Cause of girl's death disputed

Author: Dennis Cassano; Staff Writer

Two-year-old Maria Ostlund died July 15 because she had been shaken so hard that her brain was damaged, a Hennepin County medical examiner testified Wednesday in the trial of her mother, Janet.

"It is inconceivable that these injuries could have occurred from a fall off a couch," Dr. Lindsey Thomas said.

Janet Ostlund of Robbinsdale is charged with second-degree murder - unintentionally killing someone during an assault. She maintains that the adopted child fell from a couch and hit her head on a linoleum floor.

Her lawyer, Steve Meshbesher, told the jury last week that he will present physicians who will testify that the medical examiner's office is wrong about the cause of the brain injuries and that the child was not shaken to death.

Yesterday, Ostlund's husband, David, testified that he no longer was sure he believes that the child's injuries were caused by a fall.

On Monday he testified that he believed his wife.

David Ostlund has sat through three days of testimony on medical evidence from people who said they saw his wife mistreat the child. He and others denied those allegations.

He was asked yesterday by Assistant County Attorney John Brink if he wanted to change his earlier testimony. Brink asked Ostlund if he believed his wife.

First he said he wasn't there when the child was injured, so he doesn't know if she fell. Brink pressed him and finally Ostlund said, "I just don't know if I believe the story or not."

Thomas said that if experts testify that the child was not shaken to death, she would disagree with them.

She acknowledged that the cause of death on the death certificate was changed last week after she and Dr. Garry Peterson, the county medical examiner, talked to some of the doctors who Meshbesher said he will call to testify.

It was changed from bleeding in the brain to swelling of the brain complicated by the bleeding. Thomas said yesterday that the change was "just a clarification."

She said there were no marks or bruises on the child's skin, skull or on the brain itself to indicate that the child fell. That, together with the large amount of swelling of the brain, convinced her that the child was shaken, she said. In addition, she said, there were other indications of shaking, such as blood spots at the back of the eyes, in the spinal cord and under the skull.

She acknowledged that blood could occur in those places for other reasons, and said that in 20 to 30 percent of other shaking cases, blood does not appear at the back of the eyes.