Law&Crime Sidebar - 5 Key Moments From The Testimony of Maya Kowalski’s Dad in Abuse Allegations Trial

Episode Date: October 3, 2023

A Florida family is facing off against Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in court, claiming the treatment they received led to irreparable harm for their family. The Kowalski’s — the center of popular Netflix documentary “Take Care of Maya” — claim child abuse allegations forced Maya Kowalski’s mother to take her own life. The Law&Crime Network’s Jesse Weber breaks down five key moments from the testimony of Maya’s father, Jack Kowalski.Hosts:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberAngenette Levy: https://twitter.com/Angenette5LAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerScript Writing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. views shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that

will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Seeing her in that pain, we knew something wasn't right. You know, it wasn't something we've seen before. She was in more pain than that. A Florida family is facing off against a children's hospital in a court of law. The Kowalski's say treatment at that hospital led to irreparable harm for their family, while the hospital says they didn't do anything unreasonable at all. Now the plaintiff himself has taken the stand. We're bringing you five key moments from Jack Kowalski's testimony. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber.

As you may know, we've been covering the story of my Kowalski out in Florida. It was actually the subject of a Netflix show called Take Care of Maya. And right now, there is an intense trial happening with the Kowalski family, claiming that a hospital is responsible for the death of the family matriarch. Very serious accusations being levied here. So to recap, let's go back to 2015. Maya Kowalski was just nine years old when she was diagnosed with CRPS, complex regional pain syndrome. And what this is is a neurological condition in which a person's body misinterprets even light touches as excruciating pain.

So as you can imagine, it causes stiffness, spasms, limited mobility, really, really difficult condition that I'll tell you before this case I had not known about it. I'm not sure a lot of people know about it. Well, the family's doctor had previously treated Maya with ketamine. And it's our understanding that what that does is it blocks someone's pain receptors and it can try to normal. the body in a way. It's not a miracle cure. There still can be flare-ups. And according to the Kowalskies, that's what happened in 2016. Maya had a flare-up and it was so bad that her parents, Jack and Biazza, checked their daughter into Johns Hopkins All-Childrens Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida. Biata allegedly told the hospital to treat Maya with ketamine because it had worked for her in

the past. But according to the lawsuit, the hospital staff refused to follow the family's instructions. And on top of that, the family says that the hospital, they lacked experience with CRPS in general. The family claims that hospital staff were suspicious of Maya's family because the ketamine treatment seems so extreme. In fact, the lawsuit argues that the hospital suspected Maya might be a victim of child abuse and that this was a case of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, basically saying that the Ada was suffering from a condition in which she was faking or causing her daughter's illness. Now, according to the complaint, a hospital social worker contacted the Florida Department of Children and Families to report Vyatta and refused to let Maya leave the hospital.

So Maya was taken into state custody, remained in the hospital. She didn't see her family for three months. Maya herself told People Magazine that she was, quote, medically kidnapped. This separation took a massive toll on Maya's family. The complaint reads, quote, The resulting prolonged separation from their suffering daughter manifested in Biata's depression, fatigue, and overwhelming sense of hopelessness. And sadly, in January of 2017, Beata died by suicide. It was only six days later after that that Maya was officially released back to her family.

The lawsuit against the hospital is based on multiple claims, false imprisonment, negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress, medical negligence, battery, and it's reported that the family is seeking over $200 million in damages. Now, this trial is to figure out if this whole series of events could have been prevented, whether the hospital contributed to Biata's suicide. So now, with all of that in mind, let's go to the latest in the case. And that is that Jack Kowalski, the father of Maya and her brother Kyle, widower of Biata, he took the stand. And he talked about his late wife, and he talked about the family's interactions with the hospital.

So he says Biatta, who was a nurse herself, did everything she could to figure out why her daughter was in so much pain. Jack described what it was like from Maya before she went into the hospital. Being in the house and hearing your kid screaming 24-7, there's nothing that we could do. Was she? Was this every night at this point? It was mostly throughout the day and night. After hearing that Bonnie Rice saying it's conversion disorder, this child was screaming and crying.

If she took a shower, the droplets of the water would make her scream. You put a sheet over her legs, she would scream. She had to be assisted on the toilet, and she would scream. screen. She looked out the window, see her friends playing, and you knew that she's not faking this. Did I ever think she was faking at first? It was like a light switch where, you know, all of a sudden everything changed. It's like, it's, it is just so unbelievable that something could happen that quick. Yeah, it's hard to imagine, right? It's hard to imagine what that's like

for Maya and what that's like for her family hearing that. By the way, the jury is hearing all that too. And that definitely adds a level of sympathy to the plaintiff's case. Now, another key moment from his testimony came when Jack's attorney asked him about the ketamine treat and whether the Kowalskies wanted Maya to stay at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital. The doctors, no matter who, but the doctors agree that on this evening of October 7th, that they would continue the ketamine program. They continued with ketamine.

