Jury selected for trial of Salem meds-denial mom

LAWRENCE – A jury panel of seven men and seven women was seated Monday to hear the case of Kristen R. LaBrie, the Salem mother charged with withholding her autistic son’s cancer medication before his death two years ago.The jury selection process consumed the entire jury pool for the day, more than 60 Essex County citizens, as Assistant District Attorney Kate MacDougall and defense lawyer Kevin G. James screened each potential candidate to hear the trial.Opening statements will begin this morning in Lawrence Superior Court with Judge Richard E. Welch, III presiding over the trial, which is expected to go into the latter part of next week.LaBrie, 39, is charged with attempted murder, assault and battery on a child causing injury, assault and battery on a disabled person causing injury and reckless endangerment, allegations she has denied.She allegedly failed to provide her cancer-stricken son, Jeremy Robert Andre Fraser, treatments that professionals say he needed to remain in remission for his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma cancer.MacDougall will present evidence that LaBrie neglected to fill some of her son’s prescriptions from Oct. 16, 2006 to March 25, 2008, didn’t take him to at least a dozen doctor’s appointments and engaged in conduct that created substantial risk of serious injury to her son.Jeremy was diagnosed when he was age 6 with a curable form of Hodgkin’s cancer. The disease went into remission after the boy received chemotherapy and his prognosis was good as long as he continued to take medication. But two years later in February, when Jeremy was age 8 and being treated for the flu, doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital discovered that the cancer had come out of remission. He died a year later on March 30, 2009 at age 9.Although his father, Eric Fraser, was not part of Jeremy’s life as his illness progressed, he was living with Fraser in Saugus the last months leading up to his death.Eric Fraser died last year from injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident in Malden on Oct. 25. He was age 38.James is expected to argue that LaBrie was suffering from “diminished mental capacity” because she was suffering from the stress of caring for her disabled son as well as suffering from substance abuse and apparent relationships with abusive men.LaBrie faces up to 40 years in state prison if convicted as charged.