The 13 year old girl who died after reaching 680 pounds: An update,mommy will stand trial,judge rules in CA
Joe1orbit
Hello,
I have posted numerous articles in the past few months concerning the
case of Christine Corrigan, the 13 year old girl whose mother allowed her
to reach the weight of 680 pounds, before Christine finally died of heart
failure while lying on the living room floor, covered with bedsores,
surrounded by empty food wrappers, and unable to even walk to the bathroom
to urinate or defecate. I promised to try and provide updates, and despite
the naughty antics of the flamers who use up a lot of my precious time, I
am still proud to present this update.
On Monday, following an all day court hearing, judge Laurel Lindenbaum
ruled that Marlene Corrigan, Christine's 48 year old mother, must and will
stand trial on a felony child endangerment charge in connection with
having allowed Chritine to eat herself to death. She faces up to 6 years in
prison, maximum, if she is convicted.
Our defense attorney, whose job it is to try and spin the case in
Marlen's favor, declared that Marlene was "a caring mother who treated
Christina wonderfully". Ha! There's a bit of spin that might have been hard
to declare with a straight face, if only this was not a lie-based society.
A forensic pathologist took the witness stand at this hearing and testified
that Christina had died specifically due to morbid obesity. And the obesity
was obviously caused, IMNSVHO, by the criminal negligence of Mammy Marlene.
This pathologist also testified that cockroaches had been eating the skin
off one of Christina's feet, BEFORE she died! In addition, fecal matter was
found in the holds of her legs, and he confirmed the fact that Christina
had not been able to walk for at least weeks, possibly months, prior to her
death. All the while, mommy Marlene did nothing but continue to throw food
at Christina as she lay on the floor in front of the TVC, immovable. Oh
yeah, she certainly does sound like a "caring mother who treated her
daughter wonderfully", in the words of defense attorney Michael Cardoza.
Mommy Marlene made no comment as she left the courtroom, but I'm sure
that both she and her attorney are glad to know that the District
Attorney's office has ALREADY SAID that they DO NOT INTEND to seek ANY
prison sentence for Marlene! That is incredible! Before the trial even
starts, the prosecutors, who are supposed to represent the VICTIM,
Christine, now DEAD due to her mommy's criminal negligence, have PUBLICLY
declared that they will only ask to have Marlene placed on probation, even
IF she is found guilty on the felony child endangerment charge!
There you go folks, a clear example of what value Christina Corrigan's
life holds for the Contra Costa county district attorney's office. And it
is SOLELY due to the fact that her BIOLOGICAL MOTHER is the one who caused
her death, that this incredible degree of leniency is being shown by
prosecutors!
Marlene will be arraigned on October 6th, which is when a trial date
will be set. I think it is INSANE to have a trial when the prosecutor in
the case explicitly states that he will not seek ANY prison sentence or any
monetary fine, and will himself ASK the jury or judge to grant probation.
If the prosecutor believes that what Marlene did to Christine was not a
criminal offense, he should not pursue the case at all and decline to
initiate or participate in any trial.
Just imagine the public OUTRAGE that would occur if a woman KIDNAPPED a
child and starved her the death, and the state DECLINED to pursue or ask
for any prison sentence in the case. What Marlene did was EXACTLY the same.
She deliberately caused Christine to die, by failing to provide PROPER food
to a MINOR. And yet because she was the legal OWNER of the child/SLAVE that
she killed, your society chooses to seek absolutely no punitive punishment
against her.
Below are two news articles on the case. Both contain new and
interesting facts. So don't be hasty and skip over the second if you wish
to learn all the facts.
Take care, JOE
The following appears courtesy of the 9/23/97 online edition of The San
Francisco Examiner newspaper:
Tuesday, September 23, 1997
San Francisco Examiner
Obese girl's mom must stand trial
Endangerment charge in case of teenager who died at 680 pounds
By Elizabeth Fernandez
OF THE EXAMINER STAFF
RICHMOND -- An El Cerrito mother whose 680-pound daughter died last
November at age 13 must stand trial on felony child endangerment charges.
Following an all-day preliminary hearing Monday, Marlene Marie Corrigan,
48, a federal employee, was ordered to face criminal neglect charges in
what Judge Laurel Lindenbaum termed the shocking death of Christina Corrigan.
"I don't think anyone looking at these photographs could be anything other
than shocked at the condition this child's body was in," Lindenbaum said.
"This child did not reach 680 pounds overnight. . . . It was a progression
that was obvious."
Witnesses Monday testified that Christina, who stood 5-foot-3, had spent
her last days lying amid a debris-strewn living room floor, covered only by
a blanket and sheet, her skin damaged by bed sores and fungal infections.
But defense attorney Michael Cardoza described Corrigan as a caring mother
who had sought medical help for her daughter.
Criticizing the county's autopsy report as cursory and riddled with
errors, Cardoza accused the prosecution of capitalizing on the emotional
aspects of the child's weight.
"She treated her wonderfully," Cardoza said. "Wait until you see the other
half" of testimony.
Corrigan, who will be arraigned in Contra Costa Superior Court Oct. 6,
faces a maximum penalty of six years in state prison.
