Parents get prison for child neglect
COEUR d’ALENE — A husband and wife received 10-year prison sentences after pleading guilty to severe neglect that left their toddler near death.
Rathdrum residents Ashley Y. Lipscomb, 33, and Matthew L. Lipscomb, 40, pleaded guilty in accordance with Alford earlier this year to injury to a child, a felony.
By entering Alford pleas, they did not admit guilt but acknowledged there is enough evidence to convict them if the case went to trial.
Judge Barbara Duggan sentenced the pair Tuesday to 10 years in prison each, the maximum possible sentence for the crimes, with three years fixed and the rest indeterminate. That means the Lipscombs will be eligible for parole in about three years.
The charges stem from 2022, when Matthew Lipscomb brought the couple’s “severely malnourished” 2-year-old son to Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane.
Doctors who examined the child said he had developed heart failure due to an iron deficiency that caused anemia. Upon admission to the pediatric intensive care unit, the child’s hemoglobin level — which reflects the number of red blood cells in the body and how efficiently they carry oxygen to the cells — was zero.
“Doctors described this as a level of starvation that they saw in Third-World countries,” prosecuting attorney Molly Nivision said in court Tuesday.
Ashley Lipscomb told investigators that her son had been ill and had stopped eating, consuming only cow’s milk for an extended period. The child had grown so weak that he could not sit up, court documents said.
When questioned by police at the hospital, Matthew Lipscomb said he didn’t notice anything wrong until he heard the child “moaning in pain” and found that he was unable to walk.
There was food in the house, police said, and other children in the home were not malnourished.
Dr. Michael Sokoloff, a specialist in pediatric critical care, examined the child at Sacred Heart. He told the court prolonged anemia and malnutrition had likely caused changes observed in the white matter of the child’s brain.
“The brain appears to be smaller than it should be,” Sokoloff said. “This is concerning for future development.”
After 16 days of hospitalization, the child was placed in the care of foster parents. He has since gained weight and no longer needs medication to treat heart failure.
Though he is now able to eat by mouth, walk and communicate with sign language, the pediatrician who has cared for him since his discharge from the hospital told the court he will likely need lifelong support.
Before handing down the sentence, Duggan emphasized how grave the child’s condition was, as well as the lasting physical and emotional impact of severe neglect.
“On death’s door is exactly where this child was,” Duggan said. “When the doctors describe this event as the most profoundly malnourished child they have ever seen, this is a remarkable thing to be presented with.”
Neither Matthew nor Ashley Lipscomb has recognized that their actions were criminal, Duggan said.
“When you neglect your child for months, anything less than prison depreciates the seriousness of that conduct,” she said. “A sentence will provide you a chance to reflect on how you will live your life in the future. Actions injuring a child cannot be tolerated.”
