Trial opens for Oregon couple
By TIM FOUGHT
Associated Press
Tuesday, June 30, 2009 10:02 AM PDT
OREGON CITY — Lawyers for parents charged in the death of their 15-month-old daughter said Monday the couple never thought the child was dying as they and other members of their church went through rituals such as anointing her with oil and the laying on of hands.
Instead, said the lawyers for Carl and Raylene Worthington of Oregon City, those who gathered around Ava Worthington thought what they had done worked, that the child was getting better.
The Worthingtons are members of the Followers of Christ Church, whose members shun doctors in favor of spiritual healing.
They are accused of manslaughter and criminal mistreatment in the death of their child, who didn’t get a doctor’s care. The state medical examiner said she could easily have been treated with antibiotics for her pneumonia.
The trial got under way Monday with opening statements.
The Clackamas County prosecutor said the child was not getting better in March 2008. Instead, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Greg Horner, what family and friends interpreted as recovery was the little girl’s body shutting down, ‘‘giving up because it can’t hang in there.’’
Horner said the girl lost a long battle caused by a cold that led to a bacterial infection and pneumonia, accompanied by a cyst-like growth on her neck caused by her lymphatic system struggling against the infection.
