Melissa Ann Rowland
Posted on 04/29/2004 12:05:41 PM PDT by ZGuy
SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) - A judge on Thursday sentenced a Utah woman who refused a Caesarean section doctors said would have saved her stillborn son to 18 months probation and said society had let the woman down from her youth.
Melissa Ann Rowland, 28, was ordered by Salt Lake County District Judge Dennis Fuchs to move to Indiana where she has family and friends and where she will undergo mental health treatment.
The woman was originally charged with criminal homicide because police said she repeatedly refused to have surgery that would save one of her twins, a son, because she feared being scarred by the operation.
Rowland, who has a history of mental health problems, delivered twins on Jan. 13. One child, a boy, was stillborn. The other, a girl, survived, but suffered from extreme respiratory distress. The girl was later adopted.
Prosecutors said after they learned of the woman's history of mental health problems they reduced the homicide charge to two charges of child endangerment for using cocaine while she was pregnant. She pleaded guilty to those charges earlier this month.
The judge also ordered her to take a parenting class and said if she ever decided to have more children he hoped she would do a better job than she did with the twins.
But he also took note of her long history of behavioral and psychological problems and said the woman "has fallen through the cracks."
He said it was a shame that people with problems do not receive proper treatment. "It's a travesty that we can't deal with people like Ms. Rowland," the judge said, adding "this case will be talked about for years to come."
Women's groups were very critical of prosecutors for charging the woman with a criminal offense.
"The charges of homicide were so far off the mark, if it wasn't so tragic it would be ridiculous and laughable," Lorna Vogt, a member of a women's group called the Utah Progressive Network and who has visited Rowland in prison, said after the hearing.
Deputy district attorney Robert Stott said prosecutors originally believed the homicide charge was justified.
"Yes, we were convinced at the time we filed the charges they were appropriate. The information that we have was learned after the charges were filed," Stott said.
If Rowland does not perform the requirements of the probation order, including doing 100 hours of community service, she could then be sentenced to up to five years in prison.
"It was a tragedy to those two little twins and also a tragedy for the defendant," Stott said.
Yeah yeah yeah. Heard it before. Not her fault... it's becuase of the village... blah blah blah. They should have headlines the article: Judge's Flatulism Emanates from Bench.
Melissa Ann Rowland
Mug Shot
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