During a morning on the stand at Bay Municipal Court, forensic pathologist
Brian Peterson, president of Forensic Medical Group Inc. which contracts
with various counties to perform autopsies, said that Christina had died of
"acute congestive heart failure due to morbid obesity."
He said that insects, most likely cockroaches, had fed on one of
Christina's feet, and that "apparent" fecal matter was found within the
folds of her legs. He also testified that Christina had probably not walked
"for weeks, perhaps even months."
The autopsy consisted of an external examination, Peterson said, that took
only 10 minutes. He said he did not believe it necessary to perform an
internal exam.
El Cerrito police Commander Scot Mosby testified that Marlene Corrigan
acknowledged that her daughter's weight had posed a health problem and had
taken her to diet specialists.
"Christina didn't lose weight, so after a while she quit taking her
there," Mosby testified. "She didn't know what to do. . . . She said she
hoped that on her own Christina would stop eating so much."
A handful of advocates for fat acceptance expressed enormous concern at
the ruling.
"Christina was a victim of the education system and the medical system,
and now her mother is a victim of the legal system," said Marilyn Wann,
editor of Fatso, a 4-year-old San Francisco publication. "As a fat person,
this case scares me personally, and it scares me for all fat children."
--------
The following appears courtesy of the 9/23/97 online edition of The
Contra Costa newspaper:
Published on September 23, 1997
Mom to stand trial in obese girl's death
•Judge persuaded to proceed with child abuse charges after seeing photos
of 680-pound invalid that showed bedsores on body
BY ROBERT BURNSON
TIMES STAFF WRITER
------------------------------------------------------------------------
RICHMOND -- A judge concluded Monday that an El Cerrito woman should have
done more to prevent the death of her 680-pound daughter and ordered her to
stand trial on a charge of felony child abuse.
At the end of a daylong preliminary examination, Bay Municipal Court Judge
Laurel Lindenbaum said she was persuaded by photos of the body of
13-year-old Christina Corrigan, who died in November on the soiled carpet
of her mother's San Pablo Avenue apartment.
Visible in the photos, which Lindenbaum described as "shocking," are
numerous bedsores that spotted the girl's grotesque body.
"What's visible should have been a signal long ago that it was time to get
this child out of that apartment," the judge said.
The mother, Marlene Corrigan, declined to comment as she left the
courtroom. She faces up to six years in prison if convicted, although the
Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office has already said it will ask
only that she be placed on probation.
Corrigan's attorney, Michael Cardoza, said he and his client were not
surprised by the judge's decision. He asked the public to withhold judgment
until it hears his client's story.
Corrigan, a 48-year-old single mother and federal employee, says she had
tried for years to get her daughter to lose weight and had simply thrown up
her hands after a nutritionist's diet failed to provide results.
The photos cited in the judge's ruling are the same ones Cardoza has been
asking everyone to ignore. He concedes they are shocking because of the
girl's enormous size, but he insists that the mother cannot be blamed for
the girl's weight.
"No one knows how to do anything in cases like that," he said.
However, the judge never said anything specifically about the girl's
weight. She only talked about the bedsores and didn't go along with
Cardoza's argument that Marlene Corrigan didn't know of their existence.
Cardoza had told the judge that Christina was modest and wouldn't let her
mother see her body because, if she had, her mother would have forced her
to see a doctor, which she was averse to doing.
But the judge said the mother's statements to police contradict that.
Marlene Corrigan told a detective she often gave her daughter sponge baths
after she soiled herself.
In that case, "there is no way her mother could not have known" about the
bedsores, the judge said.
Earlier in the day, a pathologist testified he had found a large number of
bedsores, large and small, and young and old, on the girl's body. There
were also some white scars left behind from bedsores, Dr. Brian Peterson,
said. He estimated the scars could have been up to two years old.
Peterson was the pathologist who conducted the girl's autopsy and --
without cutting into the body -- concluded she died of acute congestive
heart failure due to morbid obesity.
Peterson's testimony provided a field day for the defense, which
criticized errors in his report and the fact that the pathologist managed
to finish the autopsy in 10 minutes.
Apparent mistakes in the report included the date of the autopsy and the
kind of autopsy. The report lists the autopsy as an internal exam when in
fact Peterson only examined the outside of the body.
Peterson, who is president of a private forensics company the county pays
to perform autopsies, said an internal exam wasn't needed because the
likely cause of death was clear from her body. He said pink foam around the
girl's mouth and nose was a clear indication of congestive heart failure.
Prosecutor Brian Haynes said a more thorough autopsy may have been useful,
but he pointed out that the crux of his case, the bedsores, is something
that was clear from the external exam. "From our perspective, the autopsy
was sufficient," he said.
A trial date will be set after Corrigan's arraignment Oct. 6.
FERRANTE
I hope that bitch is sentenced to many years in prison. I really do.
Please keep us up to date on what happens as it happens.
Thanks,
Mark Ferrante
Pat Fish1
The mother, Marlene Corrigan, declined to comment as she left the
courtroom. She faces up to six years in prison if convicted, although the
Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office has already said it will ask
only that she be placed on probation.
==========================
This is just unbelievable. Probation for doing what she did to this child?
Nothing is sacred in this world any more, not even the children.
Pat Fish/Merryland