A trial date has been set in the case of Brooke Skylar Richardson, the 18-year-old Ohio woman who has been accused of killing her baby after telling her doctors she’d given birth to a stillborn child.

Richardson was recently indicted on five counts including aggravated murder, involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment, tampering with evidence, and gross abuse of a corpse. These charges stem from the discovery of skeletal remains found in the backyard of the Carlisle home where Richardson has lived with her parents for her entire life.

The investigation began July 14, after the police received a call from a doctor at the Hilltop OB-GYN clinic saying that Richardson had reported a stillbirth. Hours later, investigators showed up at the home of Richardson’s parents, Michael and Kimberley, with a search warrant and found the remains. Police said an autopsy later revealed a live birth, though they have not been forthcoming about what evidence was used to support this.

After Richardson was initially arrested on charges of reckless homicide, the family cooperated with investigators and sat down to interrogations over a two-day period without an attorney present. Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell then presented the case against Richardson to a grand jury, which indicted her on the five counts.

At a hearing on August 7, Richardson pleaded not guilty to the charges and Fornshell asked for a million-dollar bond “due to the severity of the crime.” Judge Donald Oda II set bond at $50,000, saying that he did not believe she poses an “imminent threat” to the community and that he has seen little evidence for the serious accusations.

After Richardson posted bond, she was fitted with an ankle monitor and put on house arrest. Her trial will begin November 6, with the next hearing scheduled for August 25.

Between the time of the first arrest and the formal accusation, Fornshell and investigators were tight-lipped and refused to make any statements apart from holding a press conference August 4, at which Fornshell accused Richardson of giving birth before burning the body and burying it in the backyard.

“I am not sure we ever will provide to you the exact medical cause of death and the reason for that is because the child was, after death, burned and subsequently buried and there was significant decomposition to the body,” Fornshell said at the conference. Based on the bone measurements, Fornshell said, Richardson had been 38 to 40 weeks pregnant.

Fornshell added that he has decided not to seek the death penalty, but he is pursuing the murder charge as a special felony and is seeking life in prison for Richardson, if she is convicted.

A few days after Richardson’s August 7 hearing, Fornshell posted on social media that “testing has confirmed the baby was born a girl.” That same day, news emerged that Judge Oda had issued a gag order for all parties in the case. He identified 13 links from published media reports in his motion and said he wanted to ensure a fair trial.

Before the gag order, Richardson’s attorney Charlie M. Rittgers told Rewire that he has, so far, seen no evidence to support the prosecution’s accusations. Although he does not have discovery—the ability to obtain evidence from the prosecution—he intends to seek the assistance of independent experts to examine the remains.

Rittgers said that Richardson, who goes by her middle name, Skylar, has “led an exemplary life” so far.

“She is a good person. A good student who has been a high honors student all her life. She has never been in any trouble of any kind. She was every teacher’s pet,” Rittgers said, pointing out that Richardson had been a cheerleader and on the student council for three years. Richardson just graduated from Carlisle High School and was planning to go to the University of Cincinnati in the fall. In the past, Rittgers said, she had participated in a youth retreat program and volunteered with Bogg Ministries, where she served meals to homeless people. According to her attorney, she has also helped children with disabilities learn cheerleading through a local nonprofit.

Her high school and the YMCA where she worked at the time of her arrest have declined comment to all media requests.

“She didn’t drink. She wasn’t a partier or a smoker. By all measures, she is a good girl who helped children …. She is a good person,” Rittgers said. “This is a tragic situation and Skylar is taking it in the way you would expect: It has shocked her.”

Richardson’s peers and neighbors, who spoke about her and her family on condition of anonymity, told Rewire that she was a “serious, quiet girl” who hung out with very few kids and never “bothered anyone at school.”

Richardson’s case has also attracted national attention from advocates who note that it bears some resemblance to that of Purvi Patel’s, the Indiana woman who was arrested after prosecutors said she delivered a live fetus following taking abortion-inducing drugs obtained from the internet. Patel was ordered to serve 20 years in prison for feticide and felony neglect of a dependent in 2016. After an appeal, the feticide charge was overturned and the neglect charge was reduced last year.

