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April 4, 2001
Rebirthing Mother Says She Thought Therapy
Was Standard Practice:
Newmaker Says She Didn't Know Of Therapists' Lack Of Experience
The adoptive mother of a girl who suffocated
during a "rebirthing" therapy session said that she thought that the
treatment was standard practice and did not know that the two
therapists had limited experience with the technique.
 Jeane
Newmaker (pictured, left) testified against therapists Connell
Watkins, 54, and Julie Ponder, 40, who are charged with reckless
child abuse resulting in death. If convicted, each could face up to
48 years in prison.
During testimony Wednesday, Newmaker, 47, of
Durham, N.C., described the rebirthing session at an Evergreen
clinic where Candace Newmaker, 10, died.
"They said it would be a chance for Candace to
be reborn to a new family, to me," a weeping Newmaker said.
Prosecutor Laura Dunbar asked Newmaker if she
knew that both Ponder and Watkins had performed only about five
"rebirthing" therapy sessions, and the longest such session lasted
about six minutes.
"No," Newmaker replied.
Candace was found not breathing 70 minutes
after the session began.
Newmaker wept as she described how Candace was
wrapped in a blanket on April 18 and the therapist and two employees
pushed against her with pillows, urging her to fight her way out to
become reborn. Candace cried that she could not breathe and begged
for her life.
Newmaker, who was watching the videotaped
session on a television upstairs, described how Ponder and Watkins
unwrapped Candace and said that the unconscious child was sleeping.
"I heard alarm in their voice," Newmaker said,
describing how she ran downstairs and began performing CPR on
Candace.
"I thought she was dead. She was blue, and she
wasn't moving," Newmaker said.
 Candace
died a day later at a Denver hospital. An autopsy listed the cause
of death as asphyxiation.
Newmaker had testified Tuesday that she sought
out the treatment because the girl's behavior had become so
dangerous that she might not be able to keep her at home.
The therapy was designed to treat reactive
attachment disorder, in which a child resists forming loving
relationships and can become unmanageable and violent.
Newmaker testified that Candace sometimes
refused to eat and sleep, flew into rages and once tried to burn a
mattress. Newmaker told jurors that she felt that several doctors
and counselors could not help Candace.
She said that Candace had become dangerous to
other children, once forcing two girls to undress under threat of
violence.
Newmaker, who is not married, brought Candace
home in June 1996. She 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.
A state bill that would make the rebirthing
therapy practice illegal has passed the House and is on the way to
Gov. Owens for his signature.
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