OREGON CITY, Ore. — A judge sentenced two Oregon parents to 16 months in prison March 8, calling their decision to not seek medical care for their 16-year-old son a “crime that was a product of an unwillingness to respect the boundaries of freedom of expression.”
Marci Beagley sobbed as the sentencing was read and shortly after, defense attorney Wayne Mackeson objected to the sentence.
The parents, Jeffrey and Marci Beagley, had been found guilty of criminally negligent homicide Feb. 2 in the death of 16-year-old Neil Beagley, who died in June 2008 of complications involved with a urinary tract obstruction.
“The idea of sending Jeffrey and Marci Beagley to prison is heart-wrenching,” Clackamas County Circuit Judge Steven Maurer said in a lengthy explanation of his sentence. “I think, certainly, that I’m in complete agreement with the jurors who observed that the Beagleys are good people.”
But the decision was necessary, Maurer said, because “the magnitude of their crimes simply warrants it.”
Maurer also mentioned religious freedoms, saying he thought the local community was very respectful of beliefs from congregations like the Followers of Christ church, which believes in faith-healing at the exclusion of most medical care.
But there are boundaries for religious freedom, he said. “It is up to us as a community and a criminal justice system and government to take very seriously that societal obligation … and recognize that investment and interest we have in each and every child,” he said.
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