Legal Cases

Jury Convicts Leslie Demeniuk

It is my belief that the trial of this loving mother was obscured by the fact that a vast accumulation of facts relating to previous cases where the medications prescribed to Leslie Demeniuk have caused similar outcomes were not allowed as evidence. Therefore, this lack of evidence caused an injustice to occur today. I would urge everyone to spend time on this website to see the real facts involving the dangerous effects of these medications. Anthony (close friend)

I am deeply disappointed in the outcome of this trial. It is my belief that the jurors were obviously unable to understand that Leslie Demeniuk was a devoted, caring, and loving mother of her two sons. Any parent who loves their children could not be in their right mind to commit such a crime and yet the jury said she was. I am also very disappointed that the jurors were not shown the evidence, with respect to numerous other cases involving the named medications prescribed to Leslie. It is a travesty that the outcome of this trial would place another victim behind bars. James Walker (Uncle)

LESLIE DEMENIUK waits for Judge John M. Alexander to decide if the jury should be allowed to leave Monday night. By JUSTIN YURKANIN, justin.yurkanin@staugustinerecord.com.

A Comment from Dr. Ann Tracy:

For a decade now I have tracked cases of mother’s killing their children and found that the very large majority of them are mothers who are taking antidepressants. In 1999 I did a television show with Leeza Gibbons on this issue. Other guests included a mother (a nurse) who killed her two small children and made a serious suicide attempt and a father whose wife had just killed their two small children and herself while taking antidepressants. Six days later a mother (also a nurse) less than one hour from the television studio shot her three small sons and herself while under the influence of Prozac. These drugs strike at the very core of motherhood in these cases. A good mother’s worst nightmare is something terrible happening to her children. And these drugs produce a state in which mothers act out their worst nightmares.

Leslie Demeniuk was clearly suffering severe adverse reactions to antidepressants when she shot her four-year-old twin boys in 2001. She had been on Zoloft for only days when the serious side effects became so obvious that she was taken back to the doctor, who instead of realizing what was happening, thought she must need yet another antidepressant. This switch in meds seems to always make it just that much worse because the patient is not only adjusting to a new medication – Paxil, but is also in serious abrupt withdrawal from another medication – Zoloft. On top of that she was suffering adverse pancreatic effects causing her blood sugar to drop and produce cravings for alcohol. The alcohol, combined with the deadly effects of abrupt Zoloft withdrawal and the introduction to Paxil, is what I would surmise led to the tragic deaths of these two little boys.

Why? How?

The various chemicals combining in her system produced mild seizure activity in the brain. We forget that REM Sleep (the dream state) and the insanity we call “mania” or “bipolar” are both continuous mild seizure activity producing an unconscious state. This is known in medical science as a REM Sleep Behavior Disorder and is further explained in my FDA testimony.