Verdict Reached In Rebirthing Trial Watkins,

Ponder Found Guilty On All Charges

GOLDEN, Colo., April 20, 2001 -- Two therapists accused of a wrapping a 10-year-old girl in a blanket and squeezing her so tight that she suffocated were convicted Friday afternoon of child abuse resulting in death. Connel Watkins, 54, and Julie Ponder, 40, were found guilty of participating in the death of Candace Newmaker (pictured, left), who died as she underwent a controversial "rebirthing" therapy.

Watkins was also found guilty on lesser charges of criminal impersonation, obtaining a signature by deception, and unlawful practice of psychotherapy. Watkins and Ponder each face a mandatory sentence of 16 to 48 years in prison. Both were taken into custody after the verdict was announced. They will be sentenced in June. The jury reached its verdict just after 5 p.m. Friday, nearly five hours after it started deliberating. Watkins and Ponder showed little emotion as the verdict was read, 7NEWS reported. But when they were handcuffed and taken away, both therapists burst into tears. Candace's birth grandmother, Mary Davis, cried and hugged those around her in the courtroom after hearing the verdict.

Candace was being treated by the two therapists for reactive detachment disorder, which is defined as an inability to form loving relationships because of early trauma. She was wrapped in a flannel sheet to simulate a womb while four adults pushed against her with pillows. The hope was that she would emerge "reborn" to bond with her adoptive mother, Jeane Newmaker of Durham, N.C. Prosecutors' key evidence was a videotape of the 70-minute therapy session in which Candace could be heard pleading for her life, saying that she could not breathe and had vomited and defecated.

When Candace said that she felt like she was going to die, one therapist told her, "You want to die? OK, then die. Go ahead, die right now." After about 50 minutes, Candace's whimpering trailed off. When they unwrapped the sheets, Candace was found unconscious. She died of asphyxiation a day after the "rebirthing" session on April 18, 2000.

Candace was being treated at Watkins' Evergreen office, and the defense had argued during the course of the trial that Candace had a prior heart condition that contributed to her death, or that the effects of Evergreen's 7,040-foot elevation played a part. Watkins and Ponder both testified earlier this week that they had no reason to be concerned of Candace's welfare during the therapy session. Ponder testified that she checked the girl's breathing. Both therapists said they thought that Candace's screaming protests were manipulative behavior. The other two adults who participated in the "rebirthing" -- Watkins' office manager, Brita St. Clair, and intern Jack McDaniel --- will be tried in September on child abuse charges. Jeane Newmaker, the girl's adoptive mother, who was present for part of the therapy, is awaiting trial in November on charges of criminally negligent child abuse resulting in death.

Newmaker had flown Candace from North Carolina to Evergreen specifically for the rebirthing therapy. Candace's fatal session was part of a two-week intensive program that cost $7,000. Because of the spotlight from Candace's death, rebirthing therapy has been banned in Colorado by a law signed into effect just this week.

Her Name was Candace Tiara Elmore

While emails, newspaper articles and television broadcasts fly off presses and zoom around the world, don't you wonder what you may be missing about the human side of the story about the little girl we know as Candace? Are you getting tired of reading the same story told from different angles?

If we put aside psychotherapists, the profession of psychotherapy, arguments for and against particular diagnosis' we are left with the bare bones of this case. The murder of a child orchestrated by two women, while three other adults did nothing to intervene. Those of us who viewed the videotapes of Candace's torturous death are left with Candace's screeching cries and whimpering pleas for help as she lay there dying - which ring in our heads and dance before our minds eye. But we viewers of the videos are the lucky ones.

We got to know and love Candace Tiara Elmore. We had the pleasure of spending a week with her Grandparents, Mary and David Davis, who came to Denver from North Carolina to attend the trial. They shared with us home videos of Candace from her birth to age 5 before social services swept Candace from them. The home videos of Candace's family replaced our images of a tortured child with Candace's laughter and joy as she opened mounds of birthday and Christmas presents and went on the funniest Easter egg hunt I've ever seen.

The crime here was not child abuse by her birth family. It was poverty. The abuse began when the social service system made swift decisions. Poverty has never been a contender for the might of a system heaped in paper, incompetence, and confusion. Enter Jeane Newmaker, the adoptive mother, and you know the rest of the story. Just remember, little Candace Tiara has a loving family who is mourning her loss. As are all of us who have come to love her. Jaye D. Bartha Retractor, class of '92

A jury awarded $5 million in damages Friday in finding that therapists planted false memories in the mind of a former school teacher who accused her parents and brother of abusing her.

The jury in Eau Claire County Circuit Court decided that the late Nancy Anneatra was a victim of abuse by the therapists, not her relatives. The jurors said the therapists, Dr. H. Berit Midelfort of Edina, Minn., and Celia Lausted of Colfax, along with along with Midwest Medical Insurance Co., should pay Delores and Tom Sawyer and their daughter's estate $5.08 million. The award came after about 10 hours of deliberations at the close of a three-week trial. The Sawyers, of Motley, Minn., cried as the verdict was read.

"This is a tragedy that has happened to the Sawyer family, a lot of families," said Madison attorney Bill Smoler, one of the family's attorneys. Thomas Jacobson, an attorney for Midelfort, and Thomas Misfeldt, Lausted's attorney, didn't comment. The case centered around the phenomenon of False Memory Syndrome. Supporters define it as a psychological condition in which a person believes he or she remembers events that have not occurred. Opponents say there is no such condition, but the term can be used to hide past abuse.

Nancy Anneatra, then Nancy Sawyer, received counseling in 1984 from Lausted and a psychiatrist not named in the lawsuit. After a year of treatment, Anneatra, then in her 20s, accused her parents of physically and sexually abusing her as a child. The Sawyers denied the abuse, but Anneatra severed all ties with them and changed her name to make it difficult to find her.

She continued to receive counseling and in 1987 came under the treatment of Midelfort. One year later she sued her parents for civil damages for the claimed abuse. The suit was dismissed. Anneatra continued in therapy until she died in 1995.

Her family was notified of her death by a note left in a mailbox. In 1996 Delores and Tom Sawyer filed their lawsuit. It was dismissed, but they appealed and the case eventually made it to the state Supreme Court, which said the parents had a right to seek damages for pain caused by their daughter's accusations.

In its decision Friday, the jury found Anneatra's claims of childhood sexual abuse were grounded upon inaccurate memories implanted by Lausted and reinforced by Midelfort. The jury held Midelfort 80 percent responsible and Lausted 20 percent. "I'm so happy for the Sawyers," said Katie Spanuello of Wauwatosa. Eleven years ago, her daughter accused husband Leo Spanuello of abusing her as a child and Katie Spanuello of doing nothing about it.

Since then the Spanuellos have become volunteers for the Philadelphia- based False Memory Syndrome Foundation. "I am so happy the jury saw it for what it is," Katie Spanuello said. "This is never going to bring their daughter back, but maybe now people will pay attention." However, Pamela Perskin, executive director of the Dallas-based International Council on Cultism and Ritual Trauma, expressed concern about the verdict. "If a therapist has to worry about a third-party lawsuit, he may not listen for nuances in a story that is told to him," she said. "He may not take it seriously. He may not want to take it seriously." Perskin, a children's advocate, said the syndrome is a farce even though she believes people sometimes are falsely accused of abuse. "It is an artificial term constructed by apologists for child abusers," she said. The case could be appealed, but Smoler said he expects it to open the door for similar third-party lawsuits in the state. "It gives the families a chance to fight back," he said.