A woman once accused of killing her newborn child and keeping three older sets of fetal remains at her home threatened to sue county authorities Thursday, saying they rushed to judgment after the remains were found.
Authorities dropped the charges against Christy Freeman, 37, on Wednesday after they determined there was not enough evidence to prosecute her.
Freeman and her longtime boyfriend, Ray Godman, spoke briefly to reporters on Thursday and thanked those who supported them. In a statement, the couple said that the deaths of the babies were miscarriages and that authorities should have waited for medical reports before charging her.
“If an investigation had been done Miss Freeman would have never been charged with anything,” the statement read. “When it’s all said and done, the reality of this situation is Miss Freeman had four miscarriages over a period of five years.”
It also said the couple’s business, a classic car taxi service, had suffered damage because of media attention surrounding the case and it could have been avoided if investigators hadn’t “rushed to judgment.”
Mother held since July
Freeman had been held in jail without bond since July, when she went to a hospital with heavy bleeding and doctors discovered she had recently given birth. Investigators found the dead baby — and three more sets of tiny human remains — at Freeman’s house in Ocean City.
Freeman was originally charged with killing her fetus in July, but those charges were later dropped after an autopsy showed that fetus was stillborn.
Prosecutors later charged her with killing one of two babies found in a trunk in the living room. The charge accused her of giving birth to twins on the toilet in 2004 and allowing one of them to die. That was the charge dismissed Wednesday.
A report from state medical examiner Dr. Tasha Greenberg concluded there was no proof the babies were ever alive, said Worcester County State’s Attorney Joel Todd. Some of the remains were years old. In a murder case, prosecutors must prove the victim of the homicide had been alive, he said.
Todd said the medical examiner concluded that because Freeman had a history of stillborn births, because there was an infection present in the placenta of the most recent fetus, and because Freeman was a tobacco user and may have used cocaine, the deaths could have occurred naturally.
Asked whether women who miscarry are required by law to dispose properly of the remains, Todd replied, “There should be,” but he said he knew of no such crime.
Prosecutor has no regrets
Todd insisted he had no regrets about pursuing murder charges before getting the full medical examiner’s report. “Nothing was done wrong here,” he said.
Ocean City police spokesman Barry Neeb said the officers performed a professional and ethical investigation, and nothing would have been differently.
“Sometimes investigations aren’t pretty. Sometimes they involve things like digging up a yard or damaging walls in a house, but this situation warranted it,” Neeb said.
Godman called the case an “ordeal.” The couple did not answer reporters’ questions about why the remains were kept at the house or whether she had used cocaine.
“We’re just going to get on with our lives and try to get our business up and running and get on with our lives,” Godman said.
