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.
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6/25/2002 |
Amby Cole vs. Eli Lilly By Jeff Swiatek The lawsuit, filed last week in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, is the latest in more than 200 lawsuits against Prozac maker Eli Lilly and Co. since the early 1990s. |
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1/13/2003 |
Baum, Hedlund, Aristei, Guilford & Schiavo vs. Glaxo Smithkline Corporation LA judge denies class action for Glaxo Paxil suit Reuters A U.S. judge in Los Angeles on Monday denied a request to certify as a class action a lawsuit claiming that GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s (GSK) anti-depressant Paxil is habit-forming. U.S. District Judge Mariana Pfaelzer said in her ruling that attorneys for a group of Paxil users failed to present a manageable trial plan. |
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10/26/2002 |
Baum, Hedlund, Aristei, Guilford & Schiavo vs. Glaxo Smithkline Corporation Mass. group sues Paxil drugmaker By Ellen Barry A group of Massachusetts plaintiffs filed a class-action suit earlier this month against the maker of the blockbuster antidepressant Paxil, alleging that withdrawal from the drug brought on such ill effects as nausea, sweating, agitation, tremors, insomnia, dizziness, and the sensation of electric ''zaps'' in the brain. |
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8/20/2002 |
Baum, Hedlund, Aristei, Guilford & Schiavo vs. Glaxo Smithkline Corporation Judge: Paxil ads can’t say it isn’t habit-forming LOS ANGELES (AP) A federal judge ordered the maker of the popular anti-depressant Paxil to stop all television commercials nationwide that say the drug is not habit-forming. |
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12/10/2001 |
Baum, Hedlund, Aristei, Guilford & Schiavo vs. Glaxo Smithkline Corporation Anti-depressant 'addicts' threaten legal case Sarah Boseley, Health Editor More than 60 people in Britain who say they have become hooked on the anti-depressant Seroxat - a drug in the Prozac class - are exploring the possibility of legal action against the pharmaceutical company which they claim failed to warn doctors that that it could create dependency. |
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8/25/2001 |
Baum, Hedlund, Aristei, Guilford & Schiavo vs. Glaxo Smithkline Corporation Suit: Antidepressant is Addictive
A lawsuit contends the manufacturer of the popular anti-depressant Paxil concealed evidence that the drug can be addictive |
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8/24/2001 |
Baum, Hedlund, Aristei, Guilford & Schiavo vs. Glaxo Smithkline Corporation FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 35 people who have suffered from severe withdrawal reactions as a result of taking the antidepressant Paxil, filed a class action complaint today in California Superior Court, LA County, against Glaxo Smithkline Corporation (GSK), formerly known as SmithKline Beecham. |
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11/30/2002 |
Cassidy vs. Eli Lilly By Jeff Swiatek The Cassidys’ lawsuit, filed in federal court in Pittsburgh, charged that Diane Cassidy’s doctor prescribed the antidepressant Prozac to her for weight loss and that the drug caused suicidal thoughts that led her to slash her wrists and overdose on a painkiller. She suffered intracranial bleeding from the painkiller, which left her paralyzed on one side and mentally impaired, according to the lawsuit, which sought $4.84 million in tangible damages. |
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12/17/2001 |
Culberson vs. Pfizer Jury: Pfizer Drug Did Not Cause Woman's Death Reuters A jury on Monday found that the prescription drug Rezulin did not contribute to the death of a diabetic woman who died in January 2000, Pfizer Inc., whose subsidiary Warner-Lambert made the drug, said. |
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7/23/2002 |
Donald Schell vs. SmithKline Beecham Glaxo Raises White Flag, Settles Paxil Trial Appeal, and Pays Up Rick Giombetti In a bombshell comparable to the recent belated revelation of the disaster that hormone replacement therapy has been, I have learned that Paxil manufacturer Glaxo-Smith-Kline (GSK) has secretly settled its appeal of the ruling in the Paxil trial last year. |
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8/11/2001 |
