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| Travis and Sarah Mitchell |
The Oregonian/OregonLive
July 15, 2018
Prosecutors hope a groundbreaking statement by the young parents who failed to summon medical help before one of their newborn twins died marks a turning point for the faith-healing Followers of Christ in Oregon.
At least two dozen children of church members have died since the 1950s because they didn’t get the medical help they needed to survive treatable ailments ranging from pneumonia to a urinary tract obstruction.
One of them was the premature daughter of Sarah and Travis Mitchell on March 5 last year.
“We should have sought adequate medical care for our children and everyone in the church should always seek adequate medical care for our children,” reads the statement signed by both Mitchells.
The couple had embraced a church-based philosophy of shunning modern medicine and relying on prayer instead. They didn’t call 911 when their twins struggled after a home birth. At their sentencing Monday in Clackamas County Circuit Court, the Mitchells each received six years and eight months in prison and renounced their once-held belief in prayer alone.
Adding weight to their declaration was a third signature, that of Walter “Matt” White, a patriarch of the church. He’s the father of Sarah Mitchell and the son of the late Walter White, who began the Oregon City church in the 1930s.
As part of the Mitchells' plea deal, the document must be posted in the 1,000-member church for all to see.
“Our hope is that this is the tipping point -- the point where things turn around and people are given the excuse to do what they need to do, what they want to do,” said Bryan Brock, one of the Clackamas County deputy district attorneys who prosecuted the Mitchells.
In the past decade, Brock’s office has filed charges against the parents of four deceased children for medical neglect.
The extraordinary public shift by the founder’s family illuminates a divide that has grown in the church for years, say both those inside and outside the community. Some church members have quietly but regularly sought medical intervention when needed.
Others have wanted to do the same but have felt peer pressure from a core group that believes seeing a doctor represents a weakness in faith. “They don’t want the scorn,” Brock said, and so follow the strict line.
The core group believes that anointing the ill with olive oil and praying is the best and only course of action.
The questions now are: Have the Mitchells had a true change of heart? And why would Walter “Matt” White sign the statement after a lifetime of believing so strongly in faith-based healing?
No one contacted from the church by The Oregonian/OregonLive is talking.
Calls to the church’s phone remained unanswered and people at the church and White’s home declined comment. The church also hasn’t had a designated leader since its founder died in 1969. Sarah and Travis Mitchell’s attorneys -- Steve Houze, Jacob Houze and Jason Thompson -- also declined to comment.
Faith healing appears to be on the decline nationwide, said Rita Swan, whose toddler son died of meningitis in 1977 in Michigan after she embraced faith healing. She has traveled the country for decades lobbying for change.
Some of the credit goes to states that have repealed laws exempting faith healers from criminal prosecution, Swan said. Oregon is among 21 states that currently offer parents no legal protections against criminal charges. Swan temporarily moved to Salem in 2011 to help lobby for the changes to Oregon law.
But mindsets are changing, too, Swan said. Followers of Christ live like most everyone else and have been exposed to mainstream ideas, she said.
They hold down regular jobs and many send their children to public schools. They also have TVs -- and computers to privately search the internet and learn about the science of disease, she said.
“They can also find out there are people who are critical of their church,” Swan said.
Church member Marshall Phillips, now in his early 40s, told Clackamas County sheriff’s investigators that he’s a lifelong Follower of Christ and he grew up believing that doctors must be avoided at all costs. But then as an adult, he couldn’t find anywhere in scripture that said he must rely solely on prayer when medical emergencies strike.
He said several years ago he rushed his preteen son to Randall Children’s Hospital in North Portland after the boy became lethargic and started breathing oddly. His son fell into a coma, but medical staff saved him. They diagnosed him with diabetes and the boy had stabilized his condition by monitoring his blood sugar and injecting himself with insulin.
Phillips suspected that other members of the church looked down at him for bringing his son to the hospital. His son lost some friends, he said, and adults in the church appeared to avoid him.
“You kind of get more of like the silent treatment from some people,” Phillips said. “You know they disapprove of what you’ve done, but they don’t want to talk to you about it.”
If Sarah and Travis Mitchell had been convicted of the most serious charge against them -- murder by abuse -- they would have been sentenced to life in prison with a 25-year minimum.
