This is an american tragdey. A socially prominent colorado family whose son dies and his body shows signs of abuse. The irony is the father of the child's father was reportedly the landlord of jonbenet ramsey at one time!
Doctors recount Jason Midyette's birth, death
Healthy a few days after delivery, they say; critical 10 weeks later
Monday, January 26
DENVER, COLORADO A series of doctors testifying at Alex Midyette's child abuse trial Monday said baby Jason was critically ill and essentially comatose by the time his parents brought him in for help in late February.
Dr. Teresa Jarmul, a family doctor who was a partner in the same Boulder medical practice as the couple's primary physician Dr. Jill Siegfried, said she was asked by Siegfried to give her opinion as to the then-10-week-old baby's condition.
Alex and Molly Midyette drove Jason to Siegfried's office the afternoon of Feb. 24, after the boy had stiffened up and made strange noises at home earlier that day.
Jarmul testified that after Alex Midyette handed her his child, she noticed Jason wasn't moving or responding normally. She said she felt a swelling at the top of his head and immediately suspected a brain injury.
His eyes were open but he wasn't really looking, she said. The baby was essentially in a coma.
Prosecutor Colette Cribari asked the doctor if she was surprised that it had taken the Louisville couple so long to bring their son in for medical help.
Yes, Jarmul responded.
The Midyettes were told to drive their son from the Boulder Medical Center on Broadway to the emergency room at Boulder Community Foothills Hospital because the east Boulder facility is best equipped to deal with children in critical condition, Jarmul told the jury.
She said because Jason was breathing normally, she and Siegfried didn't feel there was a need for an ambulance and paramedics.
Alex Midyette, 29, is on trial for inflicting injuries on his son that led to the baby's death at 11 weeks of age. He claims Jason died from a rare metabolic disorder, not abuse.
Molly Midyette, 30, is serving a 16-year prison term after being convicted of not getting Jason help before he died.
The trial, which began its third week Monday, is being held in Denver District Court because of pre-trial publicity concerns in Boulder.
Defense lawyer David Kaplan raised the question Monday with the receptionist at Boulder Medical Center as to why no medical staff got on the phone with Molly Midyette to figure out a course of action when she called that day with concerns about Jason.
Alice Shaw, the receptionist at the office, testified that Siegfried told her to inform the Midyettes that they needed to bring their son to the emergency room.
When Molly Midyette insisted on bringing the baby to Siegfried's office, Shaw said, the doctor agreed to see Jason at 3:30 P.M. As long as his condition didn't deteriorate before then.
Dr. Meghan Norton, who was a resident at the pediatric intensive care unit at Children's Hospital at the time Jason was transported there from Boulder that evening, testified about her discussion with Molly and Alex Midyette.
She said Molly Midyette was crying and that Alex Midyette appeared agitated as she asked them about what had happened to Jason, whose pupils weren't the same size and whose head had a bulging area.
I felt he was critically ill and non-responsive, Norton testified.
She said the Midyettes told her all was fine at 5 A.M., but that four hours later Jason changed colors during a diaper change and made funny noises before returning to normal.
At 11 A.M., when Alex Midyette was giving his son a bath, he told Norton that Jason stiffened up briefly and made more strange noises. After he seemed normal again, he put his son down for a nap, she testified.
Alex Midyette then told her he heard some strange noises on the baby monitor and called his wife, who called their doctor.
The day also included testimony from Dr. Karin Susskind and neonatal nurse Gail Loker, both of whom said Jason was healthy when he was released from Boulder Community Foothills Hospital a week after his delivery Dec. 17.
Nurse: Jason Midyette was healthy at birth
Grandmother says she regrets mix-up that left baby in father's care
Friday, December 14
Molly Midyette covers her eyes as X-rays of her son, Jason Midyette, are show during the second day of testimony at her trial at the Boulder County Justice Center.
Photo by Mark Leffingwell
Molly Midyette covers her eyes as X-rays of her son, Jason Midyette, are show during the second day of testimony at her trial at the Boulder County Justice Center.
An X-ray of Jason Midyette's legs showing where fractures where found is displayed during the second day of testimony of Molly Midyette's trial at the Boulder County Justice Center.
Photo by Mark Leffingwell
An X-ray of Jason Midyette's legs showing where fractures where found is displayed during the second day of testimony of Molly Midyette's trial at the Boulder County Justice Center.
Jane Bowers had been planning to babysit one afternoon in February while her daughter, Molly Midyette, went to a postpartum checkup. But Bowers confused the days and, instead, her infant grandson's father was left in charge.
It's a mixup she regrets to this day, the grandmother told a jury Thursday.
Molly and Alex Midyette rushed their newborn, Jason, to the hospital three days later and told doctors he had been having seizure-like symptoms and vomiting since the day of the postpartum appointment.
A week after being taken to the hospital, the 10-week-old Louisville baby was dead from a head injury. Alex Midyette, 28, is accused of inflicting the fatal injuries on his son.
The jury charged with determining if Molly Midyette is also responsible for Jason's death by not getting him medical help heard six hours of medical testimony Thursday prior to Bowers taking the witness stand. Prosecutors trying to dispute any contention that the baby's death was the result of a medical condition called two doctors and a nurse, who testified that he was healthy when he left their care.
Molly Midyette, 29, was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia, or high blood pressure, at the end of her pregnancy and was ordered to go on bed rest just after Thanksgiving 2005. Her labor was induced Dec. 16, but it didn't progress quickly enough, so doctors performed a Cesarean section, said Dr. MichaelPlotnick, an obstetrician who helped during the labor. He said the condition is fairly common and said Midyette's delivery was not "traumatic."
