Therapist denies risking Candace's life

Ponder says girl had plenty of air; closing arguments to be today in rebirthing death

Peggy Lowe, News Staff Writer

Published April 20, 2001 at midnight

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GOLDEN -- A soft-spoken Julie Ponder steadfastly denied Thursday that she risked Candace Newmaker's life, saying she knew the girl had plenty of air and was in a "breakable wrap" because she has undergone rebirthing herself.

During more than five hours on the witness stand, Ponder testified she told the girl to "go ahead and die," and "scream for your life," because she was using a "metaphor of the womb" as part of the rebirthing therapy practice.

"The only risks I knew of at the time were that it might be therapeutically beneficial or it might not," she told the Jefferson County District Court jury that will begin deliberating her fate today.

Jurors will hear the attorneys' closing arguments this morning in the case of Ponder and fellow Evergreen therapist Connell Watkins.

The two are charged with child abuse resulting in death. Candace Newmaker, a 10-year-old from Durham, N.C., died after a rebirthing session at Watkins' home on April 19 of last year.

Prosecutors say Candace suffocated while wrapped in a blue flannel sheet and placed under pillows, with Ponder, Watkins and two others pushing against her.

Like Watkins who testified the day before, Ponder didn't show any remorse nor offer an apology. The co-defendants both testified that Watkins was the "primary" therapist for Candace's two-week treatment and Ponder the secondary therapist who led the rebirthing session.

Dressed in a blue skirt, khaki jacket and a string of pearls, Ponder said she underwent at least three rebirthing sessions, including one where she was wrapped in a cotton sheet. She described it as akin to a flannel-covered group hug.

"It felt like being held, if you can imagine being held by a group of people who love you and care about you," Ponder said. "That's how it felt."

Ponder said she had also guided about 20 rebirthing sessions on children who were her clients in Colorado or in California, where she practiced until last year when she moved to Evergreen to train with Watkins.

Under questioning by prosecutor Laura Dunbar, Ponder agreed that she had an ethical obligation to fulfill promises made to clients. What about the promise to Candace just minutes before her rebirthing that she would have "plenty of air to breathe," Dunbar asked Ponder.

Ponder said the flannel sheet is "breatheable," that Candace had pockets of air and wasn't wrapped that tight. Although Ponder held the ends of the sheet in her hand, she said the girl could have pushed through.

"The whole thing is an air hole," Ponder said. "It's not like wrapping someone in plastic."

Ponder told Dunbar several times that they were disagreeing on "semantics." For example, Ponder said she wouldn't call rebirthing "experimental" but rather "non-traditional."

When Candace was begging for air and making "pushing sounds," Dunbar asked Ponder if she wasn't making it "harder and harder to get out of the wrapping?" He also asked Ponder if she was trying to get the child "activated," using Ponder's term for getting Candace in touch with her feelings.

"I think we're talking about semantics again," Ponder said. "We were hoping she had an emotional experience. It wasn't an absolute requirement of her."

Dunbar then read Candace's exact quotes from a transcript of the rebirthing videotape. Several times over 12 minutes Candace sounded like she was pushing and trying to get out, Dunbar said.

"Uh. Pushing sound. Uh, uh, uh. Pushing sound. Uh, uh," Dunbar said. "Was she just making those noises, Miss Ponder, to fool you?"

"At times, I think they were manipulative," Ponder responded.

If convicted of reckless child abuse resulting in death, Ponder, 40, and Watkins, 54, could be sentenced from a mandatory 16 to 48 years in prison. But the jury may consider two other options, including criminally negligent child abuse resulting in death, punishable by a sentence of four to 16 years, and child abuse resulting in bodily injury, which is a misdemeanor.

Contact Peggy Lowe at (303) 892-5482 or lowep@RockyMountainNews.com.

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