An insanity defense maybe, but Voodoo? I'll have to remember that if I'm ever in big trouble!
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http://www.nydailynews.com/front/sto...p-153484c.html
Mom's voodoo defense works
By NANCIE L. KATZ
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
A Brooklyn woman who claimed a voodoo spell prevented her from seeking help for her dying toddler got off with probation and parenting classes yesterday - instead of jail.
Brooklyn Criminal Court Justice Joel Greenberg could have sentenced Judith St. Hillaire, 31, to up to a year in jail but instead let the remorseful mother walk.
St. Hillaire claimed a spell cast by her East Flatbush neighbor held her back from calling 911 or a doctor for her 3-year-old son, Alexander Jacques, as he lay dying from an infection and fever of more than 105 degrees in June 2002.
On Feb. 4, a Brooklyn jury apparently believed her, acquitting St. Hillaire, a mother of two other children, of criminally negligent homicide but convicting her of endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor.
"The real mystery here is how the jury could have that evidence and not find criminally negligent homicide," said Richard Farrell, a professor at Brooklyn Law School.
"It's unfortunate. In a failed, flawed, toxic system, the judge did the best thing he could under the circumstances."
The judge didn't buy the voodoo defense but spared St. Hillaire jail time because she "had no idea it [the infection] would turn deadly."
Greenberg added he believed St. Hillaire's decision not to seek medical help also was fueled by a fear that the Administration for Children's Services would take away her son. The child died after developing an infection from a cut to the head.
On videotape, St. Hillaire told police that her neighbor at 848 E. 57th St. cast a spell on her after she accused the woman's son of assaulting her daughter.
"I just didn't pick up the phone to call 911," she was quoted as saying. "I knew the child was sick. I knew he needed a doctor but it was this voodoo spell that prevented me."
St. Hillaire also blamed Brookdale University Hospital for failing to inform her when Alexander was born that he had a sickle cell trait that may have caused the infection to become fatal.
The two other children of St. Hillaire and her husband, a limousine driver, are in foster care. It's up to ACS and Family Court judge to decide when she's ready to have them returned, court officials said. Court records show St. Hillaire had no previous history of abuse.
Originally published on March 23, 2004
Mom's voodoo defense works....
