Re: Prayer- Jurors set to deliberate in retrial of Syracuse child abuse case

[Guest guest]

To everyone,

I would say this would be a really good time to pray for this jury!!

K

tigerpaw2c <tigerpaw2c@...> wrote: Jurors set

to deliberate in retrial of Syracuse child abuse case

Panel to deliberate case after dueling testimony from scientific experts.

http://www.syracuse.com/crime/index.ssf?/base/policeblotter-1/1237453172203240.x\

ml & coll=1

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.