Assemblywoman found negligent in care for ill daughter

Bill Gang

Monday, March 16, 1998 | 11:35 a.m.

Juvenile Judge Gerald Hardcastle today ruled that two-term Democratic Assemblywoman Genie Ohrenschall was negligent in the care she provided for her ill daughter, Katie Ross.

Ross had to undergo emergency surgery on New Year's Day. A perforated colon had rendered her hours from death, doctors testified during Ohrenschall's civil hearing.

By that point, Katie Ross's weight had dropped from more than 90 pounds to less than 50 and there were bedsores over parts of her body, testimony revealed. She was described as incoherent when she finally was carried into Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center on Dec. 27.

While Hardcastle's decision today that Ohrenschall legally neglected the needs of her daughter means the 16-year-old girl will be made a ward of the court, it doesn't mean she will be removed from Ohrenschall's home on South 15th Street.

The girl actually has been living in her mother's home -- albeit in the legal custody of her 25-year-old brother -- for the past two weeks. Before that, she had been living with homeopathic physician Dr. Fuller Royal, but was said to be suffering from anxiety and not regaining her weight. Testimony also indicated her hair had been falling out.

In court to testify last week, after seven days back with her family, Ross appeared healthy and happy, but still thin at 85 pounds.

The exact consequences of Hardcastle's ruling won't be decided until after another hearing in Juvenile Court. But it is expected the judge will order supervision by Child Protective Workers of the home, monitoring of the girl's health and, perhaps, a requirement that she be schooled.

Hardcastle could also order counseling or even psychiatric evaluations.

The issue in the case was one of appropriate parenting, not the inattention of a child's medical needs.

Testimony from Ohrenschall, Ross and others indicated they had constantly pursued both traditional medicine and alternative remedies, including Chinese herbs, to cure Ross's ulcerative colitis.

The problem was that over the course of two years, as the girl's weight and health plumeted, Ohrenschall sidestepped repeated recommendations that surgery be performed. Ohrenschall testified that her daughter didn't want the surgery that would have left her with a colostomy bag to collect bodily wastes and any decision was going to be a joint one.

Ross testified that she didn't want to lose a major organ unnecessarily.

In a preview of today's decision, Hardcastle last week had indicated that such medical decisions ultimately were the responsibility of the parent, not the child.

The 16-year-old girl's emaciated condition at the hospital -- likened in court to that of a concentration camp prisoner -- was what drew the attention of Metro Police child abuse detectives and the county's Child Protective Services officers. Their conclusions were what led to the charges of civil neglect being filed.

Those charges drew the ire of Ohrenschall's friends and supporters, some of whom protested in front of the Family Court and held vigil daily outside Hardcastle's courtroom that was closed to all except three members of the media.

The supporters, wearing yellow ribbons, had charged that officials had overstepped their bounds in Ohrenschall's case by taking custody and control away from a woman they had known to be a doting mother.

But as information surfaced in the hearing, the number of supporters seemed to dwindle.

In addition to the medical problems, evidence presented by Deputy District Attorney Doug Herndon showed Ross hadn't received any formal schooling for nearly two years.

Ohrenschall's attorney, Edward Marshall, had suggested that Ross had been too sick to be schooled and her frequent attendance at legislative hearings with her mother during much of 1997 constituted an alternative education.

The family's living environment also was an issue, with testimony indicating the family lived in odorous, trash-laden and unsanitary conditions both in their Las Vegas home and in Carson City during legislative sessions.

Contrary versions from Ohrenschall's friends and fellow legislators portrayed a "cluttered" but inoffensive environment.

Hardcastle stated last week that testimony minimizing the problem was "belied" by admissions from several other witnesses who said a renovation of the house in anticipation of a Child Protective Services inspection was a major undertaking.

It involved well over a dozen workers arranged by trade and construction union political arms and took over three weeks.

A commercial trash bin was finally brought to the home and filled when it was determined that the garbage was too extensive to be hauled off by individual trucks that already had made numerous trips to a dump.

Such neglect of hygiene in a home, according to state appointed psychiatrist Dr. Rayna Rogers, is a symptom of what she diagnosed as Ohrenschall's paranoid-schizophrenia.

Rogers said she had concerns for Ross's safety if she lives with her mother. She cited the perpetual delays in obtaining the needed surgery as another sign of the mental problem.

Psychiatrist Dr. Franklin Master, who examined Ohrenschall as a defense-paid expert, refuted Rogers' conclusion and gave Ohrenschall a clean bill of mental health except for some self-punishing tendencies.

But in the end, he had to admit to the judge that he believes there should be supervision over the family and that counseling would be helpful. He also concluded that Ross was badly in need of the socialization that formal schooling provides.

While Hardcastle said it was unnecessary to reach a conclusion about Ohrenschall's mental condition, he likely will embrace Master's other recommendations.