DENVER—A therapist convicted in the death of a 10-year-old girl who suffocated during a “rebirthing therapy” session is serving the rest of her prison sentence at a halfway house.
Connell Watkins was released from prison where she was serving a 16-year sentence and is now at a Denver-area halfway house in “intensive supervision” with an ankle bracelet, said Allison Morgan, a Colorado Department of Corrections spokeswoman.
The 62-year-old Watkins and fellow therapist Julie Ponder were convicted of reckless child abuse resulting in the death of Candace Newmaker. She died in 2000 after she was wrapped in a blanket while the therapists and two other adults pushed against several pillows covering the girl.
The technique was supposedly meant to simulate the womb and the girl was encouraged to push her way out so she could emerge “reborn” and bond with her adoptive mother, Jeane Newmaker, who traveled from Durham, N.C. to Evergreen, Colo., for the session.
Morgan said Ponder, 41, has a parole hearing in April 2009. Ponder had appealed her conviction, with her attorney arguing that her case should not have been joined with that of Watkins. The Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that both cases included much of the same evidence.
Watkins’ release agreement puts restrictions in the type of contact she can have with children and she can’t be employed as a counselor or in psychological consulting, Morgan said.
Colorado outlawed the New Age form of therapy after Newmaker’s death.
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Information from: The Denver Post,
