EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — A juvenile court judge in Lane County, Ore., has ordered temporary state custody for six children of a couple charged with second-degree manslaughter in a teenage son’s death.
The Register-Guard newspaper reports (http://is.gd/iWS0MF ) that the plan allows the youngsters to live with relatives while Russel and Brandi Bellew fight accusations that they failed to take a dying boy to a doctor because of their religious beliefs.
The Creswell couple were arrested Feb. 10 after a grand jury indicted them in the Dec. 20 death of Brandi Bellew’s 16-year-old son Austin Sprout. The boy died after being ill for more than a week.
They pleaded not guilty Monday and were released Tuesday after relatives posted $20,000 bail. The Bellews were ordered not to have contact with their children.
