Franklin mother's trial begins

Doctor describes signs of abuse

GENE VERNACCHIO

Courier-Post

A Franklin woman's manslaughter trial opened Wednesday with the physician who pronounced her 5-year-old boy dead testifying there were signs of abuse on the child.

Dr. Ion S. Chuang, who tried to resuscitate Jacob Lindorff in the emergency room of South Jersey Hospital-Newcomb in Vineland, said he saw bruises on the boy's extremities, face, abdomen, legs, scalp and back.

Chuang said he was most troubled by significant burns on the tops of both the child's feet. Those burns, Chuang testified under cross examination, were an indication someone had dangled Jacob into scalding hot water.

Chuang was one of several witnesses to testify Wednesday at the trial of Heather Lindorff, who is charged with aggravated manslaughter in the death of her son on Dec. 14, 2001.

Lindorff, 37, faces 10 to 30 years in prison if convicted.

An autopsy showed Jacob died of a head injury less than two months after Lindorff and her husband James adopted him from his native Russia.

James Lindorff, 57, is charged with fourth-degree child neglect.

Defense attorneys say Jacob's biological mother battered the child in Russia.

Defense attorney Stephen Patrick has said Jacob probably was a fetal alcohol syndrome baby who "walked funny' and may have suffered ridicule and abuse at a Russian foster home.

But Assistant Gloucester County Prosecutor Mary Pyffer said there is evidence Jacob was abused for a six-week period leading up to his death.

Jacob was one of five Russian children the Lindorffs adopted. Since Jacob's death, his twin brother and three sisters from an earlier adoption have been living with Heather Lindorff's mother.

Superior Court Judge Julio Mendez is presiding over the trial. The jury includes eight women and seven men.

In other testimony, paramedic Thomas A. Widener III said he found Jacob clinically dead when he arrived at the Lindorffs' Victoria Avenue home.

"He was very, very, very thin and he was gray around the face,' Widener said. "He just looked ill.'

Widener said he noticed bruising on Jacob's face and broken blood vessels in his eyes -- a usual sign of trauma.

He also described the boy's foot burns as looking like "someone had taken a potato peeler to the tops of his feet.'

Richard Turner Jr., an emergency medical technician who responded to the Lindorff house, said Heather Lindorff told personnel the boy had frequent temper tantrums and faked periods of unconsciousness.

She also told him the boy came from an abusive setting in Russia prior to his adoption, Turner testified.

"I'm a father myself, and in my 10 years of providing EMS service, I've yet to see a child fake unconsciousness,' Turner said.

Reach Gene Vernacchio at (856) 251-3343 or gvernacchio@courier postonline.com