investigation command, told a US conference on SBS that defense experts should be banned from criminal and family court trials, because they confuse jurors and judges. Meanwhile, Dr. Waney-Squier warns that at least half of all parents tried over shaken baby syndrome have been wrongly convicted.
Quentin Louis of Athens, Wisconsin, who has been jailed for nearly six years, is one step closer to having a second chance to prove he didn't shake his infant daughter to death in 2005. A local judge granted him a new trial in 2009 because the state's forensic pathologist changed his mind about the cause of the baby's injuries, but the state appealed and it took another two years for this decision, from the state court of appeals. Quick to convict, slow to clear.
From the New York Times - Emily Bazelon examines the fierce disagreement and shift in mainstream medical thinking regarding Shaken Baby Syndrome. SBS Faces New Questions in Court.
Shirley Ree Smith of Van Nuys, CA spent 10 years behind bars for the death of her grandson before her conviction was overturned. Now she waits on skid row as the courts sort out whether a jury's verdict — even if wrong — must prevail. A pawn in a legal chess match.
Former foster mother Tenesia Brown looked ahead stoically for a full minute after a jury found her not guilty of murdering a baby in her care. But then the verdict visibly sank in, as she tearfully hugged her attorney. Her husband, Marcus, on a bench just behind her, bowed his head and wept. Fighting this charge for the past four years "was the toughest thing I've ever had to do because my wife was facing life in prison," Marcus Brown said after the verdict Friday night. Not any more. Tenesia Brown walked out of the Pinellas County criminal courts complex facing no criminal charges for the first time since 2006. And you wonder why people don't want to be foster parents? No good deed goes unpunished.
An acquittal should have brought Brian Kalinowski's nightmare to an end. Instead, it continues for the 33-year-old Palatine, IL man found not guilty of shaking and seriously injuring his infant son. Kalinowski and his wife, who has not been implicated in any wrongdoing, still face charges they abused and neglected their son, says defense attorney Lawrence Lykowski. This despite a finding of not guilty from Cook County Circuit Court Judge James Etchingham. A spokeswoman for the Cook County State's Attorney confirmed an abuse case against the couple is pending in juvenile court. They'll get you one way or another.
Quentin Louis of Athens, WI and Tammy Millerleile of Wausau, WI, both in Marathon County, were convicted of fatally shaking babies in 2005 and 2002, respectively. But in August of 2009, Marathon County Circuit Court Judge Vincent Howard vacated Louis' conviction and granted him a new trial based on a ruling that suggests medical evidence in shaken-baby cases is suspect. Prosecutors are appealing the decision to retry the Louis case, but in September, 2009, Howard also authorized payments for expert witnesses to review Millerleile's conviction. Re-opening shaken baby cases to re-examine the science.
Fatima Miah of London, England, accused of shaking her baby son to death, walked free from court after a judge ordered jurors to clear her of manslaughter. The judge said expert evidence was too divided for the jury to come to a conclusion as he threw out the charge. Legal experts said his decision would have serious implications for similar prosecutions up and down the country. The science is flawed and contradictory.
More than 1,200 U.S. children are diagnosed with Shaken Baby Syndrome and one in four of those children die from it. Dr. Michael Laposata of Boston, MA believes in cases of potential Shaken Baby Syndrome, the medical community should perform a whole battery of blood tests rather than performing the simplest or most common tests to be absolutely certain of whether there's been child abuse. Too easy to play the hero.
On the Thursday before Labor Day, 2007, while Julianna Caplan of Washington, DC was changing the diaper on one of her twins, she heard a dull thud. She turned around to see her other 8-month-old trying to push herself up from the floor, where she'd been playing, and knock her head. There were no bumps or bruises, but over the next few hours, the little girl acted fussy, then altogether out of sorts. After she began throwing up and drifting off to sleep, her parents grew concerned, called the doctor and ended up at Children's Hospital. The baby recovered fully within 24 hours, but Caplan and her husband, Greg, remain trapped in the District's frightening child-abuse system. Family Services Well Done, or Overdone?
In the UK, new medical evidence could clear childminder (babysitter) Keran Henderson, who is serving a three-year prison sentence after being convicted of shaking an 11-month-old girl to death. That new evidence comes from this side of the Atlantic. Dr Chris Van Ee, professor of biomechanics at Wayne State University in Detroit, claims tests with crash dummies and corpses show that falling off a sofa -- as the Caplan twin accidentally did -- does far more damage than shaking. Conclusion: the science behind shaken baby syndrome is flawed.
