Jurors set to deliberate in retrial of Syracuse child abuse case

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Jurors set to deliberate in retrial of Syracuse child abuse case

Panel to deliberate case after dueling testimony from scientific experts.

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Thursday, March 19, 2009

By Jim O'Hara

Staff writer

The Post-Standard - Syracuse.com - Syracuse,NY,USA

A battle of scientific experts played out as attacks on " junk science " and

questions about the " rock star of forensics " as the child abuse trial of a

Syracuse woman wound to a close this week.

Dr. Dorr Dearborn, national expert on linking mold exposure to pulmonary

injuries in children, bristled Tuesday at suggestions his work amounts to " junk

science. " He's part of a $26 million National Institutes of Health study on the

impact of the environment on children's health.

Dr. Baden, host of the HBO " Autopsy " series and forensic pathologist

whose work dates to the assassinations of President Kennedy and

Luther King, pooh-poohed Wednesday the " rock-star " characterization of his

celebrated medical and forensic history.

Both experts testified in the trial of Everson Gallishaw, the 25-year-old

Syracuse woman facing charges she tried to suffocate her infant daughter, a,

in May 2000.

Gallishaw was convicted of felony assault and endangering the welfare of a child

in 2001. State Supreme Court Justice Brunetti last year overturned the

conviction after the defense found photographs to support their contention Al-

exa's clothing and bedding had been exposed to toxic mold when laundered in the

basement of her grandmother's home.

The defense - with support from Dearborn - contends a's injuries resulted

from toxic mold exposure and not child abuse.

A jury of eight men and four women is expected to begin deliberations in the

retrial today.

Dearborn was the only defense witness. He claimed exposure to Stachybotrys mold

was the " most likely " cause of the pulmonary hemorrhaging that sent a to the

hospital three times in the first two months of her life in April and May 2000.

The toxins produced by that type of mold are more potent than the toxins

involved in some chemical warfare incidents, he said.

Dearborn said he has been studying the impact of mold on young children since

1993, when he treated three children with the same unexplained pulmonary

condition on the same day in a clinic at Case Western Reserve University in

Cleveland, Ohio. That led to what has become known as the " Cleveland Study, " a

study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control that concluded there was a

link between Stachybotrys mold exposure and pulmonary hemorrhaging in children

in low-income housing in Cleveland.

Dr. Jumbelic, the recently retired chief medical examiner for Onondaga

County, questioned Dearborn's conclusions before he even took the stand. She

testified Monday that a link between mold exposure and pulmonary hemorrhaging in

children has never been proven scientifically.

She testified that her original 2001 opinion that mold did not play a role in

a's injuries was only strengthened over the past eight years.

Dearborn conceded the CDC filed a subsequent report in 2000 that challenged the

findings of its own original Cleveland Study. But he contended the follow-up

ignored the defense he and other scientists made on behalf of the original

study.

As for allegations his theory is " junk science, " Dearborn said the National

Institutes of Health doesn't fund junk science and scientific journals don't

publish articles about junk science. The funding for his research and the

publication of his numerous articles belies efforts to debunk his findings, he

contended.

Baden was called as a prosecution witness.

He admitted having no prior involvement in researching Stachybotrys mold and its

impact on pulmonary hemorrhaging. But he repeatedly maintained that if the mold

resulted in such injury, there would be visible proof of that in X-rays and

medical reports.

There was no such evidence in a's X-rays or mentioned in the medical records

of her three hospitalizations, he noted. Given that, Baden testified that he

would rule out mold exposure as having anything to do with the girl's injuries.

Absent evidence of any other medical cause for her injuries, Baden concluded

a was the victim of a " partial suffocation " from which she survived.

When defense lawyer Ted suggested Baden was " a bit of a rock star " given

his celebrity-laced history, the witness politely suggested that

characterization might better be reserved for Jumbelic, who was sitting in

court. That prompted to point out Jumbelic doesn't have a show on HBO.

Jim O'Hara can be reached at johara@... or 470-2260.

[Guest guest]

PLEASE keep us updated, this is hudge. I know damn well what stachy toxins are

capable of doing to adult lungs and it's scary. theres no dought in my mind that

it can cause a baby to stop breathing for shot periods of tome or even for good.

and i'm not even sure of the symptoms that bleeding in the lungs cause, i'm am

talking from my own experience as I not only suffered repeated episodes of what

I thought at the time was some very bad anixity attacks that I'd never had

before, but several times my lungs stop working for several sexonds and I

couldn't take a breath in or out. theres no doubt in my mind now of exactly what

was causeing this. I can tottally see what this baby suffered with. I have cried

for these people in the cleveland case and what they went through because the

dangers of toxic molds were not reconized. I pray that these people are

cendicated after all these years of suffering. those involved in keeping the

effects of toxic molds hidden from the public should be lined up and forced to

lived in the most mold ridden homes there are until which time they are no

longer able to take a breath. I have such a place but the bank has desided after

8 years of setting on it, to forclose and try to see if they can kill someone

else. I well not ask god to forgive them for what they do.

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> Jurors set to deliberate in retrial of Syracuse child abuse case

> Panel to deliberate case after dueling testimony from scientific experts.

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