I don't know the exact dosage, but they did treat her with some ketamine. All right. Was it your intention to stay there, or did you want to leave? We wanted to go and get our treatment. Were they telling you anything about the reasons why you shouldn't leave?

Again, object to the vagueness. Who are the doctors telling you anything about why you should leave? first day he clarified it to the doctor so you can answer that I believe that their justification was weaning off weaning my off of what I don't know if it was the ketamine or whatever but then on the eighth what did you do did you continue to try to get yourselves out of there we want to get out of there, yes. Did you lobby the doctors to get out of there?

Yes. Why didn't you just get up and go? We were told if we left, we would be arrested. That, I imagine, definitely helps and add support to the false imprisonment count of the complaint. Jack also talked about the impact that Maya's hospital stay had on the whole family, but especially her mom and his wife, Yada. How was it in terms of the stress on you and your wife, knowing as you've just testified, that you needed

to get your daughter out for treatment, and you were being kept in, that she was being kept in? It was extremely stressful. Extremely. And what was the fear there in terms of Maya's condition as she lay there without doing? The fear was that she's going to deteriorate what she did. Not only did I see her deteriorate, I seen my wife.

I go to the hospital, I see my child deteriorating. I go home, I see my wife deteriorating. Can you tell the jury, did Biazza's condition remain the same from what you saw as a husband, or did it continue to deteriorate? I was asked by Dr. Katt, I'm sorry, Dr. Duncan. Why is Biata so upset, and why can she not calm down? And I thought about that, and I remember, I'll say this real quick, but my nephew and I were fishing, and he accidentally caught a baby alligator,

and he was reeling in, and the mother came out of the water and chased us on a picnic table. And I told Dr. Duncan, I said, that's Biazza. her child is on the seventh floor and she wants her child back and it's very important for the jury to hear that when we address the issues of intentional or negligent infliction of emotional distress especially poignant there and to add to that jack says that the hospital staff continued to be suspicious of biata even when the family brought in religious items from the best of your knowledge you or anyone else do anything that was against the hospitals rules no we brought holy water she had her wafers she had her cross or the rosary and a lot of that was not allowed to be in her room and so you brought it up and was it then taken away was taken away and did you ever learn the reason why it was taken away one thing that I remember is they were worried that the host was going to poisoned that the body and blood was going to be poisoned with what with what

yeah what was supposed to be in it that was I have no clue what they were worried about well did you ever learn through the course of this that they believed that somehow Biazza was slipping ketamine to her daughter through the holy water and wafers object lack of foundation no overall I know it didn't happen, but did you learn? It didn't happen. No, it did not happen.

But, yes, they had all different ideas of theories. Theories, yes. So Jack claims that there was a lot going on behind the scenes, things that he didn't consent to, things that he and Biazza didn't even know was happening. Were you informed that they planned to test her as to whether she could actually get up and walk around by places? seeing the commode just out of reach? Objection, critic, and foundation. It was the commode and also the phone.

They would ring the phone and see if she would answer the phone. Were both of those reach? And both of those were out of reach? Yes. Had you been asked about this, would you have given consent or told no? Absolutely not. Now, obviously, this is disturbed and it's tragic. But remember, this is a legal case, and this is only the plaintiff's version of events.

The defendant, John Hopkins, they're going to have an opportunity to present their defense. Ross examined these witnesses, put in their own witnesses, say how they didn't do anything that was unreasonable, how their actions were justified, that they're not to blame for what happened. So we're going to continue, of course, to file this case and the testimony of Jack Kowalski, as well as Maya, who's also expected to testify, key witness here. and we're going to bring you any other major updates from the case. But we also want to let you know about something else that happened. You see, there was at one point a discussion of a possible mistrial. So last week, the Kowalski's attorney told the court that Maya may have been sexually assaulted while in the care of the hospital. Yeah.

So Maya reportedly claims at one point, a man in a doctor's coat came in and asked her to take down her underwear and looked at her. before leaving. So now the plaintiffs want to add a battery claim to their lawsuit. The problem is is that the jury was never questioned about their views on sexual assault. So it's too late to move forward with such a significant new claim in this case. In fact, the judge asked the plaintiff's attorney, are you asking for a mistrial right now? Meaning, are you asking to end the trial? And the attorney said he would discuss it with his clients, but for now, they're going to continue with testimony. All right, everybody, that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts,

Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. Spotify.