A box of files for one medical child abuse case sits in the office of Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office Detective Mike Weber at the Tarrant County Plaza Building on Feb. 25. Weber has investigated 35 claims of medical child abuse, otherwise known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy.
A proposed Texas law that would criminalize medical child abuse has been approved by a House committee after a hearing last week that included testimony from the Tarrant County sheriff.
The Criminal Jurisprudence Committee voted 6-2 early Wednesday morning to move the bill forward.
Medical child abuse, also known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy, occurs when a caregiver knowingly lies about or creates symptoms in someone under their care and causes that person to undergo unnecessary medical treatment.
There is no law in the country that specifically criminalizes medical child abuse, and Tarrant County officials seek to change that. While laws criminalize injury to a child or medical neglect, lying to a doctor to obtain unnecessary medical treatments for one’s child is not specifically illegal.
The Texas bill, titled HB 3381, would change that. HB 3381 would make it a crime to intentionally misrepresent or lie to a medical professional about a person’s medical history or symptoms for the purpose of obtaining unnecessary medical treatment for a child, elderly person or person with a disability. The Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office and Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office back the bill, which is sponsored by Rep. David Cook, R-Mansfield.
On April 25, proponents and opponents of the bill spoke before the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee. Opponents of the bill said they worry about false accusations against parents, while bill advocates said the law would create policies and procedures to clear innocent parents as well as convict guilty ones.
Advocates for ‘Alyssa’s Law’
Sheriff Bill Waybourn spoke first at the late-night hearing. Waybourn explained that his foster daughter, Alyssa, was a victim of medical child abuse as a toddler. Her biological mother, Brittany Phillips, lied about her daughter’s medical history and symptoms, withheld food from the girl and put feces into her IV line or feeding tube to make her sicker, according to court records in the case. Doctors said the feces in the IV line or feeding tube caused Phillips’ daughter to contract a potentially deadly blood infection.
“She went through a lot of torture,” Waybourn, who was visibly emotional, said at the hearing. “And things were done to her that were 100% unnecessary.”
Phillips was convicted in November 2015 of serious injury to a child and sentenced to five years in prison. While Phillips was convicted, Waybourn said it took four years for her case to go to trial because of the lack of laws and complexities in investigating these kind of cases. HB 3381 would enable law enforcement to investigate possible medical child abuse cases more quickly, he said.
Waybourn said the bill, which is called Alyssa’s Law after his daughter, would also raise awareness about medical child abuse and may lead other states to adopt similar laws.
Medical child abuse is considered rare, although no national statistics exist on this form of abuse. Leading experts, such as Dr. Marc Feldman, say medical child abuse likely flies under the radar much of the time due to a lack of education and awareness.
Tarrant County has one of the most effective systems in the United States for identifying, investigating and prosecuting medical child abuse cases, according to leading experts. Since 2009, 11 women in Tarrant County have been accused of medical child abuse and convicted. Three other women have been charged but not yet gone to trial.
Because there is no existing law targeting medical child abuse, Waybourn said investigators and prosecutors have to shoehorn the cases into existing law, which is not always effective. With Alyssa’s Law, law enforcement could start investigating without waiting for a child to undergo a potentially harmful procedure, proponents say.
Doug Welch testified that such was the case for his son, who he believes was a victim of medical child abuse. Welch said that he believes his former wife, Mary Welch, has faked or lied about their son’s condition for most of his life, resulting in multiple unnecessary brain surgeries. Mary Welch was charged with criminal attempt of injury to a child with serious bodily injury and endangering a child, but the charges were eventually dropped. Mary Welch’s attorney previously told the Star-Telegram the allegations against her were false.
Doug Welch said that when he had custody over his son for two years, his son was able to stop taking the 15 medications he was on, stopped using leg braces, attended school and played on a baseball team.
“I don’t have custody of him anymore because the family court didn’t know what to do with Munchausen by proxy,” he testified. “There is no law against lying to a doctor. There is no law against falsifying information. And his life continued down the same road.”
Bill opposition
Opponents to the bill said they were concerned about false accusations. Rebecca Galinski testified on behalf of herself and Protect Texas Fragile Kids. She said her son had a complex condition as a baby and “it’s insulting to hear people say this is made up.”
“This bill casts such a wide net that you are going to inadvertently catch a lot of innocent families with it,” she said.
Ashley Pardo, whose case gained national attention in 2018 and 2019, also testified against the bill at the April 25 hearing. Pardo’s 4-year-old son was removed from his family in 2018 after Pardo and her husband were accused of falsifying his medical conditions, according to the Texas Homeschool Coalition. The Supreme Court of Texas intervened in October 2019 and ordered that their son be returned home.
“As a parent of a medically complex child who has been through false allegations herself and who almost had her life destroyed and my family was ripped apart and traumatized, I can tell you firsthand that medical records can be manipulated very dangerously and apparently very easily from the provider side,” Pardo testified.
Pardo said if HB 3381 had been law during her case, “this nightmare that our family endured could have been so much worse.”
After Pardo’s testimony, Rep. Bhojani Salman said Pardo’s case “should not have happened,” but the proposed law would not have applied in her case because law enforcement would have to have proved intent.
Proof of intent is a core component of the proposed law to protect parents who truly believe their children are sick. The bill’s language places the burden on law enforcement to prove that someone intentionally lied to a doctor.
Several people who testified against the bill said they were concerned that the bill criminalizes a mental illness.
“I don’t think we should be prosecuting parents who have a mental illness,” Julia Hatcher with the Texas Association of Family Defense Attorneys said. “If this is what they’re doing, they need help.”
Detective Mike Weber also testified at last week’s hearing. Weber has investigated or consulted on about 50 potential medical child abuse cases in his career at the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office and the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office.
In terms of false accusations, Weber said those who testified “made a great argument for this bill without realizing it.”
“Ms. Pardo didn’t get a police investigation,” he said. “So that’s not fair to Ms. Pardo and it’s not fair to her children. Without a police investigation into a crime, we don’t know if a crime has been committed. Police investigations not only convict the guilty but also clear the innocent.”
This story was originally published May 1, 2023, 12:16 PM.
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct that a House committee has not yet voted on the bill.
Corrected May 1, 2023