(C) Wisconsin Watch This story was originally published by Wisconsin Watch and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Florida TV station examines former Wisconsin child abuse doctor [1] ['Jim Malewitz', 'Wisconsin Watch', 'More Jim Malewitz', 'Deputy Managing Editor', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img'] Date: 2024-05-15 11:00:00+00:00 Reading Time: 3 minutes At Wisconsin Watch, we specifically serve Wisconsin residents — providing information to help folks navigate their lives, participate in democracy and hold people in power accountable. When considering whether to pursue a particular story, we always consider its potential to impact Wisconsin. But sometimes the scope of an investigation crosses state lines, prompting us to consider: How can we serve people impacted elsewhere? The answer often lies in collaboration. Such was the case with our examination of a former University of Wisconsin doctor with a history of disputed child abuse diagnoses — first in Wisconsin, then in Alaska and most recently in Florida, as reported last week by the TV station First Coast News, building on Wisconsin Watch’s past reporting. For 13 years, Dr. Barbara Knox was south-central Wisconsin’s top expert in child abuse — testifying or providing evidence in roughly 200 criminal cases. Some people convicted with her help clearly abused children. But some serving lengthy prison terms say they are innocent. Others, cleared after being falsely accused of abuse, have sued Knox for defamation and life-changing disruptions to their families. Wisconsin Watch started examining Knox’s work in early 2020 after she quietly resigned from her role leading the University of Wisconsin Hospital’s Child Protection Team. We knew then about one case of parents who said they were wrongly accused. After we profiled that couple, others came forward. We went on to identify about a dozen cases in which other doctors, police, prosecutors, judges or juries rejected Knox’s child abuse diagnoses. After learning Knox was hired as Alaska’s top child abuse expert, we alerted the Anchorage Daily News. That resulted in a collaboration that traced the doctor’s legacy in Alaska: Wisconsin Watch contributed context from our reporting in Wisconsin, while the Daily News leaned on its local sourcing and knowledge of Alaska’s systems. In early 2022 we jointly profiled an Alaska couple accused of abusing their 3-week-old daughter, whose injuries likely came instead from her complicated birth. When we learned that Knox had abruptly announced her resignation from her Alaska job amid misdiagnosis and bullying allegations similar to those she faced in Wisconsin, Alaska residents learned, too — thanks to the Daily News’ role in the reporting. In August 2022 we reported that Knox joined the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Jacksonville and was issued a Florida medical license months earlier. About 18 months later, we began to hear about a disputed abuse diagnosis in Jacksonville involving Knox. A Georgia couple had lost custody of their three children — and a father was arrested on tentative felony charges of aggravated battery and cruelty to a child — after Knox attributed injuries to their infant daughter to abuse. The couple maintained that the injuries stemmed from a medical condition. While considering what Florida news outlet might be best positioned to look into it, we heard from a reporter who had already begun to report on it: Heather Crawford at First Coast News. Rather than diverting Wisconsin Watch resources to investigate the Florida case, we shared insights from our previous investigation with Crawford, helping her report the story for her Florida audience. Meanwhile, Wisconsin Watch co-founder and former Managing Editor Dee J. Hall — who had reported our first stories on Knox and edited others — spoke on camera to First Coast News. Hall, now editor-in-chief at the nonprofit newsroom Floodlight, discussed what our reporting had previously found. “There’s no doubt some of the cases she identified as abuse were abuse,” Hall told First Coast News. “But it was in these cases where you could have multiple mechanisms, multiple causes for some type of illness or condition where we just saw that being contradicted by prosecutors who would bring charges and then drop them. We saw it contradicted by police officers after doing interviews.” The Georgia couple and an expert they hired told First Coast News that their child’s injuries — which included broken bones — were caused by genetic problems that started before the birth. The child, conceived through in vitro fertilization, was born prematurely and diagnosed with severe intrauterine growth restriction after being malnourished in the womb. The father has not yet been indicted, and the couple hopes to get its children back, First Coast News reported. The criminal case now sits in the hands of a local district attorney who will consider charges. We’ll leave it to our colleagues in Florida to follow future twists and turns in the case. We’re happy to have played a minor, behind-the-scenes role in First Coast News’ watchdog reporting — even if it didn’t mean publishing a story ourselves. What’s most important is that Florida viewers received the information from a trusted newsroom that was well positioned to report it. Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup. Republish This Story Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license. 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If published online, you must include the links and link to wisconsinwatch.org If you share the story on social media, please mention @wisconsinwatch (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram), and ensure that the original featured image associated with the story is visible on the social media post. Don’t sell the story or any part of it — it may not be marketed as a product. Don’t extract, store or resell Wisconsin Watch content as a database. Don’t sell ads against the story. But you can publish it with pre-sold ads. Your website must include a prominent way to contact you. Additional elements that are packaged with our story must be labeled. Users can republish our photos, illustrations, graphics and multimedia elements ONLY with stories with which they originally appeared. You may not separate multimedia elements for standalone use. If we send you a request to change or remove Wisconsin Watch content from your site, you must agree to do so immediately. *** Also, the code below will NOT copy the featured image on the page. You are welcome to download the main image as a separate element for publication with this story. *** You are welcome to republish our articles forusing the following ground rules. For questions regarding republishing rules please contact Jeff Bauer, digital editor and producer, at jbauer@wisconsinwatch.org After Wisconsin Watch investigation, Florida TV station examines former University of Wisconsin child abuse doctor