“Reading about the Richardson case brought a sense of dread and déjà vu,” said the Rev. Marie Siroky, a board-certified chaplain and ordained minister in the United Church of Christ in Indiana. Siroky has spent much of her life as an advocate who ministers to women who are prosecuted after the outcome of their pregnancies.

“The prosecutor states it was a live birth while saying that the cause of death may never be known due to the conditions of the remains. Where is the evidence of live birth?” she asked.

Referencing Patel’s case, Siroky said, “I want to make it very clear that I do not condone that [corpses] be buried or thrown into dumpsters, but who knows what is happening to them at that moment. It’s easy to judge after the fact.”

Siroky is distressed at Fornshell’s speculation into Richardson’s motive: that she “purposefully caused the death of the child” to maintain her “good girl” appearances. At the press conference, Fornshell said that he is “pro-life” and this case “affects him as a father” because his daughter is at the cusp of the teen years.

As a chaplain, it upsets Siroky that health-care providers alert police with no evidence of a crime. “It seems as if the documented frequency of miscarriages or fetal demise is forgotten and the immediate thought is foul play,” Siroky said. Although miscarriage frequency is difficult to pinpoint because individuals may not realize they are pregnant, studies show that anywhere from 10 percent to 25 percent of all clinically recognized pregnancies will end in miscarriage.

Nancy Rosenbloom, director of legal advocacy at the National Advocates for Pregnant Women in New York says that she has worked on similar cases nationwide where the prosecutors punish women who give birth under what they consider “suspicious circumstances.”

“To prosecute women for a pregnancy loss is not a good policy, but the authorities act on it as if it is a basic principle. [Women] have a right to seek medical treatment without the prospect of prison hanging over their heads,” Rosenbloom said.

Rosenbloom says that while “we don’t know what happened,” with Richardson, she believes that the “case will require a lot of actual evidence” to prove the prosecution’s theory. She notes many tests like the “lung float test” that prosecutors might use to prove that a baby drew a single breath are faulty and widely discredited.

Some who agree with the prosecutor’s conclusions point to the age of the teen, saying his proposed sentence is too strong.

“I’m sad for this young woman and think that the prospect of life in jail is too harsh,” said the Rev. Rebecca J. Tollefson, executive director of Ohio Council of Churches, in an interview with Rewire.

“I understand that there needs to be justice as well. Maybe she needs to enter a program for respecting herself and accept the consequences of her decision. The greater question is how can the law assist [her] to be a better person,” Tollefson said.

Since news first emerged about Richardson’s case, social media has been set ablaze with comments about the young woman, with some calling her names such as “child killer” or “baby killer.”

Two protesters showed up at the recent court hearing and confronted the Richardson family. Cherie Young and Karen Miller said they were the voice of “Baby Carlisle” and they held signs that said, “Abortion is legal, Murder is not.” The Richardson family did not acknowledge the pair.

While local attorneys and judges have declined to comment on the case, Judge Norbert Nadel, a retired judge from nearby Hamilton County has been unable to resist the temptation to add his opinion, telling WCPO Channel 9 (and repeating to Rewire) that Richardson’s bail was set far too low.

Many caution that the presumption of guilt is unhelpful and will hamper the chances for a fair trial. Siroky, for example, noted that existing media coverage did not do the case justice. “Thankfully, the judge has imposed a gag order. However, the damage is done. While the quote that Richardson killed her baby is attributed to authorities, the evidence behind the quote is missing,” Siroky said.

“People are premature in their judgments. Most of the facts of the case have yet to be released and frankly, they are still unknown to me,” Rittgers said.

“I want people to have an open mind and withhold their judgments until we get discovery,” he continued.

https://rewire.news/article/2017/08/22/trial-date-set-ohio-woman-accused-killing-baby-reporting-stillbirth/

A Texas anti-choice organization contracted to distribute millions in state funds for family planning services has failed to provide the services promised. State officials responded by slashing the organization’s funding.

The Heidi Group was awarded $1.6 million in August 2016 to provide services through the Healthy Texas Women Program, along with a contract to distribute $5 million to a network of family planning providers serving Texans with low incomes.

