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Defense attorney Thomas MacNair represented Katherine G. Parker, 44 , (pictured to his right, in blue jail garb, as she was arraigned on an indictment in Multnomah County Circuit Court Friday morning.
(Maxine Bernstein/The Oregonian)
A 44-year-old Grants Pass woman pleaded not guilty Friday to a 43-count indictment stemming from a
involving her children.
Katherine Parker, who was arrested at her Grants Pass home on Tuesday and transferred to a downtown Portland jail Thursday, was arraigned briefly Friday morning before Judge John A. Wittmayer in Multnomah County Circuit Court. Her brother attended the hearing.
Wittmayer ordered Parker to have no contact with any of the alleged victims, her children.
A preliminary trial date was set for May 19. She was represented Friday by defense attorney Thomas MacNair.
Katherine Parker
the stay-at-home mom of 24 counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment, four counts of first-degree assault, four counts of computer crime, four counts of identity theft, five counts of witness tampering, and one count each of child abandonment and reckless endangerment, according to Chuck Mickley, a Multnomah County deputy district attorney.
"It's obviously a serious case given the number of counts and the nature of the charges involved," Mickley said on Thursday.
The indictment alleges the abuse involved a son, now 8 years old, and two daughters, ages 4 and 6.
Parker is accused of intentionally causing physical injury to her children and manipulating physicians and encouraging unnecessary surgeries - some of which occurred in Portland - between April 2007 and October 2013.
The child abandonment count involved her 4-year-old daughter, who had been adopted from Ukraine. The charge alleges she "did unlawfully and knowingly desert'' the girl on Nov. 1, 2012, with the intent of abandoning the girl.
The computer crime charges accused Parker of executing a scheme online to "defraud; and for obtaining money or property by means of false or fraudulent pretenses or representations.''
The identity theft counts allege that Parker used the personal identification of her children with the purpose to defraud or deceive. Tampering with a witness charges allege she tried to induce her older children to offer false testimony, either during a proceeding or on a document, in September and October.
Portland detectives Erica Hurley and Mace Winter investigated the case.
Among the physicians who testified before the grand jury were: Portland pediatrician Dr. Cathleen A. Lang, and Dr. Barbara Sibley of Southern Oregon Pediatrics in Medford, the indictment shows.
Parker is being held at the Multnomah County Detention Center on $1.2 million bail.
Several blogs have been buzzing about the children and
, which she said ranged from a boy with spina bifida and other special-needs kids with autism, Asperger's syndrome and brain ailments.
Several of the children have had g-tubes -- tubing inserted through a surgical procedure into the stomach to provide a direct feeding line, according to the blogs. The mother wrote that some of the surgeries occurred at Portland hospitals.
The Grants Pass Daily Courier reported that at least six of the Parker children were the subject of a protective custody hearing two weeks ago in Josephine County. At that time, the judge ruled that the children could remain with their mother
pending a family custody trial. It's unclear the status of the children since Parker's arrest.
--Maxine Bernstein