Will Beagley verdict change church behavior?

OREGON CITY, Ore. - A juror in the faith-healing trial of Jeff and Marci Beagley who spoke to reporters after the verdict said he hoped their guilty verdict will encourage other faith-healers to take their children to doctors. But whether that will happen is unclear.

“Hopefully, it won’t happen again. Hopefully, nobody has to be put in this position again,” said juror Bob Zegar. “We hope they get a lenient sentence because they’re not evil; they just made a wrong decision.”

KATU News and law enforcement officials have documented dozens of children through the years who have died as members of the Followers of Christ church, but only the Beagleys and their son-in-law Carl Worthington have been convicted for not getting their children medical treatment.

Worthington was sentenced for 60 days in jail for the death of his 15-month-old daughter Ava.

Some church members who spoke to a KATU News reporter, unlike the juror, said they fear that if the judge gives the Beagleys a light sentence for the death of their 16-year-old son Neil, it will not be enough to make other church members change their ways.

It was also what prosecutors during the Beagleys’ trial hoped a guilty verdict would do and implored jurors to send a message to the church.

“You decide whether you endorse this behavior - allow this kid to die without medical care when they should have known,” said prosecutor Greg Horner.

When Jeff Beagley’s attorney, Wayne Mackeson, was asked if the verdict in his client’s trial will send a message to other church members he said, “I haven’t seen any evidence to that effect. It seems to be anecdotal information in the community, so I can’t speak to that.”

The Followers of Christ church was incorporated at the end of World War II. The minister who led faith-healing practices was Walter White. His grave is surrounded by hundreds of others in the church’s cemetery, many that are children’s. One section is dubbed “Baby Row”.

It is there that about 60 children are buried including Ava Worthington.

Among the graves are two others besides Neil Beagley’s that belong to young people which bear the Beagley name. There’s 2-year-old Scott Beagley who died in 1962 and 26-year-old Jacqueline Beagley and baby son who both died in 1990.

It is not known how they died or if they and the children buried in the cemetery received medical treatment.

In 1999 faith healing was removed as a defense under Oregon law after the state medical examiner saw 11-year-old Bo Phillips die from treatable diabetes as well as two other children who died in just a matter of months.

“There were also, during that period, it wasn’t publicized much, four perfectly healthy mothers, pregnant, who died during child birth from puerperal sepsis. That’s an infection that doesn’t even occur today,” said Dr. Larry Lewman in March 2008. “You read about it in the textbooks from the 1910s, the pre-antibiotic era. None of these women should have died. Three of their children died. It was all perfectly treatable, and they literally suffered for days.”

Jurors in the Beagleys’ trial were never told about other deaths in the church for fear of prejudicing the jury, although testimony about Ava Worthington was allowed by the judge.

According to a 1999 document, the medical examiner told the Senate Judiciary Committee there were 18 deaths of Followers of Christ children in that decade that were likely preventable, and their death rate was 26 times greater than the general population.