TAMPA, Fla. -- Eighteen and pregnant, Sycloria Williams went toan abortion clinic outside Miami and paid $1,200 for Dr. Pierre Jean-Jacque Renelique to terminate her 23-week pregnancy.
Three days later, she sat in a reclining chair, medicated todilate her cervix and get her ready for the procedure.
Only Renelique didn't arrive in time. According to Williams andthe Florida Department of Health, she went into labor and delivereda live baby girl.
What Williams and the Health Department say happened next hasshocked people on both sides of the abortion debate: One of theclinic's owners, who has no medical license, cut the infant'sumbilical cord. Williams says the woman placed the baby in a plasticbiohazard bag and threw it out.
Police recovered the decomposing remains in a cardboard box aweek later after getting anonymous tips.
'I don't care what your politics are, what your morals are, thisshould not be happening in our community,' said Tom Pennekamp, aMiami attorney representing Williams in her lawsuit againstRenelique (ren-uh-LEEK') and the clinic owners.
The state Board of Medicine is to hear Renelique's case in Tampaon Friday and determine whether to strip his license. The stateattorney's homicide division is investigating, though no chargeshave been filed. Terry Chavez, a spokeswoman with the Miami-DadeCounty State Attorney's Office, said this week that prosecutors werenearing a decision.
Renelique's attorney, Joseph Harrison, called the allegations atbest 'misguided and incomplete' in an e-mail to The AssociatedPress. He didn't provide details.
The case has riled the anti-abortion community, which contendsthe clinic's actions constitute murder.
'The baby was just treated as a piece of garbage,' said TomBrejcha, president of The Thomas More Society, a law firm that isalso representing Williams. 'People all over the country are justaghast.'
Even those who support abortion rights are concerned about theallegations.
'It really disturbed me,' said Joanne Sterner, president of theBroward County chapter of the National Organization for Women, afterreviewing the administrative complaint against Renelique. 'I knowthat there are clinics out there like this. And I hope that we cankeep (women) from going to these types of clinics.'
According to state records, Renelique received his medicaltraining at the State University of Haiti. In 1991, he completed afour-year residency in obstetrics and gynecology at InterfaithMedical Center in New York.
New York records show that Renelique has made at least fivemedical malpractice payments in the past decade, the circumstancesof which were not detailed in the filings.
Several attempts to reach Renelique were unsuccessful. Some ofhis office numbers were disconnected, no home number could be foundand he did not return messages left with his attorney.
Williams struggled with the decision to have an abortion,Pennekamp said. She declined an interview request made through him.
She concluded she didn't have the resources or maturity to raisea child, he said, and went to the Miramar Women's Center on July 17,2006. Sonograms indicated she was 23 weeks pregnant, according tothe Department of Health. She met Renelique at a second clinic twodays later.
Renelique gave Williams laminaria, a drug that dilates thecervix, and prescribed three other medications, according to theadministrative complaint filed by the Health Department. She wastold to go to yet another clinic, A Gyn Diagnostic Center inHialeah, where the procedure would be performed the next day, onJuly 20, 2006.
Williams arrived in the morning and was given more medication.
The Department of Health account continues as follows: Justbefore noon she began to feel ill. The clinic contacted Renelique.Two hours later, he still hadn't shown up. Williams went into laborand delivered the baby.
'She came face to face with a human being,' Pennekamp said. 'Andthat changed everything.'
The complaint says one of the clinic owners, Belkis Gonzalez camein and cut the umbilical cord with scissors, then placed the baby ina plastic bag, and the bag in a trash can.
Williams' lawsuit offers a cruder account: She says Gonzalezknocked the baby off the recliner chair where she had given birth,onto the floor. The baby's umbilical cord was not clamped, allowingher to bleed out. Gonzalez scooped the baby, placenta and afterbirthinto a red plastic biohazard bag and threw it out.
No working telephone number could be found for Gonzalez, and anattorney who has represented the clinic in the past did not return amessage.
At 23 weeks, an otherwise healthy fetus would have a slim butlegitimate chance of survival. Quadruplets born at 23 weeks lastyear at The Nebraska Medical Center survived.
An autopsy determined Williams' baby -- she named her Shanice --had filled her lungs with air, meaning she had been born alive,according to the Department of Health. The cause of death was listedas extreme prematurity.
The Department of Health believes Renelique committed malpracticeby failing to ensure that licensed personnel would be present whenWilliams was there, among other missteps.
The department wants the Board of Medicine, a separate agency, topermanently revoke Renelique's license, among other penalties. Hislicense is currently restricted, permitting him to only performabortions when another licensed physician is present and can reviewhis medical records.
Should prosecutors file murder charges, they'd have to prove thebaby was born alive, said Robert Batey, a professor of criminal lawat Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport. The defense mightcontend that the child would have died anyway, but most courts wouldnot allow that argument, he said.
'Hastening the death of an individual who is terminally ill isstill considered causing the death of that individual,' Batey said.'And I think a court would rule similarly in this type of case.'
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