Foster Mom Found Guilty in Child Injury

Tulsa World

Author: Patti Weaver; World Correspondent

STILLWATER - After deliberating nine hours Tuesday, a Payne County jury convicted a Cushing woman of scalding her 4-year-old foster child. The jury fixed Anita June Franklin's penalty at one year in the county jail.

Associate District Judge Bob Murphy Jr. set a sentencing hearing for Oct. 28. Franklin is free on $5,000 bond until then.

Child abuse carries a punishment of up to life in prison and a $5,000 fine.

The jury began deliberating at 10:35 a.m. Tuesday. After about four hours, jurors sent out a note asking the definition of "beyond a reasonable doubt" and "willful." Murphy said, "I just told them they had all the instructions required by law."

During the four-day trial, Franklin, 43, was described by character witnesses as "good with kids" and "an understanding, very patient mother."

Franklin, a widow who formerly worked at First Methodist Church in Cushing as a custodian and relief day-care worker, testified she had five foster children through the Department of Human Services starting in 1992.

She denied harming Justin Fields, whose skin was completely burned off his feet and lower legs while he was in her foster care Feb. 2, 1993. She said Justin accidentally ran hot water on himself in the bathtub about 11 p.m. that day.

Justin, who lived with Franklin for four months because his mother was in prison, now lives with his grandmother in Ardmore. He testified in the trial.

In closing arguments Tuesday, prosecutor Beth Pauchnik told the jury of seven women and five men, "The evidence is rather simple.

"Justin has always said the defendent did this to him. . . . Justin told you she put him in a bucket in a tub.

"It takes 10 minutes at a water temperature of 120 degrees to get full-thickness burns," which Justin had on his feet, requiring skin grafts, Pauchnik told the jury.

"We don't know why she did it - because Justin is black, because Justin wets the bed, because he had a bowel movement on him?" Pauchnik said.

Dr. John Steumky, a child-abuse expert, testified it was impossible for Justin to have burned himself. Steumky is the chairman of the Child Protection Committee at Children's Hospital of Oklahoma, where Justin was treated for more than a month.

Defense attorney Phil Corley suggested Steumky's testimony was biased. "He's testified 295 times for the state of Oklahoma. . . . He tells you this was child abuse."

Corley asked jurors, "What would happen if this was your child - if the state of Oklahoma tried to accuse you of doing this to your child?

"Anita Franklin has adopted two kids, had to go through all the home studies, DHS requirements," he said. Noting that Franklin had adopted an infant from Peru and a child from the Sac and Fox Indian tribe, Corley said, "It's obvious she loves children."

Although Justin testified, he was not present for the verdict.