Carrie Williams, a spokesperson for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, told the Associated Press that the Heidi Group will now receive less than $1 million for family planning services.

“They didn’t reach their own targets during this first year of ramp up,” Williams told the AP. “We’re adjusting the amounts to make sure we are maximizing services for women through our contractors.”

Heather Busby, executive director at NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, told Rewire in an email that the Heidi Group contract was an example of Texas officials placing “politics over people.”

“There was nothing in the Heidi Group’s operations or history to indicate that this non-medical organization was even remotely qualified to provide comprehensive reproductive health care,” Busby said.

Carol Everett, the Heidi Group’s founder and CEO, set ambitious expectations for the organization when it submitted a bid for the state contract. The Heidi Group’s application listed 16 subcontractors operating 20 clinics. The organization projected that it would provide family planning services to more than 50,000 clients.

But Everett has reportedly struggled with outreach efforts as the group’s network of providers has failed to meet more modest goals. Williams told the Associated Press that the organization now plans to serve only a “fifth of the nearly 18,000 women originally projected.”

The Heidi Group, which has been criticized for funneling taxpayer dollars to anti-choice fake clinics, also known as crisis pregnancy centers, has come under scrutiny by some Texas lawmakers for the way in which the original contract was awarded.

Everett has placed most of the blame for the organization’s performance on the providers, but it remains unclear how many providers remain in the organization’s network and how many clients they are serving.

Connie Wyatt, CEO of Wise Choices Pregnancy Resource Center, told Rewire in a March email that she attended a “roll-out meeting” for the program in August 2016 but decided not to be part of the program.

“When the program was rolled out, it did not come through as the lawmakers originally stated it would, and therefore, we did not finalize as a subcontractor with Heidi Group nor did we participate in the program or ever apply for or receive funds,” Wyatt said.

Busby said the state’s decision to “award undeserved millions of taxpayer dollars” to the Heidi Group was driven by ideological opposition to Planned Parenthood. “Tens of thousands of Texas in need of health care will pay the price for our state leadership’s unhealthy relationship with anti-abortion zealots like Everett,” Busby said.

https://rewire.news/article/2017/08/22/putting-anti-choice-group-charge-family-playing-flops-texas/

Charlotte, North Carolina’s largest city, is at the center of a vicious battle between reproductive rights advocates and incredibly organized anti-abortion groups that launch regular massive clinic protests.

Such protests are far from new. Common tactics include standing outside (and often yelling at) clinics to threatening and sometimes attacking abortion providers.

But protesters at Charlotte’s clinics have begun adopting unorthodox tactics that includes the use of deafeningly loud sound and manipulation of online resources and search engine results.

Calla Hales, the administrator and co-owner of A Preferred Women’s Health Center (APWHC), which is the epicenter of the city’s current anti-abortion protest crisis, estimates that clinic staff began seeing an increase in protesters and a diversity of tactics in June 2016; that surge reflects 2016 National Abortion Federation statistics that reported more than 61,000 instances of picketing nationwide, the highest tally since the group began tracking anti-abortion violence and disruptions in 1977. Since last summer, the clinic has been a target for the ire of hundreds and at times thousands of protesters who block not only patients’ access, but also the neighboring health-care facilities in the business park where the clinic is located.

“There’s always been a protester presence here since this clinic opened in 2000, but it’s never been this hostile,” Hales said. “They’re in the street, they’re stopping cars, they’re saying hostile and inappropriate things on the loudspeakers.” It’s not clear why clinic protests ramped up, but the virulently anti-abortion group Operation Save America, which recently staged massive protests at Kentucky’s sole remaining abortion clinic, is headquartered in the Charlotte suburb of Concord. As a “descendant” of the radical anti-choice group Operation Rescue, the group has a decades-long history of anti-abortion mobilization, particularly blocking clinics.

The car-stopping and road-blocking constitutes a major facet of the issues at A Preferred Women’s Health Center, but it’s not the only one.

