She Can’t Testify …
Because of the brain damage he’s accused of inflicting. That’s the stepfather’s legal argument in the Haleigh Poutre beating case. Boston Herald:
Jason Strickland
By Jessica Fargen
Haleigh Poutre has made a miraculous return from death’s door and begun working with prosecutors to build a case against the stepfather charged with beating her into a coma in 2005, according to court documents.
But lawyers defending Jason Strickland are already questioning whether Poutre, 14, of Westfield is competent to testify in light of her injuries, which Strickland is accused of helping to inflict.
“This is a unique case (for) someone who has literally risen from a deathbed coma to be able to now implicate her abuser,” said defense attorney Tim Burke, a former Suffolk prosecutor. “It is nothing short of extraordinary.”
Poutre, who was nearly pulled off life support by the state two years ago, has undergone a miraculous recovery and is now “making statements alleging abuse” by her stepfather, lawyers said.
But the allegations made by Poutre from her hospital room at Franciscan Hospital for Children in Brighton are being questioned by Strickland’s attorney. Strickland and Poutre’s adoptive mother, Holli Strickland, were both accused in the 2005 pummeling.
“This creates issues concerning competency and (Haleigh’s) ability to testify and recall events in light of her severe head trauma,” Alan J. Black wrote in a Hampden Superior Court motion that requested a trial delay.
Black’s motion indicates that a 51A complaint, with new allegations against Strickland, was forwarded to him by Hampden District Attorney William Bennett. A 51A is a report of abuse or neglect filed with the Department of Social Services. Bennett is not commenting.
News reports last year indicated that Poutre could eat, write, and flex muscles, all activities that doctors once said would never be possible. She remains in DSS custody.
If it makes it to trial, this will be an intense balance of emotion, legal principles and credibility, highly challenging for any judge and jury.
This case first made headlines because DSS wanted to pull the life-support plug. The Herald’s Mike Underwood has more on that:
To most people, Haleigh Poutre’s extraordinary recovery from the brink of brain death could be called a miracle.
But one Bay State brain injury expert said that although only a “small percentage” of people fully recover from severe trauma, recovery can, in fact, occur.
“It is entirely possible for someone with severe injury to recover. The chances of a full recovery becomes much less the more severe the injury but, it is still possible,” said Dr. Douglas Katz, medical director of brain injury at Braintree Rehabilitation Center.
When the 14-year-old was first hospitalized in 2005, at age 11, doctors said there was “no hope of a meaningful recovery.”
But as they prepared to pull the plug on her life support, Poutre showed signs of emerging from the vegetative state that had shackled her for months.
She has gained strength over the past two years to the extent that she is now “communicating” with investigators over savage abuse that has left her confined to a hospital bed.
“Younger people have a better chance of recovery than someone much older with the same sort of injury,” said Katz, who is also associate professor of neurology at Boston University and a former board member of the Brain Injury Association of America.
“Memory is almost always affected in these cases. But past memories are not necessarily erased. People will often be able to remember salient experiences from their past.”
Court records revealed the horrific extent of Poutre’s injuries.
She had brain bleeding and trauma and a sheared brain stem that caused “irreparable brain damage,” according to the doctors who first treated her.
The records also showed that during her first week in the hospital, Poutre was “unresponsive.”
“She currently has the least amount of brain function that a person can have and still be considered alive. She is not aware of her surroundings and does not experience pain or discomfort,” according to Superior Court testimony from that time on file from officials at the Department of Social Services.
This case will be cited in the ongoing debate about pulling the plug. It probably, because of a number of the peculiar circumstances, does more to muddy the picture than clarify what is ultimately a moral and philosophical dispute. But it underscores the need to very closely examine circumstances before any decision is made. In this case, both sides of the plug-pulling debate can probably agree it is indeed a miracle and be grateful that a little girl might be able to come back to haunt the man accused of abusing her.
Topics: crime, medicine, punishment
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:26 am on Thursday, February 28, 2008
One Response to “She Can’t Testify …”
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February 28th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
I always have a problem with calling such incidents “miraculous.” There is a reason why this person survived her horrific abuse and it is important for others who suffer the same kind of injuries that the cause is understood. Just because we don’t know the cause doesn’t mean there isn’t one. It is like those cancer patients who are “spontaneously” cured for no reason the doctors understand. Just imagine if we understood the mechanism that brings about such a cure!
Thankfully this girl survived.