COALITION AGAINST INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILD ABUSE
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April 9, 2001

Rebirthing Trial Continues Monday In Golden:
Therapists Accused Of Reckless Child Abuse

Testimony resumed Monday as the trial of two women charged in the death of Candace Newmaker (pictured, left) entered its second week.

The therapists, Connell Watkins, 54, and Julie Ponder 40, are charged with child abuse resulting in death. The charge is a felony and each could receive 16 to 48 years in prison.

All but one of the 14 jurors listening to testimony in the death of a 10-year-old girl during a "rebirthing therapy" session have children.

The jurors, seven men and seven women from Jefferson County, range from a government employee who took in 25 foster children to a working mother with two sons. Twelve will consider the therapists' fate and two are alternates.

Some jurors wept last week as a videotape of the April 18, 2000 session showed Watkins and Ponder wrapping Candace in a flannel sheet and the 70-pound girl screaming that she could not breathe as the therapists and two assistants pushed down with pillows. The four collectively weighed 673 pounds.

Candace stopped breathing after being wrapped in the blanket for 70 minutes and a died a day later.

Prosecutors said that Candace was asphyxiated during the procedure at Watkins' Evergreen home. Defense attorneys said that Candace died of a heart problem brought on by the medications she was taking for emotional problems.

Candace was brought to Colorado by her adoptive mother, Jeane Newmaker of Durham, N.C., for what Newmaker believed was an attachment disorder.

Newmaker testified last week that Candace suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, attention deficit disorder and other emotional problems related to a violent childhood. Newmaker said she sought out the "provocative" therapy after medication and counseling failed.

Newmaker faces trial in November on a lesser charge of criminally negligent child abuse resulting in death.

Brita St. Clair, Watkins' business manager, and intern Jack McDaniel, who were present for the session, face trial in September on charges of reckless child abuse resulting in death.

 

 

 

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