Raw Food Parents Get 15 Years Probation for Neglect
Over on Blogging Baby, we covered the story of Joseph and Lamoy Andressohn, who were convicted of child neglect charges after their kids wasted away on a strict raw food diet. It was never clear whether it was the diet itself that was to blame, or whether the parents simply underfed their kids. At any rate, their treatment led to the death of their daughter Woyah, for which they escaped charges of manslaughter. Judge Stanford Blake ordered the couple receive a five-year suspended sentence - to be unsuspended if they violate the terms of their probation - and an additional 10 years on probation. Should the Andressohns get their kids back from Child Protective Services, they will have to obey a host of restrictions imposed by the judge, which includes obeying nutritional recommendations made by a court-appointed dietician.
Most nutritionists think a raw food diet is mainly healthy. In an interesting twist (designed to appease the vegetarian community?), the state prosecutor, Herbert E. Walker III, is himself a raw food vegetarian who described the parents as “dyed in the wool raw foodists”. Walker was pressing for a 20-year jail sentence - which again implies to me that this is about more than two parents who fed their kids some wheat grass.
Tags: child+abuse, father, manslaughter, mother, raw+foodsRelated Stories
POSTED IN: child+abuse, manslaughter
Recent Comments