STORY: "Nanny told police, "Tawney would never hurt Ryder," by reporter Frances Watson, published by KEPR TV on April 30, 2013.
GIST: "An expert on child abuse also spoke. Doctor Kenneth Feldman is from Seattle Children's Hospital. He said Ryder had a number of past broken bones that were causing his bones not to develop properly. "Ryder had far too many bruises with the majority of them being in the wrong place for normal injuries, so again, these are highly directive to his being an abuse victim", he said. The defense expects to call its own experts to counter the abuse claims. Kelli Jacobsen is accused of aggravated manslaughter for the death of the little boy back in 2011."
The entire story can be found at:
http://www.keprtv.com/news/local/Nanny-told-police-Tawney-would-never-hurt-Ryder-205490631.html
See more detailed report on Tuesday's proceedings: Tri-City Herald: "Prosecutors on Tuesday used Hull’s testimony to show that Jacobsen told officers more than once that Tawney Johnson wouldn’t hurt her son. A Seattle-based pediatrician, Dr. Kenneth Feldman with Seattle Children’s Hospital, testified Tuesday that he believed Ryder suffered the fatal injury after the boy’s mother left the house. She came home for a short lunch break and left the toddler with Jacobsen when she returned to work.
Feldman, who specializes in child abuse cases, reviewed police and medical records. He said he noticed Ryder had arm, leg and shoulder fractures that showed signs of healing — something that doesn’t normally start for a week and a half to two weeks. He said this indicates a pattern of serial abuse. While Ryder had a number of bruises, Feldman said they weren’t consistent with a child who fell after standing on a 6-inch toy, which is what Jacobsen told medics happened. “These are highly directive to him being an abuse victim,” Feldman testified. On cross-examination, defense attorney Scott Johnson questioned the basis for Feldman’s opinion that Ryder suffered from a “whiplash event.” Scott Johnson said there have been no human experiments to show what happens when an infant is violently shaken. “Therefore, what we have with the body of science is a lot of hypotheses,” Scott Johnson said. Scott Johnson also wondered why Feldman couldn’t cite which specific police officer’s report he was taking information from, or if he was taking it from Jacobsen’s statement. “Because you can’t say any of this, you’re basing your opinion on what you read, but you can’t tell us what you read?” Scott Johnson asked. Scott Johnson then took Feldman to task for past cases he had diagnosed, which were detailed in a 2002 Seattle Post-Intelligencer story. The article said that on several occasions, Child Protective Services officials determined there had been no abuse in cases where Feldman said there was. Children then were returned to their families. Feldman stood by his opinions in those cases, adding that he was sued by all five families mentioned in the story and all the cases were either dismissed or dropped. He added that he never had been successfully sued in the 2,000 child abuse cases he’s diagnosed. Scott Johnson argued that the cases only were dropped because it is difficult to prove wrongdoing, since Feldman is considered a “mandatory reporter” by law, meaning he has to report possible child abuse allegations whether or not the report turns out to be accurate."
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2013/04/30/2377641/lawyers-spar-about-injury-interpretation.html
PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.
Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
