Pastor to face trial in granddaughter’s faith healing death
WERNERSVILLE, Pa. — The pastor of a fundamentalist congregation that eschews modern medicine will stand trial on a charge he should have alerted authorities when his 2-year-old granddaughter was dying of pneumonia last year, a judge ruled Wednesday.
District Judge Ann Young said prosecutors put on enough evidence to send the case against Rowland Foster to the Berks County Courthouse for trial, reversing another judge’s decision in April to throw out the charge of failure to properly report suspected child abuse.
Young called the death of Ella Foster “tragic, sad, beyond belief” and told Rowland Foster she was not questioning his religious beliefs.
Her decision came after watching a video of state police questioning the Foster, 72, but she said an important part of her decision was testimony at the previous preliminary hearing by Dr. Neil Hoffman, a forensic pathologist.