Trial is ordered for foster mother
Trial is ordered for foster mother
February 6, 2007
Jack Kresnak
Free Press
As she was bound over for trial Monday in the death of 2-year-old Isaac Lethbridge, his former foster mother said she tried to protect the boy and his death was "an unfortunate accident.
"Charlsie Adams-Rogers, 59, will stand trial on charges of involuntary manslaughter and child abuse.
The boy died of a beating in her Detroit home Aug. 16, law enforcement officials say.
They have not identified who beat and burned Isaac, although Adams-Rogers has blamed her 12-year-old adopted daughter.
"I did everything I possibly could to protect those children," Adams-Rogers said after Monday's preliminary examination in 36th District Court in Detroit.
"It was an unfortunate accident.
" She was referring to Isaac and his 4-year-old sister, who entered Michigan's foster care system together on Sept. 19, 2005, after being neglected in their parents' filthy Westland home.
The two were then placed in three troubled foster homes by the Lula Belle Stewart Center.
After getting the two June 29, Adams-Rogers took them to doctors three times and expressed concerns about their "easy bruise-ability," according to testimony before District Judge Willie Lipscomb Jr.
Dr. Sherapartap Rai, a physician who saw Isaac on Aug. 4 -- about two weeks before the boy was found unresponsive in Adams-Rogers' home -- testified that the boy seemed to be happy and attached to his foster mother, though he noted bruises on the boy and wrote "suspected physical abuse" in his medical file.
Rai also said Adams-Rogers told him that although she liked caring for children, Isaac and his sister were "more trouble than good.
" Assistant Wayne County Medical Examiner Dr. Boguslaw Pietak testified that Isaac died of multiple blunt-force injuries to his head and body as well as second-degree burns to his abdomen and chest.
Pietak said the burns seemed to be consistent with someone pressing a hot iron against the child.
Adams-Rogers' attorney, Warren Harris, said she was a caring foster mother; no one had said she abused any child.
But Lipscomb scolded Adams-Rogers because, he said, she had a legal and moral duty to protect the foster children in her care.
He described Isaac's injuries as "shocking" and said it was "almost as if this child had been tortured.
"Lipscomb agreed with Assistant Prosecutor Lisa Lindsey's request that a child abuse charge involving Isaac's sister be reduced to a misdemeanor.
Adams-Rogers is free on bond pending arraignment.
Contact JACK KRESNAK at 313-223-4544 or jkresnak@freepress.com.