How Could You? Hall of Shame-Aloric Smith Case-Child Death UPDATED

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Lubec, Maine, Adoptive Father Edward Smith “is facing three charges, including manslaughter, in connection with the death of his adopted son more than two years ago.”

“Jury selection is scheduled next month in the case ”

“Aloric Smith, 12, died April 4, 2012. A family member found him unresponsive in his bed at about 6:30 a.m. His adoptive father, Edward Smith, called for an ambulance. The boy was pronounced dead at Down East Community Hospital in Machias.

An autopsy determined the boy, who suffered from childhood diabetes, died of natural causes, according to a Maine State Police detective.

It was more than a year later before Smith was accused of any wrongdoing. He was charged with aggravated furnishing of a scheduled drug and endangering the welfare of a child in an indictment handed down by a Washington County grand jury in September 2013.

The indictment initially was sealed, however, because Smith had moved. He was taken into custody in Missouri in October 2013 and was transported to Maine the following month.

A superseding indictment was returned in November 2013, and Smith was charged with an additional count of manslaughter for “recklessly, or with criminal negligence,” causing the boy’s death.

Unable to post a $5,000 cash bail or a $50,000 surety bond, Smith has since been held in the Washington County jail.

Jury selection is scheduled for Nov. 6, and the case is scheduled for trial in Washington County Superior Court on Dec. 8. Justice Robert Murray will preside.

Smith and his wife moved to Missouri several months after the boy’s death, his Machias defense attorney, Jeff Davidson, said Friday. He voluntarily waived extradition back to Maine, Davidson noted.

Smith, who operated a farm when he lived in Lubec, is accused in the manslaughter indictment of not taking the boy to a hospital or doctor when he was ill, Davidson explained.

“I think the state intends to prove not taking him to a doctor somehow caused his death,” Davidson said. “From our perspective, that seems like a leap.”

The boy had a doctor’s appointment scheduled the day before he died, Davidson said. However, when the boy woke up that morning, he was “doing much better,” Davidson said, so Edward Smith did not take the boy to his appointment, believing his son did not need medical attention.

Years earlier, the boy was diagnosed with childhood diabetes, according to attorneys on both sides of the case. Since his diagnosis, he had been treated for it and regularly was seen by physicians, Davidson said.

The drug charge is related to the fact that Edward Smith allegedly gave the boy a Valium the weekend before he died, thinking he had the flu, which he did, Davidson said. However, the Valium “did not relate to his death in any way,” Davidson added.

Edward Smith, who earlier said he raised the boy since he was 3 years old and legally adopted him in 2007, is accused of not getting medical care for his son, Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin explained. “We’re alleging that he acted recklessly in the days leading to this son’s death,” she said recently.

Robbin declined to talk about the details of the case, of which she said she was not at liberty to discuss. “There are a whole number of factors,” Robbin said.

“It was referred to our office by the state police as a possible homicide,” Robbin said. The Maine Attorney General’s office normally prosecutes homicide cases, she noted.”

Former Lubec man faces trial in connection with adopted son’s death[Bangor Daily News 10/11/14 by Tim Cox]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

 

Update:”A former Lubec farmer accused of causing the death of his diabetic son by failing to seek medical attention for the boy when his flu symptoms escalated was criminally negligent, the prosecutor said as the man’s trial began Monday.

Edward Smith, 44, misjudged how a stomach bug going around town in 2012 would affect his 12-year-old boy’s diabetes, but was not a negligent parent, his defense attorney said at the start of the jury-waived trial before Justice Robert Murray in Washington County Superior Court.

Smith is charged with manslaughter, aggravated furnishing of a scheduled drug and endangering the welfare of a child, because he allegedly gave Aloric Smith drugs not prescribed for him.

The boy died of diabetic ketoacidosis, Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin, who is prosecuting the case, said in her opening statement.

