followup to malnutrition trial

[Guest guest]

Silva Swinton, seen here in court earlier this week,

testified Wednesday that her baby daughter was fine

until others intervened.

 

 

 

 

By Harriet Ryan

Court TV

KEW GARDENS, N.Y. — A woman accused of nearly starving

her daughter to death with a strict vegan diet

testified Friday that the little girl was healthy

before social services intervened.

 

Silva Swinton, 32, acknowledged to a jury in Queens

State Supreme Court that she now realizes the soy bean

and herb baby formula she mixed in her kitchen blender

was not nutritious enough for her daughter, Ice.

Nevertheless, she claimed, the 15-month-old was a

" good eater " who could crawl, babble and " walk in her

walker " before social workers investigating a report

of neglect insisted the girl be hospitalized.

 

Swinton, who said early on in her four hours of

testimony that she distrusted doctors, hospitals and

traditional medicine, stopped short of blaming

authorities for the child's health woes, but claimed

Ice lost her ability to sit up or support her head in

the hospital and required an oxygen tube in her nose

after complications from a brain scan ordered by

medical staff.

 

 

 

Joseph Swinton, the father of Ice and Ini

 

 

Swinton and her husband, Joseph, also 32, are facing

first-degree assault charges that carry sentences of

up to 25 years in prison. Ice, now 2 ½ , and her

infant brother, Ini, now live with other relatives.

 

Silva Swinton's testimony was completely at odds with

doctors who testified for the prosecution that Ice was

as severely malnourished as a Third World famine

victim and had the appearance and developmental

abilities of a newborn.

 

Swinton disputed what is perhaps the most damning

piece of evidence against the couple, a photograph

that witnesses have said depicts Ice shortly after she

arrived at the hospital. The photo shows a baby girl

with her face turned away from the camera. The child's

arms and legs are pale and spindly and the child's

abdomen is swollen in what doctor's testified was a

tell-tale sign of hunger.

 

" That's not my child, " Swinton told jurors. " That's

not how she looked when she was with me. "

 

Her lawyer, Christopher Shella, declined to clarify

whether his client was suggesting the picture was a

fake.

 

Silva Swinton's testimony, which is to continue Monday

morning, was the dramatic highpoint of the two-week

trial. When her name was called as the next witness,

the slender 5-foot-10-inch woman with five earrings in

her left ear and a silver stud in her chin rose from

the defense table and walked without hesitation to the

witness box, the two-inch heels of her shiny black

boots clicking as she went.

 

Joseph Swinton watched his wife's progress. He is not

expected to take the stand before testimony concludes

next week. A defense psychologist told jurors Thursday

that he has a seventh-grade education and an IQ of 78,

putting him on the borderline of mental retardation.

His wife, however, has taken a bevy of college

classes, including math, science and literature.

 

Wearing a salmon-colored blazer over a pastel striped

sweater and a long mint green skirt, Silva Swinton was

poised and articulate, often pausing for a few seconds

before delivering her answers. She lost her composure

only once when her eyes welled with tears as she

recalled her daughter's reaction to an MRI in the

hospital.

 

The jury of nine women and three men seemed riveted by

her testimony. All of the panelists have childrearing

experience, either raising their own children or the

children of relatives. No one on the panel is a

vegetarian.

 

She told jurors that she was drawn to the vegan diet

after battling a thyroid condition and a weight

problem for years. She said that when she met Joseph

Swinton in 1994, she weighed " close to 300 " pounds,

but after she changed her diet, replaced medication

with herbs and became more active, she lost 177

pounds.

 

She swore off doctors and, when she became pregnant,

decided to give birth at home. She said she and Joseph

bought a home maternity kit containing sterile clothes

and directions and prepared by reading books,

including " Be Your Own Pediatrician, " and watching

episodes of the cable television shows " Maternity

Ward " and " A Baby Story. "

 

When she went into labor in July 2000 in her home, " I

squatted and she came right out, " she testified,

adding, " Three pushes. "

 

Ice never saw a doctor, she said.

 

She said that at four months, after Ice became

" mucousy " on commercial soy formula, she began making

the homemade formula, a mixture of coconut milk,

pecans, hazelnuts, ground soybeans and 16 herbs,

including Echinacea, slippery elm and dandelion.

 

Ice, she said, loved the concoction.

 

She conceded, however, that after social services

removed Ice from the family home, she met with a

hospital dietician who reviewed the homemade formula

and told her it was inadequate.

 

" According to what the nutritionalist told me, she

needed more fat calories, " Swinton said. " What she

said made sense to me. "

 

On cross-examination, which is to continue Monday

morning, Swinton admitted that she brought an ice pick

to her daughter's hospital room. Prosecutor Eric

Rosenbaum suggested Swinton was barred from the

premises thereafter, but Swinton denied it and said

she carried the pick everywhere for " defense. "

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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