The prosecution’s case against the Mitchells was strong. But so was their defense.
Prosecutors would have pointed out that Sarah Mitchell, then 24, hadn’t visited a doctor in the seven months leading up to her labor and that she told investigators that she learned all she needed to know from the book “What to Expect When You’re Expecting.”
Travis Mitchell, then 21, also said he read from parts of the book. It warns of the serious dangers of underdeveloped lungs in premature babies -- especially those born as early as their twins, at 32 weeks.
Prosecutors also planned to argue that the Mitchells certainly would have known there was something unmistakably wrong in the four hours from when the twin took her first breath to when she took her last.
The 3-pound, 6-ounce girl they named Ginnifer was half the size of a typical newborn. She would have worked desperately to breathe, turning from pink to blue or purple as her body became deprived of oxygen, medical experts said.
Sarah Mitchell’s older sister, Shannon Hickman, had given birth to a two-month premature baby in the same bedroom of their parents’ house in 2009. The boy, David, died nine hours later from underdeveloped lungs after no one called 911. Sarah Mitchell was there for the birth, and she testified at her sister’s trial and knew the danger of not seeking medical care for Ginnifer, prosecutors planned to argue.
A series of texts between church members show that word quickly spread that both babies were small and struggling. Within seven minutes of the first twin’s birth, one texted, “It’s a girl, just heard small. Bad breathing.” Half an hour later, after Ginnifer was born, another member texted “not good breathing.”
About 2 ½ half hours later, a birthing assistant who helped with the delivery texted that Ginnifer “keeps changing colors. She’ll get dark and then (pink) back up.”
One text explained that people at the house were laying hands on Ginnifer and asking for other members elsewhere to pray. About half an hour later, the newborn was dead.
Brock, the deputy district attorney, said he would have contended during a trial that the Mitchells had to have known their daughter was losing the battle for her life if news of her struggles was making it to members of the church miles away.
“How could it be that these people who are not even there know the condition of your child better than you do?” Brock said. “How is that possible?”
Defense attorneys could have made strong arguments that the first-time parents weren’t in control or aware of the serious health crisis facing their tiny daughters, as 20 or more church members crowded into the house.
Sarah Mitchell told investigators that she was focused on herself because she was in enormous pain, having just delivered twins -- a surprise discovery. The first baby also was breech, and she received no pain medication.
Sarah Mitchell said she didn’t hold Ginnifer before the women who helped with the birth whisked the newborn away to a warm bathroom. A birthing assistant later told a prosecutor that she had briefly placed the baby on Sarah Mitchell’s chest.
Travis Mitchell told investigators that he’d never seen a newborn baby before.
He described first holding her at some point later in the day when he was called to the bathroom because she was struggling. He said she looked pink, and he rubbed olive oil on her and prayed through his tears. Then she died.
He repeatedly said he didn’t know how much time had passed from the moment he learned Ginnifer was in trouble to the moment she died.
Jurors also might have viewed the Mitchells and their church favorably for abiding by a standing agreement with authorities to call the medical examiner’s office to notify it of any child deaths.
If a church representative hadn’t voluntarily called the office, police and prosecutors might have never learned of the death and the Mitchells could have avoided prosecution.
Both Mitchells also sat down with detectives for extensive interviews.
In the end, the Mitchells pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide and first-degree criminal mistreatment.
Shortly after her sister’s death, Evylen, the surviving baby, was placed with Phillips, a distant cousin of the Mitchells’.
Phillips told investigators that the Oregon Department of Human Services entrusted him with the child because he had a proven track record of seeking medical care for his son.
Child protective workers told Phillips that Evylen might live with him for weeks or even years.
Until the Mitchells’ sentencing Monday, child welfare workers had been taking Evylen -- now 16 months old -- to the Clackamas County Jail for weekly visits with her parents.
It’s not impossible that the Mitchells could regain custody of their daughter when they’re released from prison, child custody experts say.
But that’s with one big caveat, lawyers say: They must stand by their written statement and promise they’ll always seek medical care for her whenever needed.