Diabetic ketoacidosis occurs when a person with diabetes becomes dehydrated, according to the website emedicinehealth.com. The condition results in the body consuming its own muscle, fat and liver cells for fuel. Common causes for the condition are infections that include diarrhea and vomiting.

The boy died because his father did not do what “any reasonable and prudent parent would have done — gotten medical attention for their child,” Robbin told the judge. The prosecutor also said that Edward Smith gave his son Valium and an inhaler, which were prescribed for the father, not the son.

Robbin told the judge that Aloric Smith was diagnosed with Type 1 juvenile diabetes in October 2010. She said that his father was involved in learning to test the child’s blood sugar and manage the disease.

The prosecutor said that the defendant was told that if the boy became ill and was vomiting, a parent should seek medical attention immediately, either by calling the child’s doctor, the 24-hour diabetes hotline at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor or an ambulance.

Edward Smith did none of those things in the 60 hours leading up to his son’s death, Robbin said.

Defense attorney Jeffrey Davidson of Machias said that there is no question that Aloric Smith died of his diabetes.

“It’s unfortunate, but children sometimes die of diseases,” Davidson told the judge in his opening statement. “Clearly Ed made a miscalculation. He had seen his son have a diabetic incident, and this was not what that looked like.”

Smith believed the boy was suffering from the stomach flu, the defense attorney said. The father believed the boy was getting better because he had been able to keep some food down.

Davidson said that Smith would take the stand in his own defense.

Smith’s estranged wife, Donna Smith of Springfield, Missouri, testified Monday that in the two days prior to his death on Wednesday, April 4, 2012, Aloric Smith was vomiting and had diarrhea. He was unable to keep down chicken soup or a milkshake and was so weak the night before his death that he could not walk to the bathroom unaided, she said.

Donna Smith, 34, who is not Aloric’s mother, began dating Edward Smith the week before Aloric’s death, she told Murray. The couple moved to Missouri the following summer and were married on Halloween 2012. By the time he was arrested and returned to Maine a year later, the marriage was in trouble. The woman said that she has a new boyfriend and intends to divorce the defendant.

“I told Ed [Tuesday night] that he needed to take Aloric to the hospital,” she testified. “He said that Aloric didn’t want to go. I told him that he had to be the parent and take him.”

She said that she saw Edward Smith check his son’s glucose levels and give him an insulin shot at least once in the evening but was at work and not at the house with them during the day.

Donna Smith told the judge that she and Edward Smith agreed that on Wednesday morning, he would take the boy to the emergency room. When they got up the next morning, Aloric Smith was dead, she said.

Law enforcement officers who arrived at the house after Edward Smith called 911, described the home as “messy and dirty.” There were animals, including rabbits and cats, in the house and animal feces was found in several rooms.

Dr. Margaret Greenwald, the medical examiner who performed the boy’s autopsy, and employees of the Department of Health and Human Services who were involved with the family in the year before the boy’s death are scheduled to testify Tuesday.

The trial is expected to end Thursday when Murray will take the case under advisement. There is no timetable under which he must issue his decision.

The defendant appeared in court Monday in orange jail clothes. He has been held since his arrest October 2013 in Missouri at the Washington County Jail unable to post $5,000 cash or a $50,000 surety bail.

Edward Smith moved to the Midwest several months after the boy’s death, according to a previously published report.

If convicted of manslaughter, Smith faces up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000. He faces up to five years in prison and a fine of $5,000 if convicted on the drug charge and a year in prison and a fine of up to $2,000 on the endangering charge.”

Prosector says Lubec man’s neglect caused diabetic son’s death; defense claims boy got sick[Bangor Daily News 12/8/14 by Judy Harrison]

“A judge on Monday found that a man charged with causing the death of his 12-year-old diabetic son was not guilty of manslaughter.

“The death of Aloric Smith was a tragedy,” Superior Court Justice Robert Murray said. “The death of Aloric Smith was not manslaughter.”