* Tests say disease not cause of Midyette baby's death
Jason's newborn test score rose from a 2 out of 10 one minute after his delivery to an 8 four minutes later, neonatal nurse Gail Loker testified.
He had to be given some supplemental oxygen to help his breathing, she said, and he progressed quickly to the average score for babies born at Colorado's altitude.
She said Jason appeared normal and healthy following her head-to-toe exam during his first moments of life.
Dr. Karin Susskind, a family doctor at the Boulder Medical Center, told jurors she saw Jason three days during his weeklong hospital stay. He weighed 4 pounds, 14 ounces at birth and was born at 36 weeks, one week away from what doctors consider full term, she said. He had jaundice and was not eating well at first but resolved those issues quickly. Susskind deemed Jason ready to leave with his parents on Christmas Eve.
"They were excited to go home, " Susskind said.
Dr. Thomas Hay became involved in Jason's medical treatment after the baby was rushed to Children's Hospital in Denver on Feb. 24. The pediatric radiologist told jurors that upon examining X-rays and CT scans of the infant, he concluded that Jason was the victim of child abuse.
Jason suffered from a skull fracture across the top of his head as well as several fractures at the tips of bones throughout his body.
"Typically how they happen are... From two main mechanisms, " Hay told jurors. "One is a pulling-and-twisting injury of the limb; the other is the child is in a position of being shaken or moved in a very violent way."
Courtroom notebook
Alex Midyette's trial delayed
Boulder County District Court Judge Lael Montgomery approved a request by attorneys for Alex Midyette to delay his trial, which was scheduled to begin Jan. 14.
A list of experts expected to take the stand in Alex Midyette's defense was handed over to prosecutors earlier this week. Court rules allow the district attorney more time to prepare for those witnesses.
A new trial date has not yet been set.
Between Hay's exam and Jason's autopsy report, prosecutors say Jason had 37 broken bones.
In going through dozens of cross sections of Jason's brain taken by CT scans, Hay showed jurors there were new and old injuries on the baby's swollen brain.
Defense attorneys for Molly Midyette say she did what her doctor, Jill Siegfried, told her to do and may have placed too much trust in her.
"Their relationship with (Siegfried) was a little beyond a normal doctor-patient relationship, " Bowers, Jason's grandmother, told jurors. "She could do no wrong for them. If I said anything that sounded close to a criticism, they defended her, corrected me, quoted her."
Siegfried is expected to take the stand next week.
Updated: 01/17 09:23: 42 AM MST
Jason Midyette was only 76 days old when he died from a massive skull fracture and traumatic brain injuries.
The infant son of Alex and Molly Midyette "died a broken baby" when he succumbed to his injuries on March 3, a prosecutor said today.
"He lived for 76 days filled with pain and misery, " Boulder County prosecutor Collette Cribari told a Denver, COLORADO jury. "He lived through 76 days of repeated broken bones and head injuries."
Cribari gave opening statements this morning in Denver District Court as jurors listened to the case against Jason's father, Alex Midyette.
Jason had more than 30 broken bones, some of them healing when he died. The most recent injury, a skull fracture, is what ultimately killed him.
Jason's mother, Molly, was convicted of child abuse for not seeking help for the ailing child and was sentenced last year to 16 years in prison.
Alex Midyette's trial was moved to Denver at the request of the defense because they argued the jury pool in Boulder County was tainted by pretrial publicity about the case.
Midyette's father, J. Nold Midyette, is a prominent Boulder architect and commercial-property owner.
Alex Midyette was working for his father conducting maintenance on the properties, and Molly Midyette, a recent law school graduate, was working as a receptionist for her father-in-law while preparing to retake the bar exam.
Alex Midyette contends that his son was not abused but rather suffered from a rare medical condition.
"In the end, the only conclusion will be that Jason Jay died of a metabolic disease, " Midyette's defense lawyer, Paul McCormick, told jurors during his opening statements.
"They say the worst thing in the world that can happen to you is to lose a child, but there is something worse when you lose a child and somebody says you killed it, " McCormick said. "At the end of this case, we will come up here and say, 'Free this man.' Even though he is walking around the streets, he is in bondage."
But Cribari told jurors that the case was not a medical mystery.
"Use your common sense, " she told the jurors. "You are going to take the pictures of the puzzle, and you are going to put them all together. Never forget the big picture, and you will find the defendant, in fact, inflicted the injuries on this baby."
She said the baby's ribs, clavicle and left arm were fractured and had already started to heal. She said that family members and friend noticed bruising on the child's head, but Midyette claimed he had accidentally hit his son's head on a chair while going to answer his telephone.
Kay Midyette, Alex's mother, took photographs of Jason but altered them later to conceal the bruising, Cribari said.
Jason Midyette's frenulum, the membrane that attaches the gums to the lips was torn, which is frequently a sign of child abuse from someone shoving a bottle or pacifier into a baby's mouth.
Cribari said Alex Midyette appeared indifferent to his son's condition at times surfing the Internet and asking his wife to score him a bag of marijuana while Jason was dying.
A friend visiting the Midyettes told investigators that one time Jason began to cry, and Alex Midyette brought him to Molly Midyette and dropped the baby in her lap, telling her to "feed the baby, " Cribari said.
Another friend said Alex Midyette often carried Jason around like a "Heisman trophy, " she said.
The prosecutor said that on a night before Midyette was set to watch his son while his wife went to work, he was partying with his friends, drinking and using cocaine.
