Sect member refuses to give blood sample

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. – An Attleboro religious sect member accused of causing the death of his infant son – who was buried in Maine’s Baxter State Park – will argue at a hearing Tuesday that his religion prevents him from providing the blood samples demanded by prosecutors, his attorney says.

The state needs DNA samples from Jacques Robidoux and his wife, Karen Robidoux, to prove that it was the remains of their child that authorities found in the park last year, said Walter Shea, a Bristol County assistant district attorney.

Jacques Robidoux has been charged with first-degree murder and Karen Robidoux with second-degree murder in the death of Samuel Robidoux, who starved to death in April 1999. Both have pleaded innocent.

Frank O’Boy, who represents Jacques Robidoux, said his client is constitutionally protected from having to compromise his religious beliefs to satisfy the state’s request.

“We feel it’s a religious issue,” O’Boy said.

A yearlong mystery ended last October when authorities found the bodies of Samuel Robidoux and Jeremiah Corneau, both of whom died as infants. Adherents of the sect’s teaching do not practice modern medicine, customs or law, instead focusing on what they consider to be unwavering interpretation of the Old Testament.

If a judge decides to compel Robidoux to give a blood sample, O’Boy said that he would immediately appeal.

“If a blood sample is taken it does us little good to have a ruling four years later, in the event of a conviction, to say it’s something they shouldn’t have done,” O’Boy said. “It’s my client’s deeply held belief, and that of his co-religionists, that it’s wrong.”

Sam Sutter, who represents Karen Robidoux, did not immediately return a call to his office, but is expected to advance the same argument, Shea said. If the judge agrees with the couple, the state may try to compel them to give other samples, such as saliva or hair, Shea said.

“We’re looking for a DNA sample,” Shea said. “Blood’s the most effective means of that, but if he offers to give us another sample, I don’t see that would be a problem.”

The state is also seeking handwriting samples from the couple and from Jacques Robidoux’s sister, Michelle Robidoux Mingo, who has been charged with being an accessory to assault on the boy.

The samples would be used to determine who wrote a series of journals that prosecutors have said detail how Samuel Robidoux starved to death.

Alan Zwirblis, who represents Mingo, would not comment on whether he planned to oppose producing the samples. O’Boy said he would oppose the motion, but not on religious grounds.

Jacques Robidoux, whose father, Roland Robidoux, founded the sect, is being held on $500,000 bail. Karen Robidoux is being held on $100,000 and Mingo on $50,000.

Neither parent set out to kill their baby, O’Boy said. They believed in Mingo’s prophecy that it was God’s will to withhold food from Samuel and put him on a diet of just breast milk and almond milk.