STATEMENT BY ATTORNEYS FOR SOPHIE HARTMAN

May 24, 2021

Sophie Hartman is the mother of a young child with a rare neurological condition diagnosed and treated
by doctors at Duke University Medical Center. Despite overwhelming objective evidence in the medical
record supporting this diagnosis, the King County Prosecuting Attorney has charged Ms. Hartman with
assault of a child in the second degree and attempted assault. These charges are based on false
statements and misrepresentations of the medical record by a doctor at Seattle Children’s Hospital who
has never seen the child or spoken with Ms. Hartman. Ms. Hartman is innocent of these charges.

Ms. Hartman’s child was diagnosed with a rare neurological disease, Alternating Hemiplegia of
Childhood, by one of the few expert pediatric neurologists in the world from Duke University and by a
neurologist at Mary Bridge Hospital in Tacoma. The child has been evaluated and treated by the doctors
at Duke for three years. Contrary to the allegations of the King County Prosecuting Attorney, the child’s
diagnosis was made by more than one doctor, is legitimate, and is based on a substantial record beyond
the reports and information provided by Ms. Hartman. That record includes independent medical
examinations by multiple doctors, direct observation of the child by doctors and nurses at Duke and at
Seattle Children’s Hospital, standardized testing results, video tapes of the child’s symptoms, MRI, EEG
and other diagnostic tests. The King County Prosecuting Attorney has the medical records from Duke as
well as records from Seattle Children’s Hospital amply supporting the diagnosis and the consistent
reports of Ms. Hartman.

The medical records in this case have been reviewed by Dr. Eli Newberger, a medical child abuse doctor
with 40 years of experience, who has advised the King County Prosecuting Attorney that filing charges
against Ms. Hartman is a “miscarriage of justice.” Dr. Newberger’s letter is attached. The victims in this
case are Sophie Hartman, her children and her family who are having to fight wholly unjustified charges.

Adam Shapiro Jessica Goldman

Shapiro Law Group P.S. Summit Law Group
Colman Building 315 Fifth Ave. S, Ste 1000
811 First Avenue, Ste 330 Seattle, WA 98104
Seattle, WA 98104 jessicag@summitlaw.com
adam@ashapirolaw.com