Alberta parents David and Collet Stephan have been found not guilty in their toddler’s meningitis death after a retrial by judge alone.
The Stephans were tried on charges of failing to provide the necessaries of life to 19-month-old Ezekiel, who died of bacterial meningitis in 2012. (Although unusual in everyday parlance, the word “necessaries” — not “necessities” — is the term the legal system uses.)
Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Terry Clackson spoke to the court in Lethbridge, Alta., for only four minutes on Thursday before releasing his written decision.
Supporters in the courtroom cheered and Collet Stephan cried as she hugged her husband.
The official cause of death was bacterial meningitis.
Clackson heard evidence the parents knew the boy had meningitis and were told days before he stopped breathing to take Ezekiel to a hospital or doctor.
The Stephans had testified that they believed Ezekiel had croup, an upper airway infection. They said they treated the toddler with natural remedies that included garlic, onion and horseradish added to a smoothie.
But David Stephan, who was representing himself, said in his final arguments that it was paramedics who caused Ezekiel’s death by improperly intubating the boy.
Alberta’s former chief medical officer, Dr. Anny Sauvageau, had told court she does not believe Ezekial actually died from bacterial meningitis.
Sauvageau said she believes the toddler in fact died of viral meningitis, rather than the bacterial form. She also suggested Ezekiel might have lived had the first ambulance to Cardston been better equipped to treat a child his age with breathing difficulties.
In his written decision, the judge wrote that he accepted Sauvageau’s opinion.
“In this case, we know there is no specific treatment that is effective for viral meningitis,” Clarkson wrote.
“It follows that the Crown did not prove medical attention would have saved (Ezekial’s) life or that if he had viral meningitis and it was life-threatening (which is not established in the evidence), medical attention even could have saved his life.”
It was the second trial for the Stephans, who were found guilty by a Lethbridge jury in 2016.
While the Alberta Court of Appeal upheld the conviction, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled the original trial judge erred in his instructions to the jury.
The country’s top court found that given the polarizing evidence from Crown and defence medical experts and an “overabundance of medical evidence,” the trial judge’s instructions on how to apply the law to deliberations did not supply jurors with the tools they needed to properly decide the case.
More to come