Mother appeals conviction for endangerment Woman says photos prejudiced jury

DOVER, N.H. – A woman convicted of failing to protect her daughter from fatal abuse says autopsy photos of the toddler prejudiced the jury against her.

Amanda Bortner, 21, was convicted of two counts of child endangerment in November, two years after her 21-month-old daughter, Kassidy, was beaten to death.

Bortner was sentenced last month to two years in jail, but in an appeal filed Monday, argues that the conviction should be overturned because the trial judge allowed jurors to see the photos and hear testimony from the medical examiner who performed the autopsy. Those decisions may have prejudiced the jury against Bortner, who did not contest the toddler’s cause of death, wrote defense attorney Patricia Wiberg.

The photographs have no relevance to whether Bortner was guilty of child endangerment, her lawyer argues.

“There is no indication that Amanda Bortner ever saw [Kassidy] with the bruises that appear on the photographs,” she wrote.

The appeal also raises six other questions, including whether Strafford County Superior Court Judge Tina Nadeau gave contradictory instructions to the jury about Bortner’s state of mind when allegedly committing the crime. Wiberg argues that the child endangerment statute is vague and confusing because it requires a finding that a suspect has two states of mind at the same time: that they “knowingly” and “willingly” committed the crime.

The appeal also argues that Bortner’s prosecution violated an immunity agreement Bortner signed just before she was charged.