|
Can-Am Headquarters ...Aurora Wheelers ATV Forum > General Discussions > General Chit Chat > Weird, Bizzare or Just Plain Stupid > Vegan parents on trial for baby's death, allegedly from malnutrition |
| Moderated by: zac41, Voodoo, Revicm, QUADAHOLIC, OSOKILL, MtnOuty, killswitch_1, fmj40 |
|
|||||||||||||||
| Vegan parents on trial for baby's death, allegedly from malnutrition - Weird, Bizzare or Just Plain Stupid - General Discussions - Can-Am Headquarters ...Aurora Wheelers ATV Forum | ||||||||||||||||
| Author | Post | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||
|
killswitch_1 Admin 
|
MIAMI — Six-month-old Woyah Andressohn weighed less than 7 pounds and was 22 inches long when paramedics found her lifeless and emaciated body on the floor of her parents' living room on the evening of May 14, 2003. Two years later, Woyah's parents, Joseph and Lamoy Andressohn, will stand trial for her death after an investigation into the family's vegan lifestyle revealed signs of starvation in Woyah and her four older siblings, from malnourishment to rickets. Opening statements are expected Tuesday in Miami-Dade Criminal Court in the couple's trial on charges of aggravated manslaughter and child endangerment. They each face 30 years in prison for Woyah's death and an additional 20 years on four counts of child endangerment. Prosecutors blame the couple's regimen of raw-vegetable meals and wheatgrass enemas for Woyah's death and for injuries to their living children, whose bloated stomachs and protruding ribs were noticed by neighbors and an investigator with the Florida Department of Children & Families. Representatives from the DCF visited the Andressohns at least twice before Woyah's death on allegations that the children were not being fed enough. The last visit occurred less than a week before her death. Both times, the allegations were determined to be unfounded. In the aftermath of the charges, two employees involved in the Andressohns' case were fired. By their own admission to police, the self-described vegan couple had been following a "living foods lifestyle" for six years when Woyah died, rearing all five of their children on uncooked organic foods. But lawyers for the Andressohns, members of a controversial religious sect known as the Black Hebrew Israelites, will defend the "living foods lifestyle" as healthy and sustainable. "A parent has the right to feed a child as she wishes," said defense attorney Robert Barrar, who is representing the couple pro bono with co-counsel Ellis Rubin. "They thought the diet was best for the health of their children." Instead, they claim a rare genetic disorder is to blame for the infant's death. "The baby died of aspiration, and also had a fungal and a genetic disorder, all of which combined contributed to the death," Barrar said. The defense has enlisted experts in nutrition and pathology to support the theory that Woyah died not from malnutrition but from DiGeorge syndrome, a failure in the thymus gland, which is responsible for fighting off infections. A police search of the Andressohns' Homestead, Fla., home after midnight on May 15, 2003, revealed an abundance of organic fruits and vegetables, as well as wheatgrass, grains, and literature on how to prepare the food. Woyah had no known medical record, and the couple told police they did not believe in traditional medical care and avoided doctors except in extreme circumstances, administering wheatgrass enemas on their own to cure their children of whatever ailed them. They also admitted that all of their children were delivered in the home, either by a midwife or by Joseph Andressohn, and that none had received immunizations. Medical examinations of the four children after Woyah's death revealed that all were well below average height and weight, even below the lowest appropriate percentile of children their age. The four surviving children also provided insight into Woyah's condition, according to police reports. The two oldest boys said the infant never learned to sit or stand up on her own or even lift her head. In the weeks before her death, her eyes would frequently roll to the back of her head as she struggled to keep them open. An autopsy revealed minimal body fat, a "grassy" odor present in the infant's body and the absence of the thymus gland, which gave rise to the defense theory that unrelated factors may have contributed to her death. The children are expected to offer testimony against their parents from a closed-circuit television. They are currently living with a relative.
____________________ If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man. - Mark Twain |
|||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||
| Current time is 11:18 am | |
| Can-Am Headquarters ...Aurora Wheelers ATV Forum > General Discussions > General Chit Chat > Weird, Bizzare or Just Plain Stupid > Vegan parents on trial for baby's death, allegedly from malnutrition | |
