Political figures line up to support Ohrenschall

Tuesday, March 3, 1998 | 9:14 a.m.

Dr. Troy Reina testified at the child neglect trial of Assemblywoman Genie Ohrenschall that 16-year-old Katie Ross weighed less than 50 pounds in December.

"She looked like a concentration camp prisoner," said Reina, who performed the emergency colon surgery last month.

The girl has been under court supervision ever since.

Although she had taken her daughter to doctors, Ohrenschall was treating Katie with alternative remedies - including Chinese herbs - rather than submitting to the surgery physicians had recommended.

The girl was said to have been just hours from death had she not undergone surgery for the removal of her colon. The procedure will require the teen-ager to wear a colostomy bag for the rest of her life.

The civil charge alleges that Ohrenschall jeopardized her daughter by embracing the alternative treatment for ulcerative colitis and that justifies monitoring of her parenting by the county's Child Protective Services division.

Ohrenschall, a two-term Las Vegas Democrat, and attorney Edward Marshall have defended her actions as those of a loving mother who took her daughter to a hospital when it became necessary.

Marshall said Ohrenschall has been committed to finding the best treatment for her daughter since Ross first experienced colon problems in July 1995.

Prosecutors claim five different doctors told Ohrenschall that her daughter needed surgery.

Another issue during Monday's hearing was cleanliness of Ohrenschall's Las Vegas home and hotel rooms her daughter used in Carson City while the Legislature was in session.

Deputy District Attorney Doug Herndon said Ohrenschall and her daughter lived in filthy conditions. He said fecal matter was found on the walls of hotel rooms in Carson City.

Herndon said a psychologist who examine Ohrenschall concluded that she may have a personality disorder.

Meanwhile Monday, Juvenile Court Judge Gerald Hardcastle ruled that Katie can return home, but to the custody of her 25-year-old brother.

Katie had been living with Dr. Fuller Royal, a Las Vegas homeopath who had been one of her alternative medicine specialists before surgery became necessary. She already has put on more than 20 pounds since surgery corrected the problem with her digestive tract.

Nearly 200 Nevada legislators and other political figures - including U.S. Sen. Harry Reid - are prepared to testify as character witnesses for Ohrenschall.

But Hardcastle said it was doubtful that most of the people on the list would ever take the witness stand.

A secondary charge of educational abuse alleges Katie was kept from public school for two years and not home schooled.

Child Protective Services is seeking to have Ohrenschall's relationship with her daughter monitored for a year.