Judge Hears 2 Views of Obese Girl’s Mother

MARTINEZ, Calif. — A woman charged with neglect after her 680-pound daughter died surrounded by garbage and human waste was not a bad mother but someone who did her best to cope with the “full catastrophe of life,” her lawyer said Wednesday.

Telling Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Richard Arnason that Marlene Corrigan is “anything but a child abuser,” defense attorney Michael Cardoza described Corrigan as a single, working mother trying to help her sick parents, raise a son and cope with a daughter whose weight was out of control.

“If we were to be somewhat bold, we would title this a ‘full catastrophe of life,’ ” he said, quoting from the movie “Zorba the Greek.”

Prosecutor Brian Haynes painted a different picture.

“As far as what more she could have done for the child--doing something is better than doing nothing. This child lay on the floor, was extremely immobile . . . and developed these bedsores,” he said outside the courtroom.

Christina Corrigan, 13, died in November 1996. She had spent her final days in front of a television, only occasionally dragging her 5-foot-3 body up by the walls to go to the bathroom.

She was found naked, lying on a filthy sheet with open bedsores.

A medical examiner ruled that Christina died from heart failure due to obesity.

Corrigan has said she tried to help Christina, but the girl demanded food and refused to see a doctor.

Cardoza conceded that the conditions in the apartment were squalid, but said some of the things that shocked police could have occurred after Christina’s death. He said the mother could not see the bedsores and Christina, an intensely private girl, didn’t tell her about them.

“There’s no such crime as felony bad housekeeping, but that’s what we’re talking about here,” Cardoza said outside the courtroom.

However, Dr. Kent Carson, a dermatologist called by the prosecution, said the mother should have noticed the hundreds of ulcers on Christina’s skin.

Under cross-examination, Carson said previous doctors who saw Christina could have done more to probe the cause of her obesity.