After Wisconsin Watch investigation, Florida TV station examines former University of Wisconsin child abuse doctor

by Jim Malewitz / Wisconsin Watch, Wisconsin Watch
May 15, 2024

At Wisconsin Watch, we specifically serve Wisconsin residents — providing information to help folks navigate their lives, participate in democracy and hold people in power accountable. When considering whether to pursue a particular story, we always consider its potential to impact Wisconsin.

But sometimes the scope of an investigation crosses state lines, prompting us to consider: How can we serve people impacted elsewhere?

The answer often lies in collaboration.

Such was the case with our examination of a former University of Wisconsin doctor with a history of disputed child abuse diagnoses — first in Wisconsin, then in Alaska and most recently in Florida, as reported last week by the TV station First Coast News, building on Wisconsin Watch’s past reporting.

For 13 years, Dr. Barbara Knox was south-central Wisconsin’s top expert in child abuse — testifying or providing evidence in roughly 200 criminal cases. Some people convicted with her help clearly abused children. But some serving lengthy prison terms say they are innocent. Others, cleared after being falsely accused of abuse, have sued Knox for defamation and life-changing disruptions to their families.

Wisconsin Watch started examining Knox’s work in early 2020 after she quietly resigned from her role leading the University of Wisconsin Hospital’s Child Protection Team. We knew then about one case of parents who said they were wrongly accused. After we profiled that couple, others came forward. We went on to identify about a dozen cases in which other doctors, police, prosecutors, judges or juries rejected Knox’s child abuse diagnoses.

After learning Knox was hired as Alaska’s top child abuse expert, we alerted the Anchorage Daily News. That resulted in a collaboration that traced the doctor’s legacy in Alaska: Wisconsin Watch contributed context from our reporting in Wisconsin, while the Daily News leaned on its local sourcing and knowledge of Alaska’s systems.

In early 2022 we jointly profiled an Alaska couple accused of abusing their 3-week-old daughter, whose injuries likely came instead from her complicated birth. When we learned that Knox had abruptly announced her resignation from her Alaska job amid misdiagnosis and bullying allegations similar to those she faced in Wisconsin, Alaska residents learned, too — thanks to the Daily News’ role in the reporting.

In August 2022 we reported that Knox joined the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Jacksonville and was issued a Florida medical license months earlier.

About 18 months later, we began to hear about a disputed abuse diagnosis in Jacksonville involving Knox. A Georgia couple had lost custody of their three children — and a father was arrested on tentative felony charges of aggravated battery and cruelty to a child — after Knox attributed injuries to their infant daughter to abuse. The couple maintained that the injuries stemmed from a medical condition.

While considering what Florida news outlet might be best positioned to look into it, we heard from a reporter who had already begun to report on it: Heather Crawford at First Coast News.

Rather than diverting Wisconsin Watch resources to investigate the Florida case, we shared insights from our previous investigation with Crawford, helping her report the story for her Florida audience. Meanwhile, Wisconsin Watch co-founder and former Managing Editor Dee J. Hall — who had reported our first stories on Knox and edited others — spoke on camera to First Coast News. Hall, now editor-in-chief at the nonprofit newsroom Floodlight, discussed what our reporting had previously found.

"There’s no doubt some of the cases she identified as abuse were abuse,” Hall told First Coast News. “But it was in these cases where you could have multiple mechanisms, multiple causes for some type of illness or condition where we just saw that being contradicted by prosecutors who would bring charges and then drop them. We saw it contradicted by police officers after doing interviews.”

The Georgia couple and an expert they hired told First Coast News that their child’s injuries — which included broken bones — were caused by genetic problems that started before the birth. The child, conceived through in vitro fertilization, was born prematurely and diagnosed with severe intrauterine growth restriction after being malnourished in the womb.

The father has not yet been indicted, and the couple hopes to get its children back, First Coast News reported. The criminal case now sits in the hands of a local district attorney who will consider charges.

We’ll leave it to our colleagues in Florida to follow future twists and turns in the case. We’re happy to have played a minor, behind-the-scenes role in First Coast News’ watchdog reporting — even if it didn’t mean publishing a story ourselves.

What’s most important is that Florida viewers received the information from a trusted newsroom that was well positioned to report it.

This article first appeared on Wisconsin Watch and is republished here under a Creative Commons license. Copy to Clipboard [END] --- [1] Url: https://wisconsinwatch.org/2024/05/wisconsin-doctor-barbara-knox-child-abuse-florida/ Published and (C) by Wisconsin Watch Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-ND 4.0 Intl. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/wisconsinwatch/