Foster mom charged in tot's death
Foster mom charged in tot's death
Boy and his sister were abused, prosecutor says
January 10, 2007
JACK KRESNAK and TINA LAM
FREE PRESS
Manslaughter and child abuse charges filed Tuesday against a Detroit woman in the beating death of her 2-year-old foster child were the latest dramatic turn in a case exposing flaws in the state's child welfare system.
The Aug. 16 killing of Isaac Lethbridge, who was a state foster child for just 11 months, prompted the state to shut down all foster care and adoption services by the private agency that supervised the boy's care, the Lula Belle Stewart Center in Detroit.
Charlsie Adams-Rogers, 59, was charged Tuesday with involuntary manslaughter and two counts of second-degree child abuse in Isaac's death.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said one child abuse charge relates to Isaac, and the other relates to his 4-year-old sister.
"I never touched that child. I did nothing wrong," Adams-Rogers said shortly before Detroit police took her from her home in northwest Detroit around noon Tuesday.
"It was my 12-year-old adopted daughter that did it," she said. "The police know she did it. She admitted it to them."
Worthy said she could not say exactly who beat Isaac to death.
"I'm not trying to be evasive, but there are other people that could be charged," she said at a news conference.
Worthy said there were nine to 12 people in the home at the time of Isaac's death, and that investigations by Detroit police homicide detectives and the state Department of Human Services continue.
Adams-Rogers was arraigned Tuesday evening in 36th District Court. Magistrate Charles Anderson III entered a not-guilty plea and set bond at $50,000.
Her attorney, Jeff McCarty, argued that she had a clean history in nine years as a foster mother and no criminal record.
"She cooperated fully with authorities," McCarty said. "This was an unintended death, and a tragedy." He said he suspects charges were brought against his client because "there is an insistence that some charges be leveled at someone."
Adams-Rogers, also known as Charlise Rogers, faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of manslaughter. The child abuse charges carry penalties of up to 4 years in prison.
Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Lisa Lindsey, the lead attorney on the case, said she had no comment on Adams-Rogers' statements about her daughter's possible role in Isaac's death. On Nov. 13, a juvenile court judge terminated Adams-Rogers' parental rights to the 12-year-old, who remains in the foster care system but has not been charged with a crime. The Free Press is not publishing her name because of her age.
According to statements and testimony at court hearings to terminate Adams-Rogers parental rights, the 12-year-old told investigators that she was playing with Isaac, throwing him onto a mattress, when he missed and hit the floor. A medical examiner testified that it was unlikely such a fall could have fatally injured the boy.
Isaac died of multiple blunt-force injuries and had burns on his chest and abdomen and a broken right collarbone, according to the autopsy report.
Worthy said Isaac's 4-year-old sister had "multiple healing bruises on her back; she had abrasions on her buttocks, and she had lesions on both thighs." The Free Press is not publishing her name because of her age; she remains in foster care.
Both children were placed in Adams-Rogers' home last summer by the Lula Belle Center, a nonprofit foster care agency under contract with the state.
The DHS suspended Lula Belle's license as a child-placing agency within days of Isaac's death, after an investigation showed that the agency had lost track of several foster children and placed others in unlicensed homes.
Isaac's father, Matt Lethbridge, said he and his wife, Jennifer Lethbridge, were disappointed by the charges.
"The charges aren't as severe as we think they should be," he said.
Adams-Rogers is "ultimately responsible for Isaac, and his blood is on her hands," Lethbridge said.
Responding to Adams-Rogers' statement that her adopted daughter killed Isaac, Lethbridge said: "Her lies don't explain the torture our children suffered in her house."
The Lethbridges have filed a federal lawsuit against Lula Belle and workers there, claiming they failed to protect their children.
Calls to the Lula Belle Center and its attorney were not returned.
Contact JACK KRESNAK at 313-223-4544 or jkresnak@freepress.com.