Ailing Wis. woman returns to ’prayer death’ trial
WAUSAU, Wis. (AP) — A central Wisconsin mother accused of praying instead of seeking medical attention for her dying daughter suffered a brief medical emergency as her homicide trial started Saturday.
Leilani Neumann, 41, was checked out by paramedics before she returned to the courtroom in a wheelchair about 30 minutes later.
The drama provided a strange irony for the start of what’s believed to the first case of its kind in Wisconsin involving faith healing, in which someone died and another person was charged with a homicide.
Neumann received immediate medical attention after becoming visibly weak Saturday. Yet she is accused of not seeking medical attention for her 11-year-old daughter, Madeline, last year as the girl grew weak from undiagnosed diabetes. Madeline couldn’t talk, couldn’t walk, went into a coma and died in the family’s rural Weston home on Easter 2008.
Neumann and her husband have been charged with second-degree reckless homicide, which carries a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.
Prosecutors contend any reasonable parent would have known something was wrong. They say Neumann, who believes healing comes from God, recklessly killed her daughter by praying instead of rushing her to a doctor.
The girl’s father, Dale Neumann, 47, is scheduled to face trial starting July 23.
May 17, 2009 at 1:56 a.m.
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IMO~God gave us the knowledge to be able to diagnose, treat, and sometimes cure medical conditions.
May 16, 2009 at 10:41 p.m.
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Healing does come from God, but we need to get the appropriate care when it is constituted! They need to have abuse and/or neglect added to this sentence.... STUPID PEOPLE!!
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