An Attleboro cult mom accused of starving her infant son to death has a new lawyer - her third - after the state balked at paying for her current attorney, officials said.
The state public defender's office refused to pay Westport attorney Sam Sutter to represent Karen Robidoux because Sutter is not on the agency's list of lawyers approved to handle murder cases.
Since Sutter's departure, the Robidoux family has hired Brockton attorney Joseph Krowski, who says he will consult with Sutter on the case. ``Sam Sutter will still be involved. Sam's a capable lawyer. He's just not on the murder list,'' Krowski said.
Krowski is a well-known South Shore defense lawyer who represented convicted killer James Kater in his fourth trial in 1996. Kater, a Brockton doughnut shop manager, was convicted three times of killing Mary Lou Arruda of Raynham and tying her body to a tree in Freetown State Forest in 1978. He's serving a life sentence.
Robidoux and her husband, reputed cult leader Jacques Robidoux, are awaiting trial on charges they starved their 10-month-old son, Samuel, to death in 1999. Karen Robidoux faces second-degree murder charges while her husband is charged with first-degree murder. The boy's aunt, Michelle Mingo, faces conspiracy charges for allegedly fabricating a bizarre religious prophecy that ordered the fundamentalist sect to stop feeding the boy.
All three are expected to be tried in Taunton Superior Court in June or July.
In another development, the Supreme Judicial Court was slated to hear arguments today from the attorney for sect members David and Rebecca Corneau, who are jailed for refusing to say what happened to their latest baby. The couple claims the child died in a miscarriage but Attleboro Juvenile Court Judge Kenneth Nasif ordered them held in contempt for refusing to lead investigators to the remains.
Nasif said he fears the child may have died after birth or is being hidden, possibly with other cult members