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<H5 style="FLOAT: right" class=details>February 3, 2010</H5></DIV>
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<H1>Oregon parents guilty of homicide</H1>
<H5 class=subhead>Pair found negligent in teen son’s death</H5>
<DIV class="details nested grid-8"><SPAN>William Mccall<BR>Associated Press
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<P class=caption>Jeff Beagley testifies Jan. 27 about his son’s death.
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<P>OREGON CITY, Ore. – An Oregon couple was found guilty Tuesday of criminally
negligent homicide for praying over their ill son instead of seeking
medical help.</P>
<P>The jury returned the verdict on the second day of deliberations in the trial
of Jeff and Marci Beagley, both members of the Followers of Christ Church in
Oregon City. Church members gasped as Judge Steven Maurer read
the verdicts.</P>
<P>The couple, who remain free on bail, is scheduled for sentencing on Feb. 18.
Because neither has a prior conviction, state sentencing guidelines call for 16
to 18 months in prison.</P>
<P>Prosecutors said the Beagleys had a duty as parents to provide medical care
for their 16-year-old son, Neil, who died in 2008 of complications from a
urinary tract blockage. The defense argued the teenager had symptoms more like a
cold or the flu.</P>
<P>The couple and other church members at the hearing declined to comment
Tuesday. Wayne Mackeson, Jeff Beagley’s attorney, said they would consider
an appeal.</P>
<P>“It’s never been a referendum on the church. This case involves parents who
didn’t understand how sick their child was,” he said.</P>
<P>The Followers of Christ shuns conventional medicine in favor of faith
healing. The church has been in Oregon City since early in the 20th century. Its
members, by their own description and that of others, keep
to themselves.</P>
<P>State authorities have found that an unusual number of children whose
families belonged to the Followers of Christ had died at an early age, leading
to a 1999 state law that eliminated faith healing as a defense in some
manslaughter cases.</P>
<P>The trial of the Beagleys was the second major faith healing trial since the
law was changed, although previous laws on criminally negligent homicide applied
in their case.</P>
<P>Greg Horner, the chief deputy district attorney, also prosecuted the faith
healing trial last year of the Beagleys’ daughter, Raylene Worthington, and her
husband, Carl Brent Worthington.</P>
<P>The Worthingtons were acquitted of manslaughter in the March 2008 death of
their 15-month-old daughter, Ava, from pneumonia and a blood infection, but
Brent Worthington was convicted of misdemeanor criminal mistreatment.</P>
<P>The Beagleys were present at the death of their granddaughter, laying on
hands after anointing her with oil and praying for her to be healed instead of
seeking medical care that church members avoid.</P>
<P>Horner argued that the Beagleys should have been alert to the potential for
relatively mild symptoms to mask serious and even fatal disease after the death
of their granddaughter.</P>
<P>Defense lawyers argued the Beagleys were acting reasonably and did not
believe Neil was in danger of dying.</P>
<P>Attorney Wayne Mackeson told the jury that all of Neil Beagley’s symptoms
were “nonspecific,” meaning they could have been a sign of any number of
diseases, including a common cold or the flu.</P></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV>
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<H6 style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class=top>Get more news and information at <A
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