Law and Magic Blog

Couple Practicing Faith Healing Loses Second Child, Held On Third Degree Murder Charge

Catherine and Herbert Schaible, who are members of Philadelphia's First Century Gospel Church, are facing third-degree murder charges in the death of their young son Brandon. Seven-month-old Brandon died in April of bacterial pneumonia because his parents practice faith healing, and refused a judge's order to seek traditional medical treatment for their son. The prosecutor is also charging the parents with involuntary manslaughter, endangering the welfare of a child, and conspiracy. In 2009, another of their children also died. The Schaibles were convicted of involuntary manslaughter. The jury sentenced them to probation. They are still serving that sentence.

The judge in charge of the case had originally denied the couple bail, believing them to be a flight risk. Late last week, however, he set bail at a quarter of a million dollars. The couple's seven other children have now been removed from the Schaible home.

 

Oklahoma Nonbeliever Gets Support From Web Campaign

The Oklahoma atheist who politely informed CNN's Wolf Blitzer that she didn't thank the Lord for that split second decision to seek shelter with her young son as the tornado bore down on her family has gotten a lot of moral and financial support from other secularists as a result of her straight talk on national TV. A good many "nones" have come out to show that they appreciate Rebecca Vitsmun's honesty, and probably her good humor and courtesy as well. Given the dislike that some Americans continue to show for nonbelievers, Ms. Vitsmun showed a lot of courage in declaring her beliefs on camera.

The web campaign Atheists Unite has raised more than $101,000 of its $55,000 goal. I'm not awfully good at math, but I think that's twice as much as the amount organizer Doug Stanhope aimed at originally to help out the family.

I know intellectually that the Internet is tubes. But emotionally, I think it's magic. 

Ghosthunting: Not For The Unprepared

Now, this story about a Down Under Ghosthunter is really sort of sad. The Hobart Mercury reports that last year, a Tasmanian man decided to set up a camera in his kitchen to try to catch evidence of "paranormal activity" (otherwise unidentified). He was probably prepared for orbs or moving chairs or boxes or cereal flying across the room. He wasn't prepared for what he actually saw. When he looked at the video later, he saw his girlfriend, the mother of their young child, and his son from another relationship engaged in, um, inappropriate behavior.

Thus, he asked her about it. She apparently shrugged it off, even though she and his son had had somewhat rocky interactions in the past. But when he asked his son about the incident, the son confessed that he and Dad's girlfriend had had sex, and not just once, but three times in the past few days. The truth finally came out in interviews with the police: the woman admitted to a sexual relationship with the teen, who is sixteen, which had taken place (apparently) not just in the home but in a hotel room. However, she said she thought the age of consent in Tasmania is sixteen.

She is being sentenced this week.

However, what I find a little ironic is the ages of the original pair of folks in this siutation. We don't know his age at the time, but she is now 28 and they have been involved for eleven years, so she would have been 17, which is (magically) the age of consent in Tasmania. If she had been even a few weeks younger, she would have been under the age of consent. (Note also that Tasmania has a Romeo and Juliet clause).  But the statute of limitations has probably run, even if she were underage at the time, and in any case, I'm not suggesting that the man (who is the father of the teen) is guilty of anything here. On a related note, I think people who object to women who are involved with men younger than themselves are engaging in some gender stereotyping. Admittedly,here, we do have criminal activity, but the woman may truly have believed that the age of consent was 16, and she might have believed it given the age at which she herself began a relationship, even if she were herself 17 at the time.

I also noted that a number of people were commenting on the original Hobart Mercury newspaper article that the woman in the case was involved in the young man's life since he was five years old, so their involvement was rather like incest. That is a little creepy, but only if the teen lived in his father's house or spent a lot of time there. We don't really know how close he and his father have been over the years. If he and Dad were estranged, is it as creepy? 

Also a little odd--that Dad didn't tell her or his son about the camera in the kitchen. If I were looking for paranormal activity, I don't know of any reason that I would hide the existence of the camera from people I live with in the house, unless I suspected them of creating the phenomena. Is that what was going on? The ghosts can't see the cameras, can they? Or was it something else? Was the relationship the something else? But then why set up the camera in the kitchen?

Physician Convicted, Sentenced For Fraud In Cancer Cure Case

A federal judge has sentenced a California physician to 14 years in prison for deceiving patients by persuading them to purchase an herbal supplement that she told them could cure cancer and other diseases. A number of her patients died because they took the supplements rather than seek out traditional treatments.

Dr. Christine Daniel must also pay back more than one million dollars which she received from those patients. One patient paid Dr. Daniel tens of thousands of dollars over five months for the supplements, which contained a number of ingredients including beef extract flavoring. More here from the Washington Post.

It's Not a Real Chinese Meal Without a Fortune Cookie

Where do fortune cookie fortunes come from? It's not magic. Like the fortune cookie itself, those fortunes are the result of good old American ingenuity. Somebody makes them up. And surprise! According to Mr. Palmer, the writers apparently don't claim copyright (even though the fortunes are written down, thus fixed in a tangible medium of expression, but who knows who the author is?), so you can use them. Brooks Palmer explains more about the popular eatables here.

Want to search for more fortune cookie quotes? Check out Hotel Indigo's fortune cookie website here. More about the history and manufacture of fortune cookies here and here.

Tristan Taylor Thomas writes about allowing fortune cookies to guide his search for legal employment at Above the Law here. He says in part, "A fortune cookie would never steer me wrong, would it?" Oh, dear.

Con Man Who Sold Fake Bomb Detector Is Sentenced To Ten Years

This CNN.com report covers the career and fall of James McCormick, who sold thousands of fake bomb detectors to governments and individuals in all parts of the world, some of whom paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for the devices. British police say the ADE651 is really just a golf ball finder.

A UK judge has now sentenced Mr. McCormick to three ten year sentences on three counts of fraud, to run concurrently. He will not be eligible for parole for at least five years.

At the sentencing, the judge told Mr. McCormick he was successful in convincing customers to purchase the devices through "extravagant and fraudulent claims." Detective Inspector Edward Heath told CNN that the defendant "'is a conman. He uses sleight of hand, absurd sales tactics to actually con governments, officials, private individuals out of money to buy this device.'"