McCormick said his client was not using cocaine and that he was not indifferent to his child's illness.
"Alex Midyette was not an absentee father, " McCormick said. "He was the kind of dad who was happy to do the poopy diapers. He was there all the time. You will hear that when Jason Jay was born, it was the happiest day of his life. He is not a person who would abuse this child."
McCormick also denied that Kay Midyette was trying to conceal her grandson's injuries. He said she altered the photos of his bruise because she is an amateur photographer and had also practiced concealing Molly Midyette's acne in photographs.
Cribari told jurors that while Jason was in the hospital, his mother and father did not go to his bedside to comfort him or hold his hands and they kept changing their stories about the progression of the baby's illness in the days before he died.
McCormick denied there was indifference and said the family held a vigil for six days and prayed often.
He argued that Alex Midyette has been criticized for not showing enough emotion about his son or for showing too much when he got frustrated with the doctors who were treating Jason.
The defense expects to call medical experts to the stand who will testify that Jason's condition was not caused by child abuse. They will tell jurors that there was no retinal hemorrhaging in the baby's eyes a telltale sign of abuse and no outward sign of trauma on the body, McCormick said.
"For someone to break every bone and do it intentionally, you have to hit (the child) everywhere, " McCormick said. "There were no bruises, except for the two little ones they are talking about. There are no internal injuries. Someone would have to have pinpoint precision to break those ribs on the inside but (show no injuries) on the outside."
September 15th 07:48 PM
Authorities Mum on Probe into Baby Jason Midyette's Death
Sept. 14
Louisville, Colo.
It's been more than six months since Jason Midyette, the infant son of a prominent Colorado family, died in a Boulder area hospital where he was brought 10 days earlier, apparently writhing in pain, his tiny skull fractured, more than two dozen of his bones broken, some of them in various stages of healing.
But despite a comprehensive autopsy report, reviewed by several outside pathologists and released more than six weeks ago, which concluded that the 11-week-old infant was a victim of a homicide, authorities in Boulder have not filed any charges in the case, nor have they given any indication that their probe has brought them any closer to determining whether the infant died as a result of an accident, negligence, or something more malevolent.
"It is a very active, ongoing investigation, " said Caroline French, a spokeswoman for the Boulder County district attorney's office. Citing Colorado law that bars prosecutors and other law enforcement officials from discussing details of a pending investigation, French declined to characterize the progress of the probe, nor would she speculate about when it might be concluded or whether or when the fruits of the investigation might be presented to a grand jury.
Given the complexities of the case, it may well be that authorities in Boulder and in the city of Louisville, where Jason Midyette spent his short and apparently painful life, are proceeding with understandable caution, say some observers.
But the seemingly slow pace of the probe has raised questions, both on the Internet and on the streets locally, about whether the Boulder district attorney's office, which came under intense media scrutiny after its ill-fated and highly publicized arrest of fugitive school teacher John Mark Karr last summer in the now 10-year-old Jon Benet Ramsey case, may be proceeding too cautiously. Others have questioned whether the family's prominence in the community might also be a reason for the lack of progress.
Law enforcement officials have denied that. But as the Boulder County newspaper the Daily Camera wrote in a July 30 editorial, "when it takes... Months to determine that a... Baby boy who had 28 broken bones including a fractured skull died of homicide, it's not surprising that people start asking questions."
September 15th 07:49 PM
As the investigation into Jason Midyette's death grinds on, much of the attention has continued to focus on the infant's parents, Alex Midyette, the son of a prominent local architect and builder with extensive real estate holdings among other businesses and the grandson of famed architect J. Nold Midyette; and Molly Midyette, a young law school graduate.in the days after Jason's death, both retained lawyers, and neither has made any public comments about the case.
Nor has anyone been willing to comment on the probe for them.
Alex Midyette's attorney, Paul McCormick, did not return telephone calls from Crime Library, and Craig Truman, who was retained by Molly Midyette, said that he makes it a practice to reserve any comment for the courtroom. He did, however, insist that there was no special significance to the fact that the couple had hired separate lawyers, arguing that except under unique circumstances, Colorado law requires that each person who might be implicated in a case retain their own counsel.
The Midyette family has remained largely silent, as have the couple's friends, say local reporters who have covered the probe.
What is known is that the couple had been married just about six months when Jason was born on Dec. 17. Published reports, citing a police affidavit in support of a search warrant for the Midyette home, contend that the infant was born prematurely. The autopsy report makes no mention of that fact and the police affidavit which was recently placed under seal, presumably because of an ongoing child protective services probe into the case, according to the Boulder County Court clerk's office does not indicate how long before term Jason was born.
One of the couple's Louisville neighbors, who sometimes chatted with Alex and Molly Midyette in the months leading up to Jason's death, told Crime Library recently that while the Midyettes seemed to be pleasant people, he did not take them for fawning parents of a newborn.in fact, he said, he did not even know they had a child until the news broke about Jason's death.
According to the police affidavit, as detailed in press reports after Jason's death, the baby had experience some growth problems between his two-week and one-month checkup he had gained only half an ounce. But the real first sign that the baby might not be well came in late February. According to those reports, the couple contacted Dr. Jill Siegfried on Feb. 24, leaving her a telephone message saying that the baby "looked lethargic" and was "not himself."
Siegfried declined to be interviewed for this story. But according to reports published at the time, when Siegfried examined the boy he was "grunting and posturing" and the soft spot on the infant's skull was bulging. The infant was taken to Boulder Community Hospital's emergency room where a nurse, identified by the Rocky Mountain News as Elaine Rottinghouse, later described his condition as among the worst she had seen in 27 years in the ER.
