Another Parent Charged with Negligence in Lymphoma Case

Move over Mrs. Hauser. You've been one-upped by Kristen LaBrie.

LaBrie has been arraigned in a Salem, Massachusettes Superior Court, facing a 40 year prison sentence. The charges?

-Attempted murder
-Child endangerment
-Permitting bodily injury to a disabled person

The alleged victim? Her autistic 9 year old son Jeremy, who had been diagnosed with a form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

LaBrie has plead not guilty to the charges, which include not bringing him to his chemotherapy sessions and failing to fill his prescriptions.

Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital reputedly are the ones who turned her in after they looked into things and learned she hadn't filled his prescriptions following a chemotherapy regimen. The medication was meant to keep his cancer in remission. It returned as an incurable form of leukemia.

According to her lawyer, LaBrie is the real victim here. Her lawyer says the kid's father, Eric Fraser, abandoned her and Jeremy, putting her in dire financial straits.

Fraser, meanwhile, is apparently pleased with the prosecution of his wife. According to published reports, Fraser swooped in and actually took custody of Jeremy, getting him care at a hospice in his final months of life. He died this past March.

While news outlets want to align this story with the Hauser story from Minnesota, I don't see it. As much as I was opposed to the Hausers fleeing the court, LaBrie's merely looking-- true or not-- like a terrible, uncaring parent. For all her actions, Hauser could never have been accused of that.

Sources:
Associated Press
Boston Globe