Thread: Jury convicts Mass. mom who withheld cancer meds

Denise Lavoie, Associated Press – 1 hr 15 mins ago

LAWRENCE, Mass. – A Massachusetts woman who withheld at-home chemotherapy medications from her autistic, cancer-stricken son was convicted of attempted murder Tuesday by jurors who dismissed her claim that she thought the side effects of the treatment could kill him.

Kristen LaBrie also was found guilty of child endangerment and assault and battery for failing to give her son, Jeremy Fraser, at least five months of cancer medications after the boy was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2006. He died in 2009 at age 9.

LaBrie, 38, told the jury she stopped giving him the medications because she couldn't bear to see how sick the side effects made him.

Prosecutors portrayed her as a single mother seething with resentment because she had to care for Jeremy alone.

LaBrie, who appeared teary-eyed but resigned as the verdict was read, consoled her sobbing sister in the front row.

"Tell everybody I'm OK. It's going to be OK. I love you, too," LaBrie said.

As she was led away in handcuffs, she mouthed "I love you" to her family.

Jeremy's oncologist, Dr. Alison Friedmann of Massachusetts General Hospital, had testified that she told LaBrie her son's cancer had a cure rate of 85 percent to 90 percent under a two-year, five-phase treatment plan that included some hospital stays, regular visits to the hospital clinic to receive chemotherapy treatments and at-home administration of several cancer medications.

Friedmann said the boy's cancer went into remission after months of treatment. But in early 2008, Friedmann said she discovered that the cancer had returned in the form of leukemia and that LaBrie had not filled at least five months of prescriptions she was supposed to give him.

LaBrie, testifying in her own defense, told the jury that she followed the instructions from her son's doctors for the first four phases of treatment but stopped giving her son the medications during the final phase because she "didn't want to make him any sicker."

LaBrie said she told her son's doctor two or three times that she was afraid that "he just had had it."

"He was just not capable of getting through any more chemotherapy," LaBrie said. "I really felt that it could out-villainize the disease — the medicine could — because he was very, very fragile."

LaBrie's lawyer, Kevin James, told the jury LaBrie was depressed and overwhelmed by caring for her son, who was severely autistic, nonverbal and developmentally delayed. James said she made a "tragic mistake" in stopping her son's at-home medication, but said her actions were not criminal.

LaBrie and the boy's father, Eric Fraser, had a contentious relationship. LaBrie said she received very little help from him, even after their son was diagnosed with cancer.

After doctors discovered LaBrie had withheld the medications, Jeremy went to live with his father for the last year of his life. Eric Fraser was killed in a motorcycle accident seven months after his son died.

Fraser's family members wept in the back row of the courtroom as the verdict was read.

Eric Fraser's brother, Andrew Fraser, later acknowledged the toll the heart-wrenching case has taken on both families.

"It's been a struggle for everybody, including the defendant," he said. "It's never a good day to have to go through something like this, but we did."

LaBrie's sister, Elizabeth O'Keefe, cried as she defended her sister to reporters after the verdict. She said she expected guilty verdicts on the child endangerment and assault charges, but was surprised jurors convicted her of attempted murder.

"It's too hard for them to know what my sister was going through at that time," O'Keefe said. "Nobody was there, just me and my close family. We loved Jeremy more than any other little boy in this whole world."

"I don't think that my sister had any intentions of hurting Jeremy — ever — and never will believe that in my life," she said.

LaBrie will be sentenced Friday morning. She faces a maximum sentence of 20 years on the attempted murder charge, 10 years on a charge of assault and battery on a disabled person, five years on assault and battery on a child causing substantial injury and 2 1/2 years on reckless endangerment of a child.

Her attorney, Kevin James, asked to delay sentencing until next week so he could write a sentencing memo and gather letters on LaBrie's behalf from her friends and family. Judge Richard Welch said he would review the letters and sentencing memo, but would not agree to schedule the hearing next week. "Those are very serious crimes," Welch said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_medication_denied_death


Comments

No winners here. Shame the boy is gone. It is sad when young life is taken.

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Tough call all around... I have had a rare form of genetic skin cancer for 37 years - hundreds of surgeries to keep it "in check"... My sister hand and was cured of non-Hodgkins Lymphoma - and the cure can make you pretty sick for awhile... Any of us in this situation should have the right to decide what is best for all involved... I was also in a 28-Day Coma - unrelated to the, dying three times in the process, all of which I remember verbatim - having quoted those around me at the time, and all of the near-death visions being confirmed by those involved - some that I could have had no knowledge of except through these visions... So, I can say from first-hand experience - both living with cancer, and of dying, there is nothing frightening about death, and there can be all sorts of frightening things about life...

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Funny how an insurance company can deny treatment life saving or other wise however this mother gets a jail sentence.Funny how a husband can have the plug pulled on Terri Schiavo against her parents wishes and the Government could not stop it but this mother is prosecuted.There seems to be lacking a fairness on this issue.

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As a mother of a son who is now healthy after going through 2 and half years of chemotherapy for leukemia, diagnosed when he was just 4 and half years old, he is now 11!, I know first hand what this traumatic experience was like for this woman, however,I wish she would have had the strength to give him a chance to fight for his life, but to condem her for murder, is wrong. I hope someone will reevaluate because this was a dicision she made regarding her own child.