In addition, Murray found Edward Smith, 44, formerly of Lubec, not guilty of endangering the welfare of a child. The judge did find the defendant guilty of aggravated furnishing of a scheduled drug. The father admitted giving his son one-quarter of a 10-milligram Valium tablet prescribed for the elder Smith.

Murray presided over Smith’s jury-waived trial Dec. 8 through 11, then took the case under advisement.

The judge said in his seven-page written decision issued at Washington County Superior Court that the state did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Smith’s failure to seek medical treatment for his son was “a gross deviation from the standard of conduct that a reasonable and prudent person would observe in the same situation, given the circumstances known to the defendant.”

Smith heaved a sigh of relief when the judge announced his verdict, defense attorney Jeffrey Davidson said after the short hearing.

“I would say he’s relieved,” Davidson said. “He let out a pretty big sigh. The court saw this was a tragedy, not a crime.”

Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin called Smith’s prosecution “a tough case.”

“It was important to the surviving family members that Aloric have his day in court,” she said. “We did our best for him.”

Smith testified the last day of the trial that he “would have dragged him to the hospital whether he liked it or if not” if he’d understood the child was suffering from anything more than a stomach flu. The father maintained that he made a mistake in not seeking medical care for Aloric Smith, who died at home on April 4, 2012, but believed that his actions were not criminal.

Smith said that the boy had vomited and had suffered the symptoms of a “stomach bug” previously and recovered.

Smith said that his son vomited the morning of Monday, April 2, 2012, and stayed home from school. The father testified that he called the doctor’s office to make an appointment but canceled it the next day because the boy seemed better and was keeping food down. Smith also testified that he was checking the boy’s glucose levels and they seemed within the normal range.

Those readings were not recovered from the boy’s glucose meter, according to previous testimony. Just one reading of 363 — considered to be high — taken Tuesday night, April 3, 2012, — was found. Smith said he gave the boy insulin after that reading.

Smith maintained that the meter was defective. Testimony earlier in the week from an engineer who works for the California firm that makes the meter and a physician’s assistant at the Diabetes, Endocrine and Nutrition Center at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, where Aloric Smith was a patient, disputed that claim.

At issue in the case was whether Smith was reckless or criminally negligent in failing to seek treatment for his diabetic son.

Smith has been held since his arrest in October 2013 in Rogersville, Missouri, at the Washington County Jail, unable to post $5,000 cash or a $50,000 surety bail.

The judge set Jan. 7 as the date for sentencing on the Class C drug charge. Smith faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000 on that charge.

Davidson said Monday he most likely would seek a sentence of time served.

If convicted of manslaughter, Smith faced up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000. He faced up to a year in prison and a fine of up to $2,000 on the endangering charge.”

Judge: Death of diabetic boy in Lubec ‘a tragedy, not manslaughter’[Bangor Daily News 12/22/14 by Judy Harrison]

“A former Maine man who was acquitted of manslaughter in the death of his 12-year-old son has been sentenced to three years in prison for giving the boy drugs without a prescription.

WABI-TV (http://bit.ly/1DAT670 ) reports that Edward Smith, formerly of Lubec, was sentenced Wednesday in Washington County Superior Court following his conviction last month on a charge of giving the boy a small amount of Valium.

Prosecutors say the 44-year-old Smith failed to give his son proper medical attention when he was suffering from the effects of diabetes. The boy died in April 2012.

The defense said Smith gave his son, Aloric, the Valium because he thought he had a stomach bug and didn’t realize the boy was suffering from diabetes.

The Valium had been prescribed to the father”

Ex-Lubec man gets 3 years for giving son Valium[Fosters.com 1/8/15  by Associated Press]

“Smith’s already been in jail for about 15 months since his arrest in Missouri in October 2013.

That time will be applied to his three-year sentence.”

Lubec Father Cleared in Son’s Death Sentenced for Giving Boy Valium[WABI 1/7/15 by Catherine Pegram]