While there was no outside bruising, according to the autopsy report, there was a list of devastating injuries, all apparently the result of trauma: His skull was fractured and his brain was swollen, two femurs were broken, and in what would later become a singularly troubling discovery, his left forearm had been fractured, as had his collarbone. Both of those injuries were already healing, an indication that the trauma that sent Jason to the emergency room was not the first he had endured in his brief life. The infant was placed under the authority of the Boulder County Department of Social Services it was the first time the child protective services agency had been called on to intervene with the family and doctors struggled in vain to save boy. On March 3, after 10 days on life support, Jason Midyette died.
Authorities immediately launched an investigation. A warrant was issued and a search was conducted at the Midyette's home during which computer records, Jason Midyette's medical records, and, according to published reports at the time, drug paraphernalia were seized. What, if any, significant evidence that search yielded remains a closely guarded secret.
The investigation, as with all cases involving possible child abuse involving very young victims, focused in large measure on those close to the child, particularly the infants' parents, and authorities thus far have declined to say whether they have identified any other people who might have been in a position to inflict the fatal injuries on Jason.
Authorities have been collecting information on the couple, and have acknowledged that Alex Midyette had at least one prior scrape with the law, though the details and outcome of that incident could not immediately be obtained. And though the couple has retained lawyers, the authorities have never publicly identified them as suspects nor ruled them out.
But five months after Jason Midyette's death, authorities did pass one significant milestone in the probe when the coroner at last released the autopsy report. The report, which concluded that Jason's death was a homicide, also all but ruled out one possible explanation for his death. Several experts were asked to review the case, and reported that they found no evidence that the child might have suffered from osteogenesis imperfecta, or so-called "brittle bone disease, " a comparatively common disease, often afflicting infants, in which even minor trauma can result in severe fractures. The disease is often cited by defense attorneys in suspected child abuse cases.
It has now been six weeks since the autopsy report was released, and in that time, the media's attention has largely shifted away from the case. Whatever new details might have been uncovered, whatever evidence has been collected, remains shielded from public scrutiny.
As far as any one outside of the Boulder DA's office and the Louisville police know, the case has not yet been presented to a grand jury, and that has left some veteran law enforcement officials not directly involved in the case scratching their heads. As one experienced cop whose name is being withheld by Crime Library and who has ties to the agencies involved put it, it is unlikely that the DA is holding back because of fear in the aftermath of the recent Karr debacle, nor is it probable that the authorities are being unusually circumspect because of the social status of the Midyette family. "I don't know why it hasn't gone to a grand jury, " the veteran said.
Police and prosecutors insist that they are working vigorously to bring the case to a close. As Commander Bill Kingston of the Louisville police put it in a recent interview with Crime Library, "there is an end in sight, " but whether the case ends in prosecution and when that resolution might come, Kingston refused to say.
October 11th 02:57 PM
Doomed Colorado Baby's Condition Shocked Doctor, Nurse
October 10
BOULDER, Colo. When 10-week-old Jason Midyette was carried into the emergency room at Boulder Community Hospital on Friday, February 24, he was pale and only semiconscious. Mostly unresponsive, his condition so upset veteran ER nurse Elaine Rottinghaus that she bolted to the telephone and called police.
A Boulder County 911 operator answered the emergency call within seconds.
"Dispatch, this is Tony."
"This is Elaine (at) the emergency room, Boulder Community Hospital, Foothills Campus."
"Yes, ma'am."
"I need to have an officer respond ASAP."
"What's going on?"
"A two-month old... Significant abuse, " Rottinghaus said. Then she gave the emergency operator the address of the infant's parents' house in the nearby suburb of Louisville.
"So you're requesting a Louisville officer, then?" the operator asked.
"I'm requesting somebody ASAP, " Rottinghaus said. "Five minutes ago actually."
During an emergency room nursing career spanning 27 years, Rottinghaus had seen only two other children with signs of abuse as alarming as those of Jason Midyette.
When Louisville police Officer Mike Haley arrived at the emergency room 15 minutes later, Dr. Stephen Fries, a 54-year-old pediatrician, told the officer that a CT scan had shown that Jason Midyette was suffering from significant brain swelling as a result of a skull fracture.
The scan had also disclosed partially healed fractures of Jason's left arm, right collarbone, and both legs. What the CT scan didn't show, and what Dr. Fries didn't know at the time, was that Jason's right arm had also been broken, as had nine of his ribs, and several bones in both feet and in his right hand.
Beneath his fractured skull, Jason's brain was bruised and bleeding.
All of the injuries, Dr. Fries said, were "trauma induced."
Another doctor who examined Jason later told police that the baby's injuries "were caused by non-accidental trauma."
Alex Midyette
When Officer Haley tried to speak to Jason's parents, Alex and Molly Midyette, who had gathered with a large group of family members in the emergency room waiting area, about what had happened to their son, his questions were ignored.
Alex's brother Jason, whom the critically injured infant had been named after, told the Louisville policeman to leave the hospital. Jason said his brother and sister-in-law had an attorney on the way and that they were not going to answer any questions.
Haley, who was being held back from getting close enough to Alex and Molly Midyette to speak to them, tried to signal to Alex, but was again ignored. Finally, the exchange between Officer Haley and Alex's brother grew so heated that the officer radioed the Boulder police dispatcher and asked for backup.
He also asked the dispatcher to notify the Boulder Department of Social Services about the potential abuse situation.