-- Aimee Green
agreen@oregonian.com
https://www.oregonlive.com/expo/news/erry-2018/07/c6430fe46a2145/are-decades-of-needless-child.html
July 15, 2018
Prosecutors hope a groundbreaking statement by the young parents who failed to summon medical help before one of their newborn twins died marks a turning point for the faith-healing Followers of Christ in Oregon.
At least two dozen children of church members have died since the 1950s because they didn’t get the medical help they needed to survive treatable ailments ranging from pneumonia to a urinary tract obstruction.
One of them was the premature daughter of Sarah and Travis Mitchell on March 5 last year.
“We should have sought adequate medical care for our children and everyone in the church should always seek adequate medical care for our children,” reads the statement signed by both Mitchells.
The couple had embraced a church-based philosophy of shunning modern medicine and relying on prayer instead. They didn’t call 911 when their twins struggled after a home birth. At their sentencing Monday in Clackamas County Circuit Court, the Mitchells each received six years and eight months in prison and renounced their once-held belief in prayer alone.
Adding weight to their declaration was a third signature, that of Walter “Matt” White, a patriarch of the church. He’s the father of Sarah Mitchell and the son of the late Walter White, who began the Oregon City church in the 1930s.
As part of the Mitchells' plea deal, the document must be posted in the 1,000-member church for all to see.
“Our hope is that this is the tipping point -- the point where things turn around and people are given the excuse to do what they need to do, what they want to do,” said Bryan Brock, one of the Clackamas County deputy district attorneys who prosecuted the Mitchells.
In the past decade, Brock’s office has filed charges against the parents of four deceased children for medical neglect.
The extraordinary public shift by the founder’s family illuminates a divide that has grown in the church for years, say both those inside and outside the community. Some church members have quietly but regularly sought medical intervention when needed.
Others have wanted to do the same but have felt peer pressure from a core group that believes seeing a doctor represents a weakness in faith. “They don’t want the scorn,” Brock said, and so follow the strict line.
The core group believes that anointing the ill with olive oil and praying is the best and only course of action.
The questions now are: Have the Mitchells had a true change of heart? And why would Walter “Matt” White sign the statement after a lifetime of believing so strongly in faith-based healing?
No one contacted from the church by The Oregonian/OregonLive is talking.
Calls to the church’s phone remained unanswered and people at the church and White’s home declined comment. The church also hasn’t had a designated leader since its founder died in 1969. Sarah and Travis Mitchell’s attorneys -- Steve Houze, Jacob Houze and Jason Thompson -- also declined to comment.
Faith healing appears to be on the decline nationwide, said Rita Swan, whose toddler son died of meningitis in 1977 in Michigan after she embraced faith healing. She has traveled the country for decades lobbying for change.
Some of the credit goes to states that have repealed laws exempting faith healers from criminal prosecution, Swan said. Oregon is among 21 states that currently offer parents no legal protections against criminal charges. Swan temporarily moved to Salem in 2011 to help lobby for the changes to Oregon law.
But mindsets are changing, too, Swan said. Followers of Christ live like most everyone else and have been exposed to mainstream ideas, she said.
They hold down regular jobs and many send their children to public schools. They also have TVs -- and computers to privately search the internet and learn about the science of disease, she said.
“They can also find out there are people who are critical of their church,” Swan said.
Church member Marshall Phillips, now in his early 40s, told Clackamas County sheriff’s investigators that he’s a lifelong Follower of Christ and he grew up believing that doctors must be avoided at all costs. But then as an adult, he couldn’t find anywhere in scripture that said he must rely solely on prayer when medical emergencies strike.
He said several years ago he rushed his preteen son to Randall Children’s Hospital in North Portland after the boy became lethargic and started breathing oddly. His son fell into a coma, but medical staff saved him. They diagnosed him with diabetes and the boy had stabilized his condition by monitoring his blood sugar and injecting himself with insulin.
Phillips suspected that other members of the church looked down at him for bringing his son to the hospital. His son lost some friends, he said, and adults in the church appeared to avoid him.
“You kind of get more of like the silent treatment from some people,” Phillips said. “You know they disapprove of what you’ve done, but they don’t want to talk to you about it.”
If Sarah and Travis Mitchell had been convicted of the most serious charge against them -- murder by abuse -- they would have been sentenced to life in prison with a 25-year minimum.
