Legislator’s child neglect verdict due

Bill Gang

Monday, March 16, 1998 | 9:45 a.m.

Juvenile Judge Gerald Hardcastle is scheduled to announce today whether he believes Las Vegas Assemblywoman Genie Ohrenschall committed neglect by repeatedly delaying colon surgery for her teenage daughter.

Although court testimony showed Ohrenschall to be a caring mother who pursued every avenue to avoid surgery for her daughter, it might not be enough for Hardcastle.

Deputy District Attorney Doug Herndon alleged that Ohrenschall had let the time come and go when, as a parent, she should have authorized the inevitable surgery Katie Ross incessantly refused.

The two-term Democratic legislator waited until the girl's ulcerative colitis had degenerated to a level where emergency colon removal surgery was required on New Year's Day. According to testimony, Ross was just hours from death from a perforated colon.

By the time she was taken to the hospital, the 16-year-old's weight had dropped from more than 90 pounds to less than 50 and there were bedsores on parts of her body. She was described by medical staff at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center as incoherent.

A finding by Hardcastle that Ohrenschall neglected the needs of her daughter would mean that Ross would be made a ward of the court. But it doesn't mean she will be removed from Ohrenschall's home on South 15th Street.

The girl has been living in her mother's home -- albeit in the legal custody of her 25-year-old brother -- for the past two weeks.

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

If Hardcastle determines Ohrenschall is guilty of neglect, the exact consequences of that ruling won't be decided until after another hearing in Juvenile Court. The judge could order supervision by Child Protective Services workers of the home, monitoring of the girl's health and, perhaps, a requirement that she be schooled.

Hardcastle also could order counseling or even psychiatric evaluations.

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

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

At issue is that over the course of two years, as the girl's weight and health plummeted, Ohrenschall sidestepped repeated recommendations that surgery be performed. Ohrenschall testified that her daughter didn't want the surgery that left her with a colostomy bag and that any decision was going to be a joint one.

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

Hardcastle had commented last week that such medical decisions ultimately were the responsibility of the parent, not the child.

The girl's emaciated condition at the hospital -- likened in court by Herndon 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 against Ohrenschall.

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 which was closed to all except three members of the media.

The yellow-ribbon-wearing supporters 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 Herndon showed Ross hadn't received any formal schooling for nearly two years.

Ohrenschall's attorney, Edward Marshall, has suggested that Ross had been too sick to be schooled and that 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.

The renovation involved more than a dozen workers arranged by trade and construction union political arms and took more than three weeks.

A commercial dumpster 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' 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 masochistic tendencies.

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

Hardcastle commented in court last week that it was unnecessary to reach a conclusion about Ohrenschall's mental condition, but if he determines there was neglect, he likely will embrace Master's other recommendations.