Sect mother freed on $100,000 cash bail

Associated Press/October 2, 2003

Boston -- A mother who allegedly watched her baby starve to death because of a religious prophecy has been released on 100,000 dollars cash bail.

This comes just a week after a judge found Karen Robidoux competent to stand trial.

The 28-year-old woman has been in custody since she was indicted in November 2000.

She was scheduled to go to trial last January, but experts said she was too emotionally distraught to stand trial. Since then, she has been receiving psychiatric treatment.

Her husband, Jacques Robidoux, was convicted of first-degree murder in the boy's death and sentenced to life in prison in June 2002.

The couple were members of a tiny, Attleboro-based religious sect which rejects modern medicine.