The protesters bring with them large RVs advertising ultrasounds (which are required for abortions in North Carolina, but are done within the clinic prior to the procedure) and noise amplifiers like that allow them to preach to clinic staff, patients, and clinic escorts and defenders.

What’s more, Hales says that officers with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department have been slow to respond to protester noise that exceeds acceptable levels stipulated by local ordinances. In the past year, she and her staff filed for thousands of sound permits to block protesters from utilizing speakers that would blare their anti-abortion messages. But the clinic has only been granted permits on less than ten occasions; clinic protesters received them the overwhelming majority of the time. The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department could not be reached for comment about its handling of noise complaints. But the city recently changed the application process for sound permits, which could make the outcome more equitable.

Beyond concerns related to sound and the police, there are also issues with a wi-fi node for an open network named “Abortion Info.” Hales believes that one of the large RVs often parked outside the clinic is the home to the network.

Patients seeking internet access inside the clinic will often click the unsecured network, thinking it belongs to the clinic (which doesn’t have an open network due to security concerns). They are instead greeted by a log-in page whose design and logo resembles those of APWHC. To access the internet, people must watch a series of anti-abortion propaganda videos, and some who have logged onto the network reported to clinic staff that they later received calls, emails, and social media messages from people asking them if they need “guidance for abortion care.”

The cybersecurity concerns don’t end there. In March, the clinic’s network firewalls fell to “delay-of-service” attacks, where communications are slowed, often by flooding a system with thousands of false requests. These attacks increasingly target health-care facilities.

The delay-of-service attacks crashed APWHC’s phone and internet service and cost thousands of dollars in repairs. In an interview with the Charlotte Observer, the leader of Cities4Life, one of the main groups targeting the clinic, said that his group had nothing to do with the attacks and insinuated that Hales and clinic staff may have faked the attack for publicity. Since the March hack, Hales reported ten unsuccessful hacking attempts detected by their updated firewall.

Unfortunately, APWHC is not the only Charlotte abortion clinic that has fallen victim to cyberattacks from unidentified sources. According to clinic manager and counselor Sarah Shanks of Family Reproductive Health (FRH), someone not affiliated with the clinic changed its Google business page earlier this year. The attacker changed the listing’s phone number to the clinic’s fax number and changed the login information, so for nearly three weeks, the clinic says it could not reach or be reached by patients calling its regular phone number.

“It was devastating to just hear the fax number ring all day, knowing it was maybe our patients or other people trying to reach us,” FRH’s Shanks said in the hallway of the quiet clinic.

Like APWHC, FRH also experiences some sound-related disruptions. There are fewer protesters at FRH due to location; APWHC is in a high-traffic, accessible business park, and FRH is tucked away in a more industrial neighborhood behind a large wooden fence and a barbed-wire one around the staff parking lot. That solid 6-foot-tall fence, however, doesn’t stop protesters from standing over it with an even taller ladder and a loudspeaker.

Beyond the physical presence and noise the protesters bring, there are also other, more sinister concerns at play. In an incident last fall, an anti-abortion protester made sure APWHC clinic escorts saw he carried a holstered gun though he did not pull it out; North Carolina allows licensed people to carry concealed weapons, but not the brandishing of those weapons. He fled from clinic security when confronted, only to circle the block slowly in his vehicle and park across the street. When the clinic called the police, Hales said a police officer dropped by but did not stop to speak with the man still parked across the street. Nothing more came of the altercation. Though the clinic called 911, Hales said there was no official report filed because no officers came to speak following the incident.

At both clinics, the anti-abortion protester presence has forced clinic staff and volunteers to the defensive—a move they say isn’t always conducive to caring for their patients. At APWHC, it forces them to do more work to counter their opponents’ moves, and sometimes that means resorting to more old-fashioned tactics.

Volunteer Diana Travis’ work with clinic defense includes building baffles around anti-abortion protesters’ sound amplifiers and constructing a 100-foot privacy wall out of black tarp and reinforced PVC pipes every Saturday. She expressed optimism that with sustained pressure from advocates, they can effectively counter protesters.

“I am hopeful things will change, but it’s going to be a long haul and will need constant monitoring,” Travis said.