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Author found guilty in sweat lodge deaths
23 Jun 2011, 12:48 am
Author found guilty in sweat lodge deaths By Bob Ortega, The Arizona Republic CAMP VERDE, Ariz. -- Self-help author James Arthur Ray was found guilty on three counts of negligent homicide in the deaths of three people who died at his sweat-lodge event near Sedona in October 2009. A charge of negligent homicide could carry penalties of up to 11 years. He was found not guilty on three counts of the more serious charge of manslaughter. Three participants in the sweat lodge died: Kirby Brown, 38; James Shore, 40; and Liz Newman, 49. Jurors deliberated a bit less than eight hours over two days. They began deliberating Tuesday, 16 weeks to the day after the trial began March 1 in Yavapai County Superior Court. The sweat lodge was the culmination of a five-day "Spiritual Warrior" retreat at the Angel Valley resort near Sedona, for which some 50 participants had paid up to $10,000 each to attend. Participants in the sweat lodge gathered in a long, low, wood-framed structure covered with blankets and tarps. Stones were heated on a fire outside, then brought in by volunteers before each of eight roughly 15-minute rounds and placed in a hole near the center. Ray controlled the length and number of rounds, the number of stones used and how much water he poured over them to create steam. Unlike most states, Arizona allows jurors to submit written questions to witnesses; judges decide whether to allow each question after providing prosecution and defense attorneys an opportunity to object. Questions they submitted over the course of the trail showed that jurors wrestled with such matters as when the high heat and humidity found in a sweat lodge can turn deadly, whether Ray understood that people needed help and how much stock to put in defense claims that organophosphates - chemicals found in pesticides - may have caused or contributed to the deaths. On June 9, for example, one juror queried Dr. Ian Paul, a New Mexico forensic pathologist called by the defense, on whether he'd dealt personally with cases of or deaths from organophosphate poisoning. He hadn't. Another asked, "What exposure levels of organophosphate toxicity would you expect to see in a case of human death?" Paul couldn't say. Another asked, "In your expert opinion, if a person passes out in a sweat lodge, should they be removed as soon as possible or is it OK to wait?" Paul said they should be removed. Ray's defense attorneys maintained that the deaths were a regrettable accident; that by not looking closely enough early on at potential poisons that may have been present, the state muffed its investigation; that Ray didn't force anyone to stay in the sweat lodge; and that none of the more than 50 people at the event knew that the victims, Kirby Brown, James Shore and Liz Neuman, were at risk of death. Prosecutors argued that there was no solid evidence that organophosphates were present; that heat stroke was the obvious cause and best explained the symptoms reported in the victims and other participants; and that Ray was responsible because he controlled every aspect of the event, led participants to trust that the sweat lodge was safe, and didn't halt the event when people were clearly suffering, passing out and having difficulty breathing. Juror questions to the two Arizona medical examiners testifying for the prosecution ranged from what advice one would give people about to participate in a sweat-lodge event to whether a body could sweat properly in a highly humid environment, to how much organophosphates it would take to kill someone in two hours. Jurors asked various witnesses who took part in the event how it compared to previous sweat lodges, how much hotter it was and whether Ray helped people after the ceremony. All of the questions seemed aimed at sorting out the often inconsistent testimony tendered by the various witnesses. | 
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