State v. Worthington

282 P.3d 24, 251 Or. App. 110, 2012 WL 2831080, 2012 Ore. App. LEXIS 877
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedJuly 11, 2012
DocketCR0800403; A142983
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 282 P.3d 24 (State v. Worthington) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Worthington, 282 P.3d 24, 251 Or. App. 110, 2012 WL 2831080, 2012 Ore. App. LEXIS 877 (Or. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

ORTEGA, P. J.

Following a jury trial, defendant was convicted of criminal mistreatment in the second degree, ORS 163.200, for withholding medical attention from his 15-month-old daughter, who died of bacterial pneumonia and a blood infection. On appeal, defendant offers a combined argument as to why the trial court erred by refusing to give his requested jury instruction and by denying his motion in arrest of judgment.1 Defendant contends that, because his failure to seek medical attention for his daughter was rooted in his religious practice, the jury instructions and the indictment should have provided that a knowledge standard, rather than a criminal negligence standard, is required in order to convict him of criminal mistreatment in the second degree. We conclude that defendant’s proposed jury instruction is not a correct statement of law and that his motion in arrest of judgment was not a proper vehicle to raise his as-applied constitutional challenge. For those reasons, the trial court did not err in refusing to give defendant’s requested jury instruction and in denying his motion in arrest of judgment. Accordingly, we affirm.

Defendant is a member of the Followers of Christ Church. Like most members of his denomination, he believes in faith healing — the use of prayer, laying of hands, and anointing with olive oil to heal the sick — and that the use of modern medicine indicates a lack of faith. Defendant and his family have never used modern medicine.

About three months after her birth, defendant’s daughter, A, developed what appeared to be excess fat on the side of her neck. By the time she was 14 months old, the growth began to swell and became more noticeable.

One day, about two months after the swelling began, A developed cold symptoms and became more congested as the day progressed. Later that day, defendant’s parents and other members of their church visited defendant’s home to fast, pray, and lay hands on A and anoint her with olive oil. At some point that evening, defendant’s wife gave A a bottle [112]*112filled with water and a small amount of wine, a practice defendant’s church follows when a person is sick. A did not rest at all that night, and the next morning and afternoon, defendant’s family and some of the church members who had stayed overnight again prayed and laid hands on A. Later in the afternoon, A sounded less congested and had more energy — but that evening, she stopped breathing. Defendant went into A’s bedroom and anointed her with oil, and she died that evening.

An autopsy revealed that A was in the lowest fifth percentile of children her age for weight and height and that her death was caused by bacterial pneumonia and a blood infection (sepsis) associated with a large benign cystic mass (cystic hygroma). The examiner concluded that the cyst compromised A’s body’s ability to defend against pneumonia.

Defendant and his wife were indicted for second-degree manslaughter and second-degree criminal mistreatment. The jury acquitted defendant’s wife of both charges; defendant was acquitted of manslaughter but convicted of criminal mistreatment.

On appeal, defendant, in a combined argument, contends that the trial court erred in refusing to give his requested jury instruction and in denying his motion in arrest of judgment. Both arguments are premised on his contention that, because his failure to seek medical attention for his daughter is rooted in his religious practice of faith healing, the state could not convict him of second-degree criminal mistreatment based on a criminal negligence standard. Rather, according to defendant, the state must establish that defendant knew that his conduct would bring about his daughter’s death. Defendant’s position is premised on the Supreme Court’s decision in Meltebeke v. Bureau of Labor and Industries, 322 Or 132, 903 P2d 351 (1995).

In Meltebeke, an Evangelical Christian employer preached at an employee, pressured him to attend his church, and condemned him for his sinful ways. The employee did not tell the employer that he felt offended, harassed, or intimidated by his actions. Id. at 135. Some time after the employee was discharged for poor work performance, [113]*113he filed a claim with the Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI), which found that the employer had violated a BOLI rule by discriminating against his employee on the basis of religion. Id. at 136-37.

On review, the Supreme Court held that the state may not restrict a person’s religious practices unless it first demonstrates that the person is consciously aware that the conduct has an effect forbidden by law. Id. at 152. The court held that the BOLI rule at issue, though constitutional on its face, “offends Article I, sections 2 and 3, by not requiring that BOLI find that [the employer] knew in fact that his actions in exercise of his religious practice had an effect forbidden by the rule.” Id. at 153.

Defendant here contends that, consistently with the holding in Meltebeke, the state must establish that he knew that his conduct of withholding medical treatment from his daughter would cause an effect forbidden by law. As we shall explain, there is a fundamental problem with each of defendant’s arguments, and, therefore, we do not address whether Meltebeke extends to the issue before us.

We begin by addressing defendant’s proposed jury instruction. Defendant contends that, in light of his as-applied constitutional challenge, the trial court erred by refusing to give his requested jury instruction imposing a knowledge standard for the criminal mistreatment charge. The state makes several arguments in response, including that defendant’s requested instruction is not a correct statement of the law.

We review the trial court’s refusal to give a requested jury instruction for errors of law. State v. Branch, 208 Or App 286, 288, 144 P3d 1010 (2006). “If a proffered instruction is refused * * * there is no error if the instruction is not a correct statement of the law.” State v. Barnes, 329 Or 327, 334, 986 P2d 1160 (1999). Before turning to defendant’s proposed jury instruction, we begin with an overview of the pertinent statutes.

[114]*114ORS 163.200(l)(a) provides that

“[a] person commits the crime of criminal mistreatment in the second degree if, with criminal negligence and * * * [i]n violation of a legal duty to provide care for another person, the person withholds necessary and adequate food, physical care or medical attention from that person[.]”

ORS 161.085(10), in turn, provides the definition of criminal negligence:

“ ‘Criminal negligence’ or ‘criminally negligent,’ when used with respect to a result or to a circumstance described by a statute defining an offense, means that a person fails to be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the result will occur or that the circumstance exists. The risk must be of such nature and degree that the failure to be aware of it constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in the situation.”

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Bracken
341 Or. App. 318 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2025)
City of Portland v. Ali
339 Or. App. 674 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2025)
State v. Howard
529 P.3d 247 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2023)
State v. Goetzinger
326 P.3d 1208 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2014)
State v. Egeland
320 P.3d 657 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2014)
State v. Cruz-Gonzelez
303 P.3d 983 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2013)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
282 P.3d 24, 251 Or. App. 110, 2012 WL 2831080, 2012 Ore. App. LEXIS 877, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-worthington-orctapp-2012.