The prosecution’s case against the Mitchells was strong. But so was their defense.
Prosecutors would have pointed out that Sarah Mitchell, then 24, hadn’t visited a doctor in the seven months leading up to her labor and that she told investigators that she learned all she needed to know from the book “What to Expect When You’re Expecting.”
Travis Mitchell, then 21, also said he read from parts of the book. It warns of the serious dangers of underdeveloped lungs in premature babies -- especially those born as early as their twins, at 32 weeks.
Prosecutors also planned to argue that the Mitchells certainly would have known there was something unmistakably wrong in the four hours from when the twin took her first breath to when she took her last.
The 3-pound, 6-ounce girl they named Ginnifer was half the size of a typical newborn. She would have worked desperately to breathe, turning from pink to blue or purple as her body became deprived of oxygen, medical experts said.
Sarah Mitchell’s older sister, Shannon Hickman, had given birth to a two-month premature baby in the same bedroom of their parents’ house in 2009. The boy, David, died nine hours later from underdeveloped lungs after no one called 911. Sarah Mitchell was there for the birth, and she testified at her sister’s trial and knew the danger of not seeking medical care for Ginnifer, prosecutors planned to argue.
A series of texts between church members show that word quickly spread that both babies were small and struggling. Within seven minutes of the first twin’s birth, one texted, “It’s a girl, just heard small. Bad breathing.” Half an hour later, after Ginnifer was born, another member texted “not good breathing.”
About 2 ½ half hours later, a birthing assistant who helped with the delivery texted that Ginnifer “keeps changing colors. She’ll get dark and then (pink) back up.”
One text explained that people at the house were laying hands on Ginnifer and asking for other members elsewhere to pray. About half an hour later, the newborn was dead.
Brock, the deputy district attorney, said he would have contended during a trial that the Mitchells had to have known their daughter was losing the battle for her life if news of her struggles was making it to members of the church miles away.
“How could it be that these people who are not even there know the condition of your child better than you do?” Brock said. “How is that possible?”
Defense attorneys could have made strong arguments that the first-time parents weren’t in control or aware of the serious health crisis facing their tiny daughters, as 20 or more church members crowded into the house.
Sarah Mitchell told investigators that she was focused on herself because she was in enormous pain, having just delivered twins -- a surprise discovery. The first baby also was breech, and she received no pain medication.
Sarah Mitchell said she didn’t hold Ginnifer before the women who helped with the birth whisked the newborn away to a warm bathroom. A birthing assistant later told a prosecutor that she had briefly placed the baby on Sarah Mitchell’s chest.
Travis Mitchell told investigators that he’d never seen a newborn baby before.
He described first holding her at some point later in the day when he was called to the bathroom because she was struggling. He said she looked pink, and he rubbed olive oil on her and prayed through his tears. Then she died.
He repeatedly said he didn’t know how much time had passed from the moment he learned Ginnifer was in trouble to the moment she died.
Jurors also might have viewed the Mitchells and their church favorably for abiding by a standing agreement with authorities to call the medical examiner’s office to notify it of any child deaths.
If a church representative hadn’t voluntarily called the office, police and prosecutors might have never learned of the death and the Mitchells could have avoided prosecution.
Both Mitchells also sat down with detectives for extensive interviews.
In the end, the Mitchells pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide and first-degree criminal mistreatment.
Shortly after her sister’s death, Evylen, the surviving baby, was placed with Phillips, a distant cousin of the Mitchells’.
Phillips told investigators that the Oregon Department of Human Services entrusted him with the child because he had a proven track record of seeking medical care for his son.
Child protective workers told Phillips that Evylen might live with him for weeks or even years.
Until the Mitchells’ sentencing Monday, child welfare workers had been taking Evylen -- now 16 months old -- to the Clackamas County Jail for weekly visits with her parents.
It’s not impossible that the Mitchells could regain custody of their daughter when they’re released from prison, child custody experts say.
But that’s with one big caveat, lawyers say: They must stand by their written statement and promise they’ll always seek medical care for her whenever needed.
-- Aimee Green
agreen@oregonian.com
https://www.oregonlive.com/expo/news/erry-2018/07/c6430fe46a2145/are-decades-of-needless-child.html
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