Listro's Defense Targets 'Syndrome'

March 12, 2010VERNON — — The defense of Suzanne Listro, a Mansfield woman accused of manslaughter and risk of injury to a minor in connection with the death of a foster child placed in her care, has turned into an attack on the existence of "shaken baby syndrome."

Dr. Janice Ophoven, a forensic pathologist from Minnesota hired by the defense to examine the death of 7-month-old Michael Brown Jr. in Listro's Mansfield home in May 2008, testified Thursday that there is no scientific evidence to support the existence of the syndrome.

In cases in which there was no evidence of trauma to a child, but there was intracranial bleeding, retinal hemorrhaging and brain damage, the label was applied and the last adult to have custody of the child was assumed to have committed abuse.

"Unfortunately, that theory was never tested, validated or confirmed in any way, but it was embraced," Ophoven testified. Further, she said, there is no evidence that shaking a child can cause the injuries commonly associated with shaken baby. Retinal hemorrhaging can be caused by other problems, such as increased intracranial pressure, she said.

"No one knows the specifics of retinal hemorrhaging, the causation," she said. "No one has said you can look into the eyes of a child and see murder."

— David Owens