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After watching my 38 year old sister go through extreme suffering with chemo and then die anyway, when my Mom was dx with the very same cancer she chose not to do the chemo. She had a dignified last few months and died in peace. I believe this woman did what she felt was best for her son and has enough to deal with just with her son dying. Please, people, be kind -- "You can't judge another person unless you have walked a mile in his shoes."

Denise Lavoie, Ap Legal Affairs Writer – Fri Apr 15, 1:11 pm ET

LAWRENCE, Mass. – A woman who withheld potentially life-saving medications from her autistic, cancer-stricken son was sentenced Friday to eight to 10 years in prison by a judge who said her actions "really do chill one's soul."

Kristen LaBrie was convicted of attempted murder Tuesday for withholding at least five months of at-home chemotherapy treatments for her son, Jeremy Fraser. The boy died at age 9 in 2009.

LaBrie, 38, wept and apologized before Judge Richard Welch handed down her punishment in Lawrence Superior Court. "I am remorseful for my actions and I wish I could have done things differently," LaBrie told the judge in a courtroom packed with sobbing family members and friends of both LaBrie and the boy's father, Eric Fraser. "If I could do it differently, I would, because I certainly miss my son, and I think about him every day and I wish he could be with me and my family," she said.

Jeremy Fraser was severely autistic, nonverbal and developmentally delayed. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma shortly after he turned 7 in 2006. His oncologist testified that she told LaBrie that her son's cancer had a cure rate of about 85 percent to 90 percent under an intensive, two-year treatment plan that included doses of chemotherapy to be given during hospital stays and clinic visits as well as at-home medications LaBrie was supposed to administer at home.

LaBrie testified that she largely followed doctor's orders during the first four phases of his treatment. But she acknowledged that she stopped giving him the at-home medications during the final phase of treatment because she could not bear to see how much pain and suffering the side effects of the medication caused him. The boy's doctor said she discovered in February 2008 that LaBrie had not filled five months of prescriptions and that Jeremy's cancer had returned as leukemia.

LaBrie testified in her own defense, saying she did not give her son at least five months of chemotherapy medications because the side effects made him so sick she was afraid the treatments would kill him. LaBrie called her son "very, very fragile" and said she didn't think he could withstand any more chemotherapy.

The judge expressed sympathy for LaBrie, saying she was placed "in an extremely trying and exhausting situation" as a single mother with financial troubles raising a severely autistic boy. He said the cancer diagnosis added to her burden and acknowledged she was under "tremendous pressures."

But he said it was not a case where the boy had only a slim chance of recovery. He also said it wasn't a case where a parent was motivated by strongly held religious beliefs about not giving medical care to a child. "To the contrary, here the defendant allowed Jeremy to endure the pain of inpatient chemotherapy ... so that he could get the promise of an 85 to 90 percent chance of recovery, but then she intentionally subverted Jeremy's chances by not following up with the critically important at-home medications," Welch said. "At the end of the day, Miss LaBrie's actions were extended, secretive and calculated. They were acts that really do chill one's soul."

The sentence was higher than the 5 to 7 1/2 years called for under nonbinding state sentencing guidelines but significantly less than the 15 to 17 years sought by prosecutors. LaBrie faced a maximum of 20 years on the attempted murder charge, 10 years on a charge of assault and battery on a disabled person, five years on assault and battery on a child causing substantial injury and 2 1/2 years on reckless endangerment of a child.

Assistant District Attorney Kate MacDougall acknowledged that LaBrie had a difficult time caring for Jeremy alone and watching him suffer horrible side effects from chemotherapy. But she said the jury found that whatever her difficult circumstances were, she "made a decision to harm Jeremy. ... She intended to kill him."

"At the end of the day this was just child abuse ... she withheld from this child intentionally his chance for a cure," MacDougall said.

LaBrie's lawyer, Kevin James, asked the judge to impose a one-year sentence followed by a lengthy period of probation. He cited dozens of letters he received urging leniency from people around the country, including doctors and nurses with autistic children who have "walked in Miss LaBrie's shoes."

James said LaBrie was "nothing but a caring and loving mother" until her son was diagnosed with cancer. He said she made "an awful, awful mistake" and has suffered greatly. "A lengthy jail sentence is going to do what?" he asked.

LaBrie's older son, Matthew, 18, wrote a letter to the judge asking for leniency. "My mother was nothing but unbelievably kind, caring and completely devoted to Jeremy in every aspect of her life," he wrote.

He described his mother sitting by Jeremy's bedside while he was treated for cancer at Massachusetts General Hospital. "Something like that takes a toll on a person and after all that, could anybody so easily sit by and watch while a cure is making a child feel worse?"

Jeremy's uncle, Andrew Fraser, spoke to the judge before sentencing, saying he wanted to represent Jeremy and Jeremy's father, Eric, who was killed in a motorcycle accident seven months after Jeremy died. Andrew Fraser said his brother would have asked for a "fair and just" punishment for LaBrie, despite the contentious relationship they had. "The jury has spoken and nothing you can do will bring us back my nephew and my brother," he said. "Somewhere, they are playing ball together and watching over all of us."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110415/...n_denied_death