Charges of abuse, neglect dismissed

Knoxville News Sentinel/January 12, 2006
By Hayes Hickman

Knoxville, USA - Child abuse charges were dismissed Wednesday against a woman and her spiritual leader, partly on the basis of a little-known provision within Haley's Law, which was enacted last year to strengthen the state's child abuse laws.

Jacqueline Crank, 44, and Ariel Ben Sherman, 76, had faced misdemeanor charges of child abuse and neglect for relying on prayer instead of medicine to try to save her dying daughter.

Jessica Crank, 15, died in 2002 from a rare form of bone cancer. Authorities contend that her mother and Sherman ignored medical professionals' advice to seek treatment for a basketball-sized growth on her shoulder.

Instead, the girl remained at the Loudon County home she shared with her mother, her younger brother, Sherman and several fellow members of Sherman's New Life Tabernacle congregation.

Loudon County Criminal Court Judge Eugene Eblen ruled that Sherman, who has been branded by some as a cult leader and was identified as Jessica's "spiritual father," could not legally be held responsible for her welfare.

Eblen also ruled in court that the pair could not be subject to the abuse and neglect charges because of Jessica's age.

Under Haley's Law, the Class A misdemeanor child abuse and neglect offense was amended to apply only in cases involving a child younger than 13 years old.

Jessica was 14 at the time of her diagnosis. She died at age 15.

Although the law was enacted in July 2005, three months after a Loudon County grand jury returned the misdemeanor charges against Crank and Sherman, Eblen ruled Wednesday that the new law should apply retroactively.

The two initially were charged with felony child abuse charges, which were dismissed by a judge's ruling during a December 2002 preliminary hearing after prosecutors failed to make their case.

District Attorney General Scott McCluen said he would discuss the possibility of an appeal with the state attorney general's office on the basis of Eblen's retroactive application of the law, as well as the decision on Sherman's legal standing as a parental figure.

Defense attorney Gregory P. Isaacs, representing Crank, welcomed the ruling while lamenting the fact that the charges were dismissed before the true crux of the case could be decided.

"We still don't know where you draw the line between parental privacy and religious freedom," he said.

A subsection of Haley's Law also specifies, however, that the treatment of a child through spiritual means or prayer alone may not be construed as abuse or neglect.

Speaking for Sherman, attorney Don Bosch added, "He is happy to put it behind him, and he still misses Jessica very much."