Business - Oregon Faith-healing couple pleads not guilty

OREGON CITY, Ore. (AP) -- Another couple from a Clackamas County faith-healing church is in court facing allegations that they refused to get medical care for a child. Timothy and Rebecca Wyland pleaded not guilty last week in Circuit Court to one count each of felony criminal mistreatment. The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years. The Wylands are the third couple from Followers of Christ Church to face charges in a year. They are accused of allowing a growth of blood vessels the size of a tennis ball to cover the eye of their 7-month-old daughter, jeopardizing her vision. The couple's church shuns professional medical help in favor of such rituals as anointing the sick with oil -- as Rebecca Wyland has told a judge she did with her daughter. The mass of blood vessels is called a hemangioma. A doctor has testified in a custody hearing that the growth pushed the child's eyeball down and outward. Child welfare officials have removed the infant from the home and placed her in foster care so she can get treatment. One of the couple's lawyers said last week the eye is improving. Separately, the parents have asked a judge to return the child, and in court Thursday defense lawyer Mark Cogan said he understood the request might soon be granted. But prosecutor Christine Landers said the district attorney's office is opposing the child's return. A cluster of criminal prosecutions in recent years has followed decades of contention in Oregon over the Followers of Christ, whose early members had roots in Pentecostalism and came from Kansas under a charismatic leader in the 1930s. The state medical examiner's office has estimated that in the past 30 years, more than 20 children of church members have died of preventable or curable conditions. In 1999, after intense debate, the Legislature ended a spiritual healing defense, allowing parents to be prosecuted. Since then, Clackamas County officials have investigated a few deaths of newborns. The deaths of two relatives in 2008 led to prosecutions. In March 2008, 15-month-old Ava Worthington died of pneumonia and a blood infection that doctors said could have been treated. Her parents, Raylene and Brent, were acquitted last summer of manslaughter charges. Brent Worthington was convicted of criminal mistreatment and served two months in jail. In June 2008, 16-year-old Neil Beagley died of complications from a congenital urinary tract blockage, treatable up to the day he died, in the opinion of doctors. His parents, Jeff and Marci, were convicted of criminally negligent homicide and are serving 16-month sentences. They are the parents of Raylene Worthington. Published: Mon, Aug 2, 2010

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