OREGON CITY, Ore. (RNS) Prosecutors on Monday (Sept. 13) accused members of a controversial faith-healing church of tampering with evidence after the death of a premature infant last year.
The parents, Dale and Shannon Hickman, are accused of second-degree manslaughter in the death of their newborn son, David, last year.
Attorneys for the Hickmans asked a judge to reduce or waive the couple’s bail, set at $250,000 each. The attorneys said the couple posed no threat to the public and would continue to attend all court appearances.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Michael Regan, however, said the couple was not trustworthy and said the Hickmans and their friends gave video and photos from the time of the boy’s birth to their attorneys instead of detectives.
The Hickmans are members of the Followers of Christ, an Oregon City congregation that practices faith healing and rejects medical treatment. They are charged with second-degree manslaughter.
Two other church couples, Carl and Raylene Worthington and Raylene Worthington’s parents Jeff and Marci Beagley, have faced trial in the faith-healing deaths of their children. A third couple, Timothy and Rebecca Wyland, are facing lesser charges of failing to provide medical care to their infant daughter who had a large untreated mass over her left eye.
David Hickman was born Sept. 26, about six weeks premature, and lived nine hours. No one attending the birth called a doctor or ambulance. An autopsy determined that David died of staph pneumonia and complications from a premature birth, including underdeveloped lungs.
Regan said “the Worthingtons” had possession of video and photographic material at some point. Although Regan called the Hickmans’ alleged actions tampering with evidence, he did not say whether he would seek charges.
Bail was reduced to $50,000 each, and Judge Eve L. Miller ordered the couple to allow state child-welfare workers to make unannounced visits to their home to check on their 6-year-old daughter’s welfare.
Miller said the couple’s “judgment may be impaired by their religious views” and wanted assurances that the child would be safe.
