A couple who won accolades for adopting dozens of handicapped children were acquitted Wednesday of charges they let three youngsters die of neglect and abused others with cattle prods and beatings. They were convicted, however, of racketeering and forgery.
The split verdict capped the yearlong trial of Dennis and Diane Nason and followed seven days of jury deliberation. The couple had adopted 84 children in addition to their six biological children and raised them in a 33-room farmhouse.The Nasons remained free pending sentencing Feb. 6; each could get anything from probation to 20 years.
Diane Nason said she felt vindicated because she felt the manslaughter and child abuse charges were the most important. She said she and her husband simply adopted too many children.
"My heart was bigger than it should have been. I don't think I was wrong. I don't know anything about racketeering. All we had was a mob of kids."
Prosecutors accused the couple of allowing three small children to die neglected in their beds - an infant girl who died of starvation in 1988, and a boy of about 2 and a girl of about 4 who died of a form of dysentery called shigella in 1985, days apart.
Dennis Nason was acquitted of manslaughter in the children's deaths, while Diane Nason was acquitted on two of three manslaughter charges. The jury was deadlocked on the third count.
Their forgery conviction involved falsifying records to adopt more children. The racketeering charge alleged they ran their family as a criminal enterprise, adopting more and more children to keep money coming in from contributors.
The Nasons countered they were victims of a witch hunt by state child welfare workers who did nothing to help them care for children no one else wanted.