Principles Clash in Attleboro Sect Case
Eileen McNamara,
Boston Globe,
By Globe, 2/3/02, Internet
The ''independent'' investigator appointed by Attleboro
Juvenile Court Judge Kenneth P. Nassif to assess whether David and Rebecca
Corneau were fit parents is a self-styled cult buster committed to luring
members away from ''aberrant religious groups.''
The Rev. Robert T. Pardon heads The New England
Institute of Religious Research, a ''mission'' he founded to provide
''training in ministering to those caught up in such destructive groups.''
His Web site names the sect to which the Corneaus belong as one such cult.
The court's choice of Pardon to make an ''impartial''
assessment of parental fitness bolsters the couple's contention that bias
might have skewed the court's custody decisions. ''Who cares if he's
biased,'' responds Carol Yelverton, spokeswoman for the state Department
of Social Services. ''He's not some nut; he was educated at Princeton. Our
focus is that two babies are dead and we don't want any more.''
The Corneaus are the focus of
a debate that pits an individual's right to practice religion against the
state's responsibility to protect children. The couple's four known
children are in the custody of DSS, placed there after Nassif found them
in need of protection from ''a bizarre and dangerous cult.''
. . . Nassif already has
awarded custody to the state. ''We can't take chances with a baby's
life,'' says Yelverton. ''Given the history, we have to take every
precaution. We would do that in any case.''
Well, not every case. Just
last week, Eric E.G. James of Roxbury was charged with an assault that
left his 2-month-old son near death. James had history. In October 2000,
he was living with his girlfriend when her 1-month-old son was beaten to
death. That homicide case is still open. DSS found evidence of abuse, but
did not keep tabs on Christine Carreiro's roommates or her reproductive
state. ''We can't wait by the door to see if a couple has another baby,''
says Yelverton. But didn't DSS do just that in the Corneau case? ''No,''
she says. ''We were called by people who saw her pregnant and in active
labor.''
The vigilance of our child
protection system, then, is dependent on the presence or absence of nosy
neighbors? Or a judge and a guardian ad litem with an agenda.
The conventional role of
guardian ad litem is to provide an independent evaluation of a family's
situation to the court. Pardon clearly had other interests in October 2000
when Nassif named him guardian for Katerina Corneau, the baby born in a
prison hospital after Nassif jailed Rebecca for refusing to submit to
medical exams prohibited by her religious beliefs.
''I can testify to you that
your beliefs and practices are not consistent with His Word, nor,
more profoundly, with His character,'' Pardon wrote to the Corneaus
on Dec. 10, 2000, after they declined to meet with him. ''One day all of
us will stand before Him and give an account of our lives and the choices
we have made ... Lives are being destroyed, David, and all in the Name of
God. How God must weep over your decisions.''
Youth Prisons in California Called Abusive
A suit filed in federal court
in Sacramento against the California Youth Authority on behalf of 11
prisoners, contends inhumane conditions are pervasive. It describes such
practices as the use of cages as classrooms and the forcible injection of
mind-altering drugs to control the behavior of inmates. . . It
contends that prisoners with disabilities are sometimes isolated in
dungeon-like holes splattered with feces and blood and that the inmates
live in fear of physical and sexual violence.
Instead of rehabilitation and
education, the system of 11 prisons and four camps, with about 6,300
prisoners, had become known for brutality and other abuses. Reports that
mentally ill youths were stripped to their underwear and isolated in cages
23 hours a day, that prisoners were subjected to biomedical experiments
and sexually and physically abused by guards, and other problems led the
state inspector general, Steven White, to conclude that "it would be
impossible to overstate the problem." As a result, the California Board of
Corrections ordered a review of the Youth Authority by more than 100
experts. (New
York Times,
1/26/02, Internet)
Child Rape Charge for Mormon Fundamentalist
Tom Green, the man with five
wives, 31 children and two more on the way, is set to be charged with the
child rape of one of his wives. Green, 53, a Mormon fundamentalist from
Utah, was jailed for five years last August after being convicted of
bigamy and failure to pay child support. He was tried and found guilty in
May and sentenced to five years in prison for living with five wives at
the same time and fraudulently collecting $150,000 in welfare. (Daily
Telegraph, 1/12/02, Internet)
News Summaries - group