NEW BEDFORD - Hoping to avoid a court battle, a judge is considering allowing two jailed members of an Attleboro religious sect to avoid giving blood samples to prosecutors who have accused them of deliberately starving their young son to death.
In a compromise fashioned by Superior Court Judge Richard J. Chin, sect leader Jacques Robidoux said he would not object to giving authorities hair or saliva samples rather than allowing them to draw his blood, a procedure Robidoux and his followers reject on religious grounds.
Robidoux, 28, and his wife, Karen, 26, have been charged in the death of their son, Samuel, who starved in April 1999 shortly before his first birthday. Jacques Robidoux is charged with first-degree murder and his wife faces a second-degree murder charge. Both have pleaded not guilty.
While Jacques Robidoux agreed to provide hair or saliva samples, his wife's attorney, Samuel Sutter, said he had not discussed the samples with his client.
Also charged was sect member Michelle Robidoux Mingo, 36, who allegedly urged the couple to give only breast milk and water to the weaning baby.
The couple and Mingo were asked for handwriting samples to compare against notes and a journal seized as evidence. Their lawyers opposed that request on the grounds of self-incrimination.
In arguing against drawing their blood, the Robidouxes submitted affidavits designed to demonstrate the depths of their religious beliefs and their literal interpretation of the Bible.
Bristol County prosecutors want the blood samples to help identify what are believed to be the skeletal remains of Samuel Robidoux. The bodies thought to be those of Samuel and his cousin, Jeremiah Corneau, were found last fall buried in small pine coffins in Maine's Baxter State Park. Jeremiah Corneau is believed to have died at birth after suffocating.
In the affidavits, Jacques and Karen Robidoux describe their beliefs and the interpretation of the Bible, which is a cornerstone of their faith, known as The Body of Christ.
I am a devoutly religious person, wrote Karen Robidoux, and I try to follow the principles of the Holy Bible as literally as I can.