Valerie Emerson’s hands were trembling Thursday afternoon during one of the few brief recesses from a marathon day of testimony in District Court in Newport.

The 26-year-old mother has usually appeared calm and collected in the past two months since she decided to speak out about the state’s attempt to remove her son Nikolas from her custody. Emerson has refused to allow doctors to give him a powerful drug therapy because Nikolas’ health declined drastically during 10 weeks of treatment.

The all-day presence in court of Ryan Dubay, Nikolas’ father, unsettled Emerson, as did the nature of his testimony.

“I’m on the state’s side — 200 percent,” said Dubay to reporters after he had testified at the hearing, which was closed to the public. Dressed entirely in black, his hair pulled back in a ponytail, Dubay said he had not seen his son for two years. “They’ve got every right to step in and do what they’re doing.”

Until this March, Emerson had had a restraining order against Dubay, she said. Dubay said he is now attempting to restore his visitation rights with Nikolas.

In May the state filed a petition for a child protection order for Nikolas so that he could begin treatment. Emerson went public with her plight in July, and the case has attracted national attention.

Emerson and the state completed all their testimony Thursday, and Judge Douglas Clapp took the case under advisement. He is expected to rule on it next week.

Part of Emerson’s argument against treatment came from two scientists who believe that the drugs now being used to fight AIDS are actually causing death. “I told them if he takes these drugs and he takes them long enough, it will kill him,” said David Rasnick, who holds a doctorate in chemistry and is president of The Group for Scientific Reappraisal for HIV-AIDS Hypothesis, a fringe group that questions traditional AIDS research.

Rasnick argues that not one of the many drugs used in the so-called “cocktail treatment” has finished clinical trials. Therefore, he said, no one can make a scientific argument for their use and effectiveness.

And although the cocktail treatment has received anecdotal praise from patients using it, he said the tributes are premature. “It’s like stopping a basketball game in the first quarter when you’re ahead and saying you’ve won,” he said.

Roberto Giraldo, another doctor testifying on behalf of Emerson, maintains that drugs for treating AIDS actually break down a person’s immune system. “They are toxic to the immune system,” he said. Giraldo said he told the court that if Nikolas is given the drugs, he will surely die of AIDS.

“The cause of AIDS is not HIV — it’s toxins,” Giraldo said, echoing the belief of a group of 200 scientists and doctors who have begun questioning the way AIDS research has been conducted since the 1980s.

But Margaret Semple, the director of the Bureau of Child and Family Services, which is part of the Department of Human Services, discounted the testimony of Rasnick and Giraldo as not credible. “I heard the evidence they gave, and I think it would be fair to say that 99 percent of the world’s medical experts would disagree with them,” Semple said.

The state called Dr. Jeff Milliken to bolster its case for treatment. Milliken, a Bangor pediatrician, examined Nikolas in the fall of 1997 and recommended beginning therapy. Milliken also notified state child protection officials about Nikolas. Milliken declined to comment about the case.

Nikolas’ primary physician, Jean Benson of Brewer, told reporters that she testified in favor of leaving treatment decisions to Emerson. “Informed consent is what we base the practice of medicine upon in this country,” she said. “I don’t believe there’s any place for coercion in this.”

Semple said that if the judge decides in favor of the state, he could proceed in a number of ways. He might leave Nikolas in Emerson’s custody, but order treatment to begin. He could give custody to a relative, or he might give the state guardianship over the boy.

Emerson said that if the court decides in favor of the state, she would appeal the decision to a higher court. But she also said she would be willing to allow treatment for Nikolas to begin while the case was appealed.