Molly and Alex Midyette
When the Midyette's lawyer arrived in the emergency room, he reiterated his clients' position: Other than providing the officer with their names and address, they would answer no questions and make no statements about what had happened to their son.
Meanwhile, doctors at Boulder Community Hospital arranged for an ambulance to rush little Jason Midyette to Children's Hospital in Denver, 30 miles away. He needed emergency brain surgery.
As Jason's parents watched their son being loaded into an ambulance for the urgent run into Denver, they saw Officer Haley climb into the ambulance and take a seat beside him. The police officer's call to the Department of Social Services had resulted in that department issuing an emergency protective order regarding Jason. The county was taking temporary protective custody of him. His parents could stay with him, but they couldn't be alone with him. Not until somebody explained what had happened to him.
In the late spring or early summer of Molly Bowers found out she was pregnant. It wasn't planned, but she was happy about it, said friend and Michigan State University Law School classmate Talia Goetting.
In mid-July, Molly, 26, and long-time boyfriend Alex Midyette, also 26, announced they would marry the following month.
On August 6, the expectant couple tied the knot in a sizeable ceremony at Alex's parents' home in Boulder. Alex is the son of Boulder architect J. Nold Midyette, whose real estate holdings in the vibrant Pearl Street Mall area of downtown Boulder have been estimated to be worth as much as $80 million.
Talia Goetting, a single mother, served as one of Molly's bridesmaids. The two women had become close friends during law school and remained close after graduating the previous year.
While attending law school in Michigan, Molly was a nanny to Goetting's daughter. Goetting told Crime Library that Molly doted on the little girl. She "spoiled her rotten, " Goetting said. Molly loved children and never raised her voice to Goetting's daughter.
At the wedding, Goetting and some of the other bridesmaids took turns rubbing Molly's expanding belly. "She was very happy to be pregnant, " Goetting said. "She always wanted to be a mom."
The newlyweds honeymooned in Mexico.
After a difficult pregnancy, Molly gave birth to Jason Jay Midyette on Dec. 17. Jason was small, having been born four to six weeks earlier than originally expected. The delivery was by cesarean section.
According to Dr. Jill Siegfried, the family's pediatrician, Jason wasn't gaining weight between his first few well-baby checkups like he should have been. When Dr. Siegfried saw Jason for those checkups, he screamed when she took off his diaper and tried to exam him.
"He wasn't an easy baby from the beginning, " Goetting recalled during a recent interview with Crime Library. Molly told her law school classmate she thought Jason had stomach or gas problems. Still, despite complications during her pregnancy and her concerns about her son's health, Molly Midyette was a happy new mother. "Jason was her life, " Goetting said.
A few weeks after Jason was born, Molly felt strong enough to go back to work part time. She had a job in Boulder, but, despite her law degree, she was not working as an attorney. When Molly was at work, Alex, who worked for his dad's property management company, stayed home and took care of the baby. The couple lived in a small three-bedroom house on Barbara Street in the nearby town of Louisville.
A little past noon on Feb. 24, one of Jason's parentsa subsequent police report says it was Molly, but Molly's friend Talia Goetting is sure it was Alexcalled Dr. Siegfried's office in Boulder and left a message. Something was wrong with Jason. He "looked lethargic, " the message said and was "not himself."
Dr. Siegfried told a nurse to call the Midyettes and tell them to bring Jason to an emergency room if the condition continued or got worse. If he seemed better but they were still concerned, they could bring him into her office at 3:30 that afternoon. Just three miles from the Midyette's home was Avista Hospital with a full-service, level three trauma center.
More than two hours later, Alex and Molly brought Jason into Dr. Siegfried's office. Dr. Siegfried took one look at Jason and knew he needed immediate emergency medical care. Siegfried later told police that Jason "looked awful." The soft spot at the top of his skull was bulging out, indicating brain swelling. He was grunting and kept locking his tiny body into unnatural postures, a possible symptom of central nervous system damage.
Alex and Molly said Jason had been fine the day before but had woken up that morning grunting and holding his breath. They suspected he may have had a seizure. Dr. Siegfried conferred with another doctor in her office. They decided that an ambulance would take too long, so they told the Midyettes to drive Jason to the emergency room at Boulder Community Hospital.
In a later statement to police, Dr. Siegfried said she didn't suspect abuse but was "uncomfortable" that Alex and Molly had waited so long to get Jason medical attention when "he looked so bad."
Denver Intensive Care
Later on the night of Feb. 24, while little Jason Midyette underwent emergency surgery at Children's Hospital in Denver to relieve the swelling in his brain and to stem the flow of the hemorrhage inside his head, Louisville police detectives were preparing an affidavit for a warrant to search the Midyettes' Barbara Street home.
At Children's Hospital, Louisville Officer Mike Haley and Detective Jessica Steele kept watch over Jason. After the operation, the neurosurgeon who had performed the surgery told the officers that he didn't expect Jason to live. If he did survive, the doctor said, he would in all likelihood spend the rest of his life in a coma.
At five o'clock the next morning, Saturday, Feb. 25, while 10-week-old Jason was fighting for his life in Denver, Louisville police officers searched the home of Alex and Molly Midyette. They were looking for anything that might indicate Jason had been the victim of child abuse. Some of what they found surprised them.in addition to photographs of Jason, medications, medical records, and baby books, the officers seized eight blown-glass marijuana pipes and an ashtray containing marijuana.
A radiologist at Children's Hospital who did an extensive X-ray examination of Jason found 20 broken bones. The radiologist added a comment to his report that read, "Multiple fractures in various stages of healing, highly suspicious for non-accidental trauma."
