Mother Convicted of Munchausen Child Abuse Loses AppealE
By Paula McMahon
Originally published in the Sun-Sentinel, March 7, 2002
The woman at the center of one of the nation's most notorious child abuse cases seems destined for a Florida prison after an appeals court upheld her conviction on Wednesday.
Kathy Bush, 44, has been free on bail while she challenged her conviction for aggravated child abuse in a case that spotlighted Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a condition in which a parent makes a child ill to get sympathetic attention.
Bush has always denied hurting her daughter, Jennifer. She was sentenced to five years in prison for the conviction in January 2000, but was immediately freed pending her appeal.
In an unusually long and detailed opinion released on Wednesday, the 4th District Court of Appeal rejected all of Bush's arguments.
"I think it's the end of the road for the defense," said former assistant state attorney Bob Nichols, now in private practice, who was one of the prosecutors on the case.
Jennifer, now 15, is in foster care in Illinois and has visitation with her father and two brothers.
Bush and her husband, Craig, formerly of Coral Springs, have since moved out of state. Bush could not be reached for comment.
One of her defense lawyers expressed disappointment.
"I think that what you have here is the system just plodding along to an unjust result," said trial attorney Robert Buschel. "I think the cold [written] trial record didn't demonstrate the problems that were caused by the prosecution during the trial."
Jennifer was removed from the Bush family on April 15, 1996. By that time, she had been hospitalized for 640 days and undergone 40 medical procedures and 1,819 nonsurgical treatments, and Medicaid had paid more than $1 million to treating hospitals, according to court documents.
Doctors and health experts testified during Bush's trial that Jennifer's health immediately improved when she was separated from her mother, and it has since remained good.
Bush's four-month trial in 1999 involved a number of strange incidents. In one, the late baseball great Joe DiMaggio's medical records mistakenly were introduced into evidence by the prosecution. Other documents jurors were not supposed to see were sent to them. The defense alleged that the prosecution improperly tried to shift the burden of proof—innocent until proven guilty—to the defense. And a prosecutor, Bob Nichols, likened Bush to serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.
"We find the cumulative effect of the remarks does not warrant a new trial," appeals Judge Gary Farmer wrote in the opinion, with Judges Barry Stone and Fred Hazouri concurring.
Bush's appellate attorney, West Palm Beach Assistant Public Defender Joseph Chloupek, could not be reached for comment. But Buschel said that after an initial review of the decision, he did not see any obvious issues to request a rehearing by the full 4th District Court of Appeal or an appeal to the Florida Supreme Court.
Buschel said he would strongly consider asking Broward Circuit Judge Victor Tobin to reduce Bush's sentence because of developments since her conviction. Bush voluntarily gave up her parental rights to Jennifer last October.
"It has been two years, and she has behaved herself perfectly and abided by all the court restrictions," Buschel said. "She's been separated from her daughter, she loves her daughter, and it has been very difficult—part of the family has been taken away."
But Nichols, the former prosecutor, said he would oppose any such move.
"She placed her child's life so close to the brink of death so many times that it went beyond trying to grab attention or any psychosis she may have," said Nichols. "It was too close to death too many times for her not to realize the terrible peril she put Jennifer in."
"I wouldn't give her a day less [than five years in prison]," he said.
Assistant State Attorney General Bob Julian, who assisted Broward prosecutors during the criminal trial and handled an action to terminate Bush's parental rights, also spoke of the danger to Jennifer.
"I think that without this court action and without this result, there's a fair chance Jennifer would not be here today," he said.