Donald Schell vs. SmithKline Beecham Judge Denies Rehearing in Drug Case Associated Press A federal judge denied a request by the maker of Paxil for a new trial in the case of a man who killed himself and three family members after taking the anti-depressant drug. |
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6/6/2001 |
Donald Schell vs. SmithKline Beecham The Associated Press The manufacturer of the nation’s second-best-selling anti-depressant must pay $8 million to the relatives of a man who killed himself and three others after taking the drug Paxil, jurors said. |
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4/29/2002 |
Hassett vs. Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) Man Claims he Became Psychotic on Accutane
Luke Hassett, 22, who was diagnosed as being a paranoid schizophrenic after taking Roaccutane, is to sue Leeds General Infirmary and the clinician who prescribed him the drug. |
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5'24'2002 |
Healy vs. University of Toronto Scientist stands by views of drugs after settling lawsuit with U of T
A prominent British psychiatrist who found his offer of a post at a University of Toronto teaching hospital rescinded after he criticized a popular form of antidepressants says he stands by his controversial view of the drugs. |
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11/3/2002 |
Holcombe and Gollin vs. GlaxoSmithKline 2 Wisconsin women sue anti-depressant maker By TOM HELD Suits here and elsewhere claim Paxil addictive, consumers not warned. |
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2/28/2003 |
Jefferson Co., Wisconsin vs. David Throm (Criminal Trial) Throm is found guilty in death of girlfriend By Steve Sharp A 42-year-old Palmyra man was found guilty this morning of first-degree homicide and a charge of hiding a corpse by a Jefferson County judge. |
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2/24/2003 |
Jefferson Co., Wisconsin vs. David Throm (Criminal Trial) Trial starts for Palmyra man accused of killing By Steve Sharp The defense said today it plans to argue that Throm did not intend to kill Wilke and that his personality was affected by the mood-altering drug Paxil. |
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2/24/2001 |
Nguyen & Farber v SmithKline Beecham Corporation Donald J. (“Don”) Farber Attorney at Law Our objective in the lawsuit is to compel SmithKline to place an accurate warning label on Paxil regarding the drug’s addictive qualities. In 1992 Paxil’s watered down label was approved by the Food & Drug Administration (“FDA”), and has been remain unchanged ever since-this despite numerous medical articles published in the 1990’s outlining the seriousness of the problem. |
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3/1/2003 |
Patients vs. Bayer Bayer Official Offers Defense in Texas Trial of Drug Suit By MELODY PETERSEN Melody Peterson of the New York Times reports that in the first case brought against Bayer involving its anticholesterol drug, Baycol, a senior official of Bayer AG testified in court in Corpus Cristi, Texas. He acknowledged that company officials in Germany proceeded with the marketing of Baycol despite the reluctance of US company officials to do so. |
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1/1/1998 |
Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil Antidepressant Users v Eli Lilly, Pfizer, and GlaxoSmithKline Commonly-Prescribed Antidepressants Are Extremely Dangerous for Some ClassActionAmerican.com Some 200 legal actions have been filed against Eli Lilly, Pfizer, and GlaxoSmithKline, the manufacturers of Prozac (fluoxetine), Zoloft (sertraline), and Paxil (paroxetine), respectively, to recover for suicides or homicides. |
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2/6/2003 |
Taylor vs. Solvay Pharmacueticals Drug firm settles with Columbine victim By Howard Pankratz hpankratz@denverpost.com Columbine survivor Mark Taylor today dropped his lawsuit against the manufacturer of a drug he claimed made Eric Harris homicidal and suicidal in return for the company contributing $10,000 to the American Cancer Society. |
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1/17/2003 |
Taylor vs. Solvay Pharmacueticals Columbine survivor, Wash. teen team up By Howard Pankratz The common bond that brought them together is their crusade against pharmaceutical companies. |