Over the next few days, Louisville police served four more search warrants for doctor's office and hospital records, for computer files, and for cell phone records.
Through their attorney, Alex and Molly Midyette continued to refuse to talk to police about what had happened to their son. Their attorney floated a theory that Jason suffered from a condition known as osteogenesis imperfecta, more commonly known as "brittle bone disease, " a genetic disorder that makes bones extremely fragile. The suggestion was that Jason's bones were so weak that they had perhaps snapped under their own weight or been broken through the regular course of parents holding and caring for an infant.
On March 1, doctors at Children's Hospital removed Jason from life support.
Two days later, at 4:10 P.M., he died. He was 76 days old.
The next day, March 4, Dr. John Meyer, a pathologist with the Boulder County Coroner's Office, performed an autopsy on Jason.in his report, Dr. Meyer wrote, "Cause of death of this 10-week-old infant is blunt force craniocerebral injuries."
Jason died because something or someone had smashed his head.
Justice Delayed, Justice Denied
Following Jason Midyette's death in early March, Boulder County Coroner Thomas Faure took the extraordinary step of asking four outside medical experts to examine Jason's brain, his eyes, and his bones, and to test his DNA for evidence of osteogenesis imperfecta.
In his report to the Boulder County coroner, Dr. Peter Bullough, a professor of pathology at Cornell University Medical College in New York, concluded: "The bone tissue is within normal limits for the age of the patient. There is no evidence of osteogenesis imperfecta."
The DNA test showed the same thing.
So much for Jason having brittle bone disease. But that left the question: If Jason's bones didn't break by themselves, what or who broke them?
Alex and Molly maintained their silence, but in mid-March, Molly Midyette hired her own attorney.
On July 24, Coroner Thomas Faure officially ruled Jason Midyette's death a homicide.
Despite a seeming abundance of medical and circumstantial evidence that Jason Midyette was the victim of horrendous physical abuse and that he died as a direct result of that abuse, as of now, nearly eight months after he was killed, no one has been charged in connection with his death.
The future of the caseif there is a caserests with Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy, who in recent months has once again come under intense criticism, this time for her botched handling of the decade-old JonBenet Ramsey case.in August Lacy sent an investigator to Thailand to arrest American expatriate John Mark Karr for the December 1996 slaying of the young beauty pageant queen, but Lacy's case quickly fell apart when DNA tests exonerated Karr.
Last week, Mary Lacy refused several requests from Crime Library for an interview about the Midyette case. Her only response, sent via email, read:
"The murder of Jason Midyette is an ongoing investigation involving both my office and law enforcement. It is our longstanding policy pursuant to our professional ethical standards that we do not comment on pending criminal investigations, with limited exceptions. No such exception applies to this case. We will not be commenting on this homicide which includes answering your questions about the investigation."
Apparently that policy didn't exist last summer when Lacy gleefully announced Karr's arrest.
Recently, Lacy revealed that her office spent $40,000 investigating Karr. The funds were used in part to hire outside investigators and for Karr's first-class airline ticket back to the United States.
Legal Scrapes, Friends Shed Light On Parents Of Dead Baby
October 12
BOULDER, Colo. Ten-week-old Jason Midyette died nearly eight months ago from brain damage suffered as a result of a fractured skull. Doctors later discovered the infant had an additional 27 broken bones, including both arms, both legs, a collarbone, and nine ribs. Some of the fractures were older than others, according to a later autopsy, a finding that seemed to indicate Jason had been injuredperhaps beatenmore than once.
Jason's parents, Alex and Molly Midyette, are the only ones who know for certain how their infant son sustained such horrible injuries.
But they aren't talking.
Since the couple carried Jason into the emergency room of Boulder Community Hospital on the evening of Feb. 24, they have steadfastly refused to cooperate with police investigators.
They have also hired separate attorneys.
So who are the Midyettes, this pair of first-time parents who seem, at least outwardlyas demonstrated by their failure to tell officials what happened to Jasonso callous about the death of their son?
Alexander Midyette, 27, grew up in Boulder. He is the son of prominent local architect J. Nold Midyette, whose real estate holdingsvalued at approximately $80 millioninclude a sizable chunk of downtown Boulder. The elder Midyette also owns the Pearl Street Mall Property Management company.
Alex graduated from Quest Academy in Boulder, an exclusive private school with a secular curriculum for grades six through 12. The school has a total student population of just over 200.
Molly Midyette, 28, born Molly Bowers, is also from Boulder. Her parents, Dan and Jane Bowers, live in a secluded mountain community just west of the city. Molly went to Foothills Elementary School. She later attended Boulder High School through the 11th grade but left after her junior year. Molly's 11th grade class photo shows a pretty girl with long dark hair spilling past her shoulders.in the picture her expression is neutral and bears only the hint of a smile.
After graduating from Quest Academy, Alex drifted around the fringes of higher education. He attended Mesa Community College in Tempe, Ariz. And Cabrillo Community College in Santa Cruz, Calif. There is no indication he graduated from either.
When he gave up on school, Alex returned to Boulder and went to work managing rental property for his father.
Despite a couple of brushes with the law, Molly went to the University of Colorado, where she graduated in 2001 with a dual degree in history and political science. That same year she entered the Michigan State University College of Law. Friend and law school classmate Talia Goetting, now a Michigan attorney, said Molly is one of the smartest women she has ever known. "She's a really, really intelligent girl, " Goetting said.
Away at school for the first time, Molly did what a lot of young people do. She had a good time and she partied, but Goetting insisted that when Molly returned to Boulder after graduating from law school in she was ready to settle down and begin a new phase of her life.
