By Calvin Palmer
The Wisconsin man who looked to prayer instead of medical treatment to save his 11-year-old daughter from undiagnosed diabetes was found guilty yesterday of second-degree reckless homicide.
A jury of six men and six women deliberated for 15 hours, over two days, before convicting Dale Neumann, 47, of Weston, over the death of his daughter, Madeline Kara Neumann, on March 23, 2008.
Prosecutors argued he should have taken the girl to hospital when she reached the point where she was unable to walk, talk, eat or drink.
Instead Neumann, his wife and others, surrounded Madeline as she lay on the floor and prayed. Someone finally called 911 when she stopped breathing.
Leilani Neumann, 41, was convicted on the same charge in May. Marathon County Circuit Judge Vincent Howard set October 6 for sentencing for both parents, who face up to 25 years in prison.
Neumann, who once studied to be a Pentecostal minister, testified on Thursday that he believed God would heal his daughter and he never expected her to die. God promises in the Bible to heal, he said.
“If I go to the doctor, I am putting the doctor before God,” Neumann testified. “I am not believing what he said he would do.”
The father testified that he thought Madeline had the flu or a fever, and several relatives and family friends said they also did not realize how sick she was.
Assistant District Attorney LaMont Jacobson told jurors in closing arguments on Friday that Neumann was “overwhelmed by pride” in his interpretation of the Bible and selfishly let Madeline die as a test of faith.
Neumann knew he should have taken his daughter to a doctor and minimized her illness when speaking with investigators, Jacobson said, calling Neumann no different than a drunken driver who remarks he only had a couple of beers.
Doctors testified that Madeline would have had a good chance of survival if she had received medical care, including insulin and fluids, before she stopped breathing.
Defense attorney Jay Kronenwetter Kronenwetter told the jury that Neumann sincerely believed praying would heal his daughter and he did nothing criminally wrong.
“Dale Neumann was doing what he thought would work for his daughter,” Kronenwetter said. “He was administering faith healing. He thought it was working.”
Outside court, Kronenwetter said the verdict would be appealed.
[Based on a report by the Associated Press.]
Calvin Palmer's Weblog 
Taking away a parents right to parent and giving it to the government. Forget the religious aspect of this case. It used to be up to the parents what the best forms of treatment for their children were; now it’s the government. This needs to be appealed or it will set a new precedent for government control!
I think you have missed the point. This child received no treatment whatsoever and as a result died.
Parents do not have rights. They have responsibilities and this pair of medieval morons abregated their responsibilities to their daughter.
Your argument makes you sound as if you would find incest acceptable.
You are absolutely right. All these idiots stood around and prayed while that girl died, when her condition would have been easily treated. All of those brain dead born again thumpers should be charged.
People like you Sue, who continuously rant and rave about “government” controlling our lives are the dumbest individuals in America. This jerk killed his daughter, simple as that. Now you want to blame his conviction on “government” interfering with parents “rights”. He has another child, would you be happy to see him sent home to kill that kid too?
You remind me of the genius who stood up at a meeting recently in Florida and started shouting at a local politician that he wanted “the government to get its hands off my medicare!” The exasperated (republican) politician has to spend the next ten minutes trying to explain to the nut that medicare is actually a government program. Dumb much?