JEREMY FRASER - 9 yo (2009) - Salem MA

Salem MA --- A judge has denied a motion to dismiss charges
against a Salem woman accused of failing to fill prescriptions to treat her
autistic son's cancer.Salem Superior Court Judge John Lu wrote in his
decision released Thursday that the evidence against 37-year-old Kristen LaBrie
was sufficient to establish probable cause that she committed crimes including
attempted murder and assault and battery on a disabled person.

LaBrie's lawyer had argued that there is no evidence of her intent.

Her son, Jeremy Fraser, was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2006. With treatment,
the cancer went into remission, but returned as leukemia in 2008. He died a year
ago at age 9.

Jeremy's father, Eric, was given custody. He died in November a few days
after a motorcycle crash.

Judge will allow mom's statements in chemo case

August 11 2010

SALEM — A Salem Superior Court judge has rejected a motion to suppress
statements made to state child welfare investigators by a Salem mother
accused of failing to give her son chemotherapy.


Judge Timothy Feeley ruled that not only did Kristen LaBrie and her
lawyer, Kevin James, fail to show him any evidence that LaBrie had a
client-social worker relationship with the Department of Children and
Families staff members who investigated the matter, but that even if
they had, the statements would be admissible because the state child
protection law creates an exception to the usual privilege between a
social worker and client.


LaBrie, 38, of Salem, is charged with attempted murder, child
endangerment, and two assault and battery counts, stemming from the
illness of her autistic son, Jeremy Fraser, who suffered from lymphoma
that later became an aggressive form of leukemia after, prosecutors
allege, she stopped giving him his chemotherapy medications.


Jeremy died a year after his cancer came out of remission, at the age of 9.


After doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital discovered that the
cancer had come out of remission in the winter of 2008, they filed a
report of suspected abuse or neglect with what was then known as the
Department of Social Services.


During the agency's investigation, LaBrie made a number of statements
to social workers assigned to investigate the report, including
insisting that pharmacy records showing that prescriptions went unfilled
must be some sort of mistake.


Prosecutor Kate MacDougall may want to use that information at trial, something James was trying to preclude with his motion.


The defense lawyer even insisted on hearing testimony from the social
workers — a hearing that the judge cut short after concluding that the
issue was one of law, not facts.


In his ruling, dated Aug. 3, Feeley concluded that there was no need to hear any further evidence.


"As a matter of law to be decided by the court, the challenged
statements by LaBrie to three social workers employed by and engaged in
their duties with the Department of Children and Families do not fall
within the social worker-client privilege," Feeley wrote. "Accordingly,
LaBrie's motion to suppress statements is denied."


The judge said in his ruling that LaBrie and James failed even in
LaBrie's affidavit to offer anything other than a series of declarative
statements, with no supporting facts, that LaBrie had a social
worker-client relationship with each of the DCF workers — then, during
the hearing, almost immediately backed down from that claim regarding
one of the social workers.


"The mere unsupported assertion of a relationship is not enough to
warrant a hearing," Feeley wrote, later adding that he has "at least
some doubt" that such a relationship even existed.


Beyond that, "LaBrie's challenge to the statements she made to the DCF
social workers fails as a matter of law" because the law states that
information gathered by DCF social workers in an investigation into
child abuse or neglect is not confidential.


LaBrie is due back in court Aug. 17 for a status hearing in her case.
It's unclear whether James intends to file any further evidentiary
motions before a trial is scheduled.

Mother charged with attempted murder admits withholding at least five months of cancer medication from her autistic on

Last updated at 10:55 PM on 8th April 2011


Testify: Kristen LaBrie, 38, of Salem,
Massachusetts, said she mostly followed doctor's orders during the first
four phases of treatment for her son

A mother, charged with the attempted murder of her autistic son, told
a court she had not given him at least five months of chemotherapy
medicine because she was afraid it would kill him.
Kristen
LaBrie, 38, of Salem, Massachusetts, said she mostly followed doctor's
orders during the first four phases of treatment for her son, Jeremy
Fraser.

But said she stopped giving him his cancer medications during the
final phase of his treatment because she 'didn't want to make him any
sicker' at the second day of her trial.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-villainise the disease - the medicine could - because he was very, very fragile.'LaBrie's
son was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2006. The boy's
oncologist testified that she told LaBrie the cancer had a cure rate of
85 per cent to 90 per cent under an intensive, two-year treatment plan.The boy required periodic hospitalisations and frequent visits to a hospital clinic, where he received chemotherapy treatments.
LaBrie was instructed to give him two to three cancer medications at home.After
months of treatment, the boy's cancer went into remission. But in
February 2008, doctors discovered the cancer had returned in the form of
leukaemia and that LaBrie had not taken at least five months' worth of
prescriptions for her son's cancer drugs.Jeremy died in 2009 aged nine.LaBrie
remained composed through most of her testimony, showing emotion only
once, when her lawyer asked her why did not give her son the drugs.'He was very, very sick and I was afraid, and I did not want to make him any sicker,' she said, her voice quivering.






Fear: LaBrie told the court she stopped
giving her son Jeremy, right, his cancer treatment because she 'didn't
want to make him any sicker'


'I was afraid that if he got any sicker than he was, then he would die,' she said.Prosecutors
have painted a picture of a woman who 'seethed with resentment' over
the small role the boy's father, Eric Fraser, had played in his life
after the couple split up when the boy was three.
Jeremy had severe autism, allergies and other health issues. LaBrie said she largely took care of him by herself.LaBrie testified that Eric Fraser did not give her much help after their son was diagnosed with cancer.Jeremy
Fraser spent the last year of his life living with his father who died
in a motorcycle accident seven months after his son's
death.During cross-examination by Assistant District Attorney
Kate MacDougall, LaBrie acknowledged that she repeatedly told her son's
doctors that he was doing well on the at-home chemotherapy treatments.
She
also acknowledged that she told his doctors she was giving him all the
treatments and lied when first confronted about the prescriptions,
saying the pharmacy must have made a billing error.LaBrie said
she did not tell his oncologist that she was afraid to give him the
medications because she knew someone else would give them to him and
make him feel sick.
She described various side effects, including nausea, weakness, fevers and sleeplessness.She shot back at the prosecutor when pressed about why she didn't give her son the medications.'You knew the cancer had made him very sick?' asked MacDougall.'I
didn't actually see the cancer make him very sick. What I saw make him
very sick was the two weeks they blasted him with chemotherapy,' she
said, referring to her son's initial hospitalisation.LaBrie, 38, is charged with attempted murder, child endangerment and assault and battery. Her nine-year-old son died in 2009.
The defence rested its case after LaBrie's testimony today.
Prosecutors also rested after calling one rebuttal witness, a
psychiatrist who said he did not believe LaBrie was suffering from a
mental impairment when she made the decision to withhold the medication.
The jury is expected to begin deliberating the case on Monday after closing arguments and instructions from the judge.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1375072/Mother-charged-attempted-murder-admits-withholding-months-cancer-medication-autistic-son.html#ixzz1IzKAul4A

Jury convicts mom who withheld cancer meds
Jurors dismiss claim that she thought the treatment's side effects could kill her autistic son

snipped......

Fraser's family members wept in the back row of the courtroom as the verdict was read, and left the court without commenting.

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 2½ 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://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42553209/ns/health-kids_and_parenting