Appearing before Circuit Judge Thomas Hart today, Robyn Kay Drown (nee Lewis), 42, received 20 years in prison and her husband, Graydon C. Drown, 49, received 29 years in prison.
In mid-December following a five day trial the Drowns, from the Turner area of Oregon, were convicted of assaulting and mistreating nine of their 12 children. Both parents were found guilty by jury on most of the 25 second-degree and criminal mistreatment charges they each faced.
The abuse came to light in the spring of 2008 after two of the teen boys confided in Salem Rabbi Avrohom Perlstein. Les Gutfreund, a leader in Temple Beth Sholom where the family regularly attended, worked with Perlstein to notify child welfare authorities. The Drowns were arrested on June 19, 2008 and their nine youngest children - ranging in age from 6 weeks to 16 years old at the time - were taken into protective custody by child welfare officials.
A spokesman with the Oregon Department of Human Services, Gene Evans, said the children are now under the care of six different foster homes and remain in state custody. The oldest 3 children were removed from the custody of Robyn and Graydon Drown in the 1990s and were raised by Graydon Drown's parents in California. Robyn and Graydon Drown then moved to Alaska and produced the nine youngest children whom they raised in relative isolation under Graydon Drown's twisted interpretation of Judaism.
Stephen L. Lipton, one of Graydon Drown's attorneys, said his client was a father who was a strict disciplinarian, but that he did not act beyond his means as a parent upholding reasonable corporal punishment. During the trial the court heard testimony which described how the nine younger children were regularly beaten by their parents with weapons such as a metal pipe, a plastic pipe, a switch and 2-by-4 boards. An audio tape of a screaming child being beaten with a fiberglass pole tipped with a knotted cord, while her mother chatted in the background, was strong evidence which assisted the jury in reaching a verdict after only four hours of deliberation.
Although blaming her abuse of the children on her husband by claiming that she was an abused wife, Robyn Drown admitted to striking the children herself and not protecting them from the wrath of their father. Robyn Kay Drown never sought outside assistance or filed a police report, and claimed to friends that their marriage of over a quarter century, which was fully supported by her family, was happy. In her sister's defence, Robyn Drown's younger sister Heather Larson said she and Robyn were raised in Anchorage, Alaska under the faith of the cult Worldwide Church of God. ( link to en.wikipedia.org) Larson said the church sanctioned punishing children using belts.
Both parents pled "not guilty" on all charges they faced. If her full term is served all the Drowns' children, including the 8 month old infant, will be adults and Robyn Drown will be beyond child-bearing age.
Hart will hear the cases regarding the couple's pending divorce and custody of the children Thursday, January 8, 2009.
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