LEWISTON — A couple convicted in the death of their adopted son in 2003 have now lost their parental rights to twins born to them in 2013, based on their criminal convictions and their unceasing failure to accept responsibility for their son’s death.

Sarah Allen was convicted of manslaughter and her husband, Jeremy, was convicted of felony assault in 2006 in the death of 22-month-old Nathaniel Allen. Both later appealed those convictions, and both were denied.

Nathaniel, who the Allens adopted from Guatemala, had lived with the couple for less than a year at the time of his death.

According to court records, Sarah Allen was home alone with Nathaniel on Feb. 14, 2003, and called 911 reporting that the child was unconscious. When rescuers arrived, the child was breathing but unresponsive. He was diagnosed with severe head trauma at Maine Medical Center in Portland and, following extensive surgery, died the next day.

Investigators later determined Sarah Allen had caused the child’s death by shaking him with such force that it rattled his brain and killed him.

During the autopsy, the medical examiner discovered bruises on the child’s buttocks that were later attributed to assault when Jeremy hit the child with a wooden spatula two days before the shaking death.

Jeremy, who admitted he swatted his son several times after the child started having a temper tantrum when asked to pick up his toys, was later convicted of assault.

According to court records, a decade after Nathaniel died, the Allens became parents of twins — a boy and girl — who were born prematurely. According to court records, while the children were still in the hospital, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services sought and received custody of the children, a move that the Allens have since challenged multiple times in court.

Seeking custody in 2014, the Allens argued Nathaniel’s death was likely “caused by some other undiagnosed medical problem, possibly due to his immunizations or a seizure or metabolic disorder,” and that they were prepared — financially and otherwise — to parent their twins.

The court disagreed, and issued an order finding the children “to be in circumstances of jeopardy,” and ordered DHHS to stop any efforts to reunify the parents with the children.

The couple continued regular visitations with the children and filed a second appeal, which was heard in 2015.

During that hearing, Sarah Allen argued not enough was known about head trauma in children to have concluded she was responsible for Nathaniel’s death, and asserted that Nathaniel’s injuries could be attributed to a series of accidental falls he suffered in the days leading up to his death.

The law court strongly rejected these assertions, noting the manslaughter conviction means that “it is established that she caused Nathaniel’s death recklessly or with criminal negligence,” and upheld the Lewiston District Court’s order terminating parental rights.

The Allens appealed that ruling, asserting an alternate cause of Nathaniel’s death and ineffective counsel during the termination hearing. They have consistently argued that they present no risk to their twins, noting that their families are prepared to help them in parenting.

Throughout the process, the courts found that the couple has not been willing to accept responsibility for their part in Nathaniel’s death or to change “within a time reasonably calculated the meet the children’s needs” for parenting.

On Tuesday, after considering the Allens’ most recent arguments for custody, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court unanimously upheld the lower court’s ruling terminating the couple’s parental rights.

In its ruling for termination, the court pointed to, “among other things, the convictions for actions of violence committed by each parent against Nathaniel — with the mother having been convicted for causing his death; each parent’s denial of responsibility for, and lack of insight into, the cause of Nathaniel’s death and their deflection of blame to an ‘unfair judicial system.’”

In each of the hearings and throughout the appeal process, the court has been critical of the consistency with which the Allens have “testified that they believe that the scientific and medical communities have been wrong about the cause of Nathaniel’s death and the system of justice has failed them.”

According to court records, since DHHS took custody of the children, the twins have lived with the same foster family who the court called “extraordinarily experienced,” noting the children have become very attached to their foster parents. 

There was no indication in Tuesday’s order where the Allens or the twins are currently living.

jmeyer@sunjournal.com

Shown in a Sun Journal file photo, Jeremy Allen at his arraignment on a charge of felony assault in May 2003. (Sun Journal file photo)

Sarah Allen leaves the Superior Court in Auburn during her second trial in 2005. The jury in her first trial was deadlocked and she was convicted of manslaughter in a second trial. (Sun Journal file photo)