Staats case still bound for trial

EPHRATA - The Moses Lake couple accused of mistreating their nearly 3-year-old son is still headed to trial.

Grant County Superior Court Judge Evan Sperline denied the defense's motion to reconsider dismissing the charges against the couple.

Robert and Michelle Staats are charged with first-degree criminal mistreatment and second-degree criminal mistreatment after allegedly not providing the necessary medical care for their son. When the boy was admitted to Samaritan Hospital last year he reportedly weighed between 8 and 10 pounds, the size of a newborn baby. They pled not guilty to the charges in October.

Defense attorneys Stephen Hormel and Douglas Phelps motioned for the charges against the couple to be dismissed in June. They argued the Staats' should be protected under the Christian Science exemption and the law is too vague for the Staats' to know what they did was wrong and for a judge to interpret if it was wrong.

According to court documents, Sperline addressed these issues in a letter sent to the attorneys.

"In resolving this claim, the court will have in mind that the statute criminalizes withholding health care under circumstances in which the parent knows that doing so will risk bodily injury to the child, and in which a reasonable person would provide the withheld care," he wrote.

Sperline also explained the purpose of the statute was to examine what healthcare is withheld, not what is provided.

The defendants also argued that the statute attacked their First Amendment right of freedom of religion.

"No First Amendment right is implicated in the prevention of child abuse and neglect," Sperline wrote.

According to the police report, the Staats' son began having health problems in February 2011, more than a year before he was taken to a hospital.

Michelle Staats reportedly didn't trust hospitals and relied on alternative medicine.

The child's condition fluctuated for several months and he reportedly never saw a doctor until November 2011.

Michelle Staats called 9-1-1 on May 9, 2012 after she discovered the child had stopped breathing and he was transported to Samaritan Hospital in Moses Lake.

Doctors reported the child looked "emaciated, wasted and obviously malnourished."