Alex and Molly began living together soon after she returned from Michigan. Where and when they met isn't clear, neither is how long they'd been dating, but the couple moved into an 1,100-square-foot, three bedroom ranch-style house on Barbara Street in the Boulder suburb of Louisville. The house belonged to Alex's father.
In May 1996, near the end of her junior year at Boulder High, the police charged Molly with underage drinking. The charge was later dismissed, but a year later, in May 1997, she got busted again for the same crime. For the second violation she was fined $75 and ordered to pay an additional $18 in court costs.
A recent post on the popular Web site www.myspace.com, written by someone named Darin who claims to have gone to Quest Academy with Alex and believes he knew Molly Bowers 10 years ago, read, "If it is the same Molly I worked with... She was pretty off the chain. Hung around with older guys that were in trouble a lot."
Meanwhile, Alex had his own legal troubles.in 1997, he was ticketed twice for driving without insurance. During that same year he was also cited for several other traffic violations.
In 1998, he got popped for underage drinking. He received a $60 fine and had to pay $18 in court costs.
A warrant was issued for Alex's arrest for failing to show up for one of his court appearances in the underage drinking case, but the warrant was later recalled.
The following year, three months before his 20th birthday, the cops arrested Alex for possession of marijuana. It was a small amount, less than an ounce. Alex eventually paid a $50 fine and tacked on another $18 for court costs.
Although she had earned a law degree, Molly did not work as an attorney after returning home, nor is she listed as a member of the Colorado Bar Association.
An article in the Boulder newspaper The Daily Camera said Molly worked for Sierra Companies of Boulder. When Crime Library tried recently to reach her at a Boulder company by that name, a spokeswoman for the company said no one named Molly Midyette or Molly Bowers worked there.
In the spring of Molly found out she was pregnant.in mid-July, The Daily Camera ran a wedding announcement. Three weeks later, Alex and Molly were married at Alex's parents' home in Boulder.
On Dec. 17, Jason Jay "J.J." Midyette was born. He was close to six weeks premature, according to Molly's friend Talia Goetting, who stood in the couple's wedding, but Molly was overjoyed. "She always wanted to be a mom, " Goetting said.
Jason had some health problems but nothing too severe. He was small and barely gained any weight the first several weeks after he was born. His frequent crying caused his pediatrician, Dr. Jill Siegfried, to suspect he might be having gas pains. She suggested medication.
A few weeks after Jason's birth, during a well-baby checkup, Dr. Siegfried noticed that Jason screamed when she took off his diaper to examine him.
In Louisville, residents of Barbara Street thought the Midyettes were, for the most part, pretty good neighbors. A woman who lived across the street from them, but who didn't want to give her name, told Crime Library: "They always seemed very, very nice. It seemed like they had a lot of friends."
Starting just a few weeks after Jason was born, one of the couple's two cars was usually parked at home during the day, the neighbor recalled. She said she believes either Alex or Molly would stay home with the baby while the other one worked. The neighbor said she never saw any sign that the Midyettes used a babysitter or nanny.
William Chandler, who lived next door to the Midyettes for at least two years, spoke to Molly occasionally when they saw each other in their front yards. The only problem he ever had with them, Mr. Chandler said, was when he came home one day and found that Alex had torn down the chainlink fence separating their back yardsthe fence belonged to Chandlerand replaced it with a wooden privacy fence.
Alex and Molly had plenty of visitors and Alex and his friends often played basketball in the back yard, Mr. Chandler told Crime Library. At least twice after the fence incident, Mr. Chandler's grandchildren told him that they smelled burning marijuana coming from the Midyettes' yard.
Late in the afternoon on Feb. 24, Alex and Molly brought Jason to see Dr. Siegfried.
According to a statement Dr. Siegfried later gave to police, Jason "looked awful." His brain appeared to be bulging through the soft spot in his skull and he was "grunting and posturing." His appearance "scared" Dr. Siegfried, and, after conferring with another doctor, she told the boy's parents to drive him to the emergency room at Boulder Community Hospital, just three miles from her office. Dr. Siegfried later said she didn't think Jason had time to wait for an ambulance.
From Boulder Community Hospital, Jason was rushed to Children's Hospital in Denver, where doctors performed emergency brain surgery. He died seven days later.
Since they hauled their dying son into the emergency room on Feb. 24, Alex and Molly Midyette have yet to tell police what happened to him and have so far refused to explain how or why Jason, who was not quite 11 weeks old when he died and weighed just under 8 1/2 pounds, had 27 broken bones, a fractured skull, and severe brain damage.
Although the Boulder County coroner ruled in July that Jason's death was a homicide, Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy has yet to charge anyone in connection with his death. Lacy has also refused to comment on the case other than to say that it is still under investigation.
Assistant District Attorney Ken Kupfner, in charge of the Jason Midyette case, told Crime Library, "There's no conceivable way we're going to talk about a case that's under investigation."
Neither Lacy nor her staff was apparently under any such restriction when they boasted about the August arrest of John Mark Karr for the murder of JonBenet Ramsey, a charge that was dismissed almost as soon as it was made when DNA evidence cleared Karr of the murder.
Despite District Attorney Lacy's inaction, Alex and Molly Midyette have been under a cloud of suspicion since late February. They've moved out of their house on Barbara Street and have nearly disappeared from public view. Reporters' calls to the Midyettes' family and friends go mostly unreturned.
Reached recently on her cell phone by Crime Library, Molly said only this: "I don't have anything to say to you." Then she hung up.
