Two Evergreen therapists go on trial in Jefferson County District Court on Thursday, both accused in the death of 10-year-old Candace Newmaker during a "rebirthing" therapy.

Connell Watkins and Julie Ponder taped the session last April 18. The video shows Candace begging for air and pleading for her life. The two therapists are shown shouting back at her, "Go ahead and die."

Jurors will be shown the videotape during the first full week of what's expected to be a three-week trial. And they will hear Watkins' remark to investigators, "The video's going to hang us."

When the alleged crime is on videotape, just what is there to prove?

"Often the facts are undisputed in a case, whether or not they are on video," said Dan Recht, a Denver criminal defense attorney. "The question is, `What was going on in the person's head? Did they intend to commit a crime?' "

The 70-minute videotape is the centerpiece of the Jefferson County district attorney's case against Watkins, 54, and Ponder, 40. The tape shows the two women, along with their assistants, Jack McDaniel and Brita St. Clair, performing what they call a rebirthing session with the little girl from Durham, N.C.

Candace was made to lie in the fetal position, then wrapped in a blue flannel sheet from head to toe. Large pillows were placed over her, and the four adults with a cumulative weight of 673 pounds pushed against the 70-pound girl in an attempt to recreate birth contractions.

But despite Candace's pleas that she couldn't breathe, that she was vomiting and "I'm going in my pants," the therapists pressed on. They urged her to die and be reborn to her adoptive mother, Jeane Newmaker, who was standing nearby.

When Candace was no longer responding, they unwrapped her from the sheet and found her unconscious. She was airlifted to Children's Hospital in Denver, where she died the next day, April 19.

Ponder, Watkins, McDaniel and St. Clair are charged with child abuse resulting in death, a felony punishable by 16 to 48 years. McDaniel and St. Clair, who are married, will stand trial together in September.

For the two therapists' trial, prosecutors will work to prove that they acted with recklessness and criminal negligence. Ponder and Watkins "consciously disregarded" a substantial risk, said Steve Jensen, a deputy district attorney.

"Trials are passion plays," said former Denver prosecutor Craig Silverman. "Before the jury convicts someone of a felony, they usually have to be persuaded that the person not only did something wrong but should have known better."

Watkins and Ponder had been hired by Newmaker for a two-week intensive therapy that cost $7,000. Newmaker described Candace as having attachment disorder.

Newmaker told investigators that Candace didn't bond with her, that she had severe emotional and behavioral problems. Attachment experts at a Virginia conference told her to take Candace to Watkins, who had a national reputation as a miracle worker with troubled children.

Watkins' and Ponder's attorneys have a long list of people who will testify that the two were gifted therapists who dedicated their lives to helping troubled children. Other therapists, parents and even Bill Goble, the Virginia clinical psychologist who referred Newmaker to Watkins, are on the witness list.

Watkins has a large and vocal following and does her "intensives" across the country.

"What happened was tragic but was not caused by abuse, malice or inexperience," reads a Web site asking for donations for a legal defense fund for Watkins and Ponder.

"Connell has saved many families from devastation!" the site reads.

Jefferson County District Judge Jane Tidball, who will preside at the trial, has not ruled on whether the character witnesses may testify. Prosecutors have fought the character testimony in written motions, comparing this case with that of a heart surgeon charged with the murder of a patient during surgery.

"The surgeon's excellent reputation and character do not make it less probable that he acted recklessly during the specific operation resulting in the death and the criminal charge," prosecutors wrote.

Criminal negligence under Colorado's child abuse laws is defined as a "gross deviation from a standard of care," Silverman said.

"To beat criminal negligence, they're going to have to show that this is a reasonable standard of care, that this is an accepted way of dealing with a problem child," he said.

If the judge allows it, the horrors of living with a child who has attachment disorder are expected to be raised by the parents and therapists who support Watkins and Ponder. Parents say living with these children -- some called "future Ted Bundys" -- is a living nightmare of abuse, tantrums and even violence.

Watkins' rebirthing and other "holding" therapies have been the miracle cure for these troubled children, her supporters say. Nancy Thomas, who has known Watkins since 1977 and worked with her at The Attachment Center in Evergreen, believes Watkins saved her daughter, Beth. Both are on Watkins' witness list.

But mainstream mental health providers say rebirthing is bunk, with no scientific research that it's a valid treatment.

"There is just no evidence that this kind of treatment works, that it's in any way helpful," said Rhea Farberman, an American Psychological Association spokeswoman.

"Any mental health provider is obligated to first do no harm," Farberman said. "That obviously didn't happen in this case."

Prosecutors have said that if the defense doesn't bring up the character issue, they would not place attachment disorder and its therapies on trial. Paula Pickle, executive director of The Attachment Center in Evergreen where Watkins once worked, said she hopes attachment is not the issue at trial.

"(Rebirthing) is not a standard technique that most of us utilize," said Pickle, who is also on Watkins' witness list.

Other than presenting witnesses to testify on Ponder's and Watkins' work, their attorneys have hinted at one other line of defense.

Watkins' lawyer, Craig Truman, has said at previous hearings that he will question Candace's autopsy. He has named experts who will talk about whether Candace's cause of death -- brainstem herniation brought on by mechanical asphyxiation -- was correct.

The autopsy was not done by a forensic pathologist, Truman said, and Candace's death is not "the average gunshot, stab wound" murder case.

Truman said he will have two local coroners testify, as well as Dr. Janice Ophoven, a pediatric forensic pathologist.

The district attorneys appear to have their own medical issues to raise. The judge has already approved Jensen's request to introduce evidence about a "pulse oximeter," a mechanical monitor that keeps track of pulse and blood oxygen levels.

The machine can attach to a child's finger or earlobe and could have been used to monitor Candace's condition, Jensen said.

Ponder attorney Joan Heller said the pulse oximeter would not have been used because Candace's rebirthing was a therapeutic treatment, not medical.

The prosecution will also raise questions about the number of drugs Candace was taking before and during the rebirthing session. She was on both antidepressants and a psychotropic drug, prescribed by some of her North Carolina doctors and an Evergreen psychiatrist.

Newmaker, 47, has been charged with a lesser degree of child abuse resulting in death and will go on trial in November. She is expected to testify in the trial of Ponder and Watkins.

Perhaps her intentions will also be raised at trial. She is a nurse practitioner at Duke University who brought her child to an unlicensed therapist in Colorado for an untested therapy.

Parental rights will be an interesting part of the trial, defense attorney Recht said. He likened Candace's case to a recent one in Grand Junction, in which parents were prosecuted for refusing medical treatment for their diabetic daughter on religious grounds.

"I think it's really fascinating because generally you want the government out of monitoring what parents choose to do or what therapists do," he said.

"Then at some point you cross that line and say, `Well, there has to be some regulation and some kind of line has to be crossed,' " he said. "But everybody has a different line."

Contact Peggy Lowe at (303) 892-5482 or lowep@RockyMountainNews.com.

March 25, 2001