Sabine Bieber and Benedryl

This is a follow up on the story about Sabine Bieber who gave benedryl to
her children at her day care. This is why good places tell parents that medication must be offered by a parent. Good places send all medications away unless it's a chronic problem and monitored by the parent.

BILLINGS, Mont. — A former day-care owner was found guilty Tuesday of causing the death of a 1-year-old boy by giving him a fatal dose of allergy medication.

Shaking and silently weeping as the verdict was read, Sabine Bieber was convicted of negligent homicide in the death of Dane Heggem, who died while asleep in a crib at a Tiny Tots day care in Laurel on Jan. 31, 2003.

The seven-man, five-woman jury panel deliberated nearly 19 hours over two days, ultimately siding with prosecutors' theory that Bieber was secretly feeding Dane and other children in her care liquid diphenhydramine, an antihistamine found in Benadryl.

By mid-day, jurors announced that they were deadlocked on two counts, including the homicide charge, but continued to work into the night, finally reaching a decision at 8:15 p.m. after what the foreman characterized as "extremely tense" deliberations Dane's mother said she was relieved when Bieber was pronounced guilty.

"I'm just glad that she's finally convicted," Calista Heggem told Courttv.com. "I really don't know what else to say."

Prosecutors argued that Bieber, a 36-year-old mother of three, kept a tight schedule at Tiny Tots and fed the children the sedative to get them to sleep during the 12:30 to 2:45 p.m. nap time.
Although Bieber admitted that she sometimes gave the children over-the-counter medications for cold symptoms, she denied she was the source of the medicine that prosecutors said caused Dane's death.

The Heggems say their blond, blue-eyed boy was in perfect health, and they did not give him the medication, nor did they authorize Bieber to do so.

Bieber was also convicted of two counts of child endangerment for giving the drug to two other children, but was acquitted of a third count of child endangerment and one count of evidence tampering.

She faces up to 40 years in prison on the three convictions, but is free on bail until her sentencing, which has not been scheduled.

Diapers and receipts

Prosecutors presented a strong circumstantial case built on drug-tainted dirty diapers and bulk purchases of allergy medicine, all of which implicated Bieber's guilt.

Forensic investigators found traces of antihistamines in the urine and diapers of three other Tiny Tots children, whose parents claimed they were not the source.

Also in evidence were Bieber's Costco purchasing receipts, showing she bought more than 63 bottles of Diphedryl — a generic form of Benadryl — in the 23 months leading up to Dane's death.

Bieber and her husband testified that their family drank copious amounts of the allergy medicine at home, drinking it straight from the bottle on a daily basis.

The jurors didn't buy it.

"Personally, I thought that was a stretch," foreman Stephan Bradley, 37, told Courttv.com.
The defense also tried to chip away at the case's scientific errors, beginning with the child's autopsy.

The Billings medical examiner initially noted that Dane had an abnormal heart, but then examiners at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, D.C., said the boy's heart appeared normal.

Toxicology tests indicated Dane had .6 milligrams per liter of diphenhydramine in his blood, an amount a state expert argued was 10 times greater than therapeutic levels.

But the same vials of blood, when tested six weeks later, unexplainably doubled. Even the state's witnesses were at a loss to explain the erratic results.

The scientific bungling was a source of concern to jurors.

As expert after expert contradicted each other on the stand about Dane's death, jurors had to choose which side seemed more reasonable, and ultimately agreed with testimony from both sides.

"The main problem was the cause of death as stated on his death certificate," Bradley said.
According to the foreman, the panel agreed with the defense that Dane did not die from an overdose of diphenhydramine, as noted on the autopsy. However, they ultimately leaned on the testimony of the state's expert toxicologist Phillip Walson.

Walson theorized that Dane's airway, no bigger than his pinky finger, likely became blocked, yet he was so sedated he could not move and suffocated in his sleep.

Jurors also believed Bieber was the source of the diphenhydramine found in the diapers and urine of two boys, ages 2 and 4. But they were not convinced she drugged an 8-month-old who had an antihistamine called Doxylamine in his diaper.

Investigators found a bottle of NyQuil, which contains Doxylamine, in the Tiny Tots kitchen. However, the defense pointed out that the main ingredient in Nyquil, acetaminophen, did not show up in the child's diaper.

"I think everybody knew both sides could have presented a better case," Bradley said. "I was on the fence the entire time."