Molly's law school classmate and friend Talia Goetting has spoken to Molly within the past couple of months and is upset with the suggestion that her friend may have been involved in Jason's death. "There's no doubt in my mind Molly had nothing to do with it, " Goetting said. "Jason was her life."
As for any possible connection Alex Midyette may have had to his son's death, Goetting wouldn't comment.
October 18
BOULDER, Colo. Doctors at Children's Hospital in Denver unplugged 10-week-old Jason Midyette from life support on March 1. Two days later, he died. The cause of death: brain damage from a fractured skull. The 27 other broken bones he suffered before his parents brought him to the hospital were just "lagniappe, " a little something extra someone decided to inflict on the underweight infant.
His parents said they brought him to the hospital because he looked "lethargic."
According to Boulder County Coroner Tom Faure, Jason's death was a homicide.
So far, District Attorney Mary Lacy can't find anyone worth prosecuting.
Unequal treatment
Less than a week after Jason Midyette died, 5-month-old Von McLaughlin's parents rushed him to a Boulder County emergency room. His eyes and brain were bleeding, classic signs of shaken-baby syndrome. His new nanny had been watching him while his parents worked. The nanny had called Von's father and said the boy looked "lethargic."
One doctor told Von's parents that their son's injuries were as severe as if he'd been dropped from a two-story window.
Ligia Maria Naranjo-Zuniga
The next day, D.A. Mary Lacy charged the nanny, a 28-year-old Costa Rican immigrant named Ligia Maria Naranjo-Zuniga, with two counts of felony child abuse. Von survived, but doctors are not sure if his brain damage is permanent and if it is, how much it will affect him.
Last month, a Boulder County judge slapped the nanny with a 10-year prison sentence.
Four years ago, also under Mary Lacy's watch, another Boulder baby, 9-week-old Tanner Dowler, was carried into a hospital emergency room by his parents. They said he woke up from a nap looking "lethargic, " that he was unresponsive, and that he hadn't been eating well. Doctors discovered Tanner had 11 cracked ribs, a pair of broken arms, two broken legs, second-degree burns on his feet, and brain damage.
Tanner Dowler
The following week, Tanner died after doctors removed him from life support.
Joseph Dowler
Six days later, the District Attorney's Office charged Tanner's father, 34-year-old Joseph Dowler, with first-degree murder. Five days after that, Mary Lacy authorized the arrest of the boy's mother, 19-year-old Audra Dowler, for child abuse resulting in death.
Audra Dowler
Joseph got 60 years in prison. Audra cut a deal and got 10 years.
Yet, Jason Midyette's killeror killersis still walking free. It's a question Mary Lacy refuses to answer.
After ignoring repeated telephone calls from Crime Library requesting an interview, Lacy finally sent a tersely worded email response to a faxed set of questions.in her reply, Lacy left unanswered all of Crime Library's questions about the status of the investigation into Jason Midyette's death, and wrote only this:
"The murder of Jason Midyette is an ongoing investigation involving both my office and law enforcement. It is our longstanding policy pursuant to our professional ethical standards that we do not comment on pending criminal investigations, with limited exceptions. No such exception applies to this case. We will not be commenting on this homicide which includes answering your questions about the investigation."
Mary Lacy as "child advocate"
Mary Lacy bills herself as a tough prosecutor and as an advocate for children. Before being elected Boulder County district attorney in Lacy spent 17 years as a deputy district attorney.in 1999, she co-founded the Blue Sky Bridge Child Advocacy Center. That same year, she was inducted into the YWCA Hall of Fame for her contributions to women and children.
Lacy has served as the president of the Colorado District Attorney's Association and has been Colorado's representative to the National District Attorney's Association.
As a deputy D.A. And then later as district attorney, Mary Lacy prosecuted several high-profile cases. Since being elected, she has more than doubled the number of adult felony trials in Boulder County.
Given her quick prosecutorial responses to the Tanner Dowler and Von McLaughlin abuse casescases in which the D.A.'s Office put three people behind bars for a total of 80 yearsMary Lacy certainly seems to be tough on those who abuse children.
After securing the 60-year prison sentence for Tanner Dowler's dad, Lacy told the Boulder Daily Camera, "There is no way you can imagine the suffering of this child. Every time he was diapered, every time he was touched, every time he was fed, every time his body moved, it hurt."
What about Jason Midyette? With injuries just as severe, perhaps even more so, than Von McLaughlinconsidering Jason's cracked skull and his brain so swollen that it protruded through the soft spot at the top of his headit's a good bet that he also suffered mightily.
Because Jason's parents, Alex and Molly Midyette, lived in the Boulder suburb of Louisville, the Louisville Police Department is the lead investigative agency. Louisville police Commander Bill Kingston refused repeated requests from Crime Library to comment on the status of the investigation.
Coroner Tom Faure, likewise, wouldn't answer questions except to say, "It would be inappropriate to make any comment about the case since it's still under investigation."
Alex and Molly Midyette aren't saying anything either, not to the press, not to the police, not to the District Attorney. They've hired separate attorneys. Molly Midyette's Denver-based attorney, Craig Truman, told Crime Library he doesn't think there is a case. "As far as I know, the case remains under an investigative status, " he said. "That means there has been nothing filed, so I don't think there is a case."
A source familiar with the investigation told Crime Library the District Attorney has not presented the case to a grand jury.
Reached on her cell phone last week, Molly Midyette sounded out of breath, as if she were in the middle of exercising. She refused to talk about the case but during the brief exchange she gave no hint that she was worried.
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