San Carlos Park man gets 10 years in sex abuse case

News-Press, The (Fort Myers, FL)

By JANINE ZEITLIN

jzeitlin@news-press.com

A former foster father was sentenced to 10 years behind bars Monday for sexually abusing his then-16-year-old foster daughter.

Lee Circuit Judge Mark Steinbeck also handed Robert Jackson 20 years on sex-offender probation and ruled that he be tagged as a sex offender.

Jackson, 58, was arrested in January 2006 after his wife, Janie, called deputies after finding him having sex with the girl in their San Carlos Park home, reports say. He was released four months later after posting bail, and jail records show he had been free since.

Jackson arrived in the crowded Lee County courtroom Monday with his wife.

They moved twice until they sat directly behind the victim, who was cocooned by a handful of advocates.

"I am so glad someone put a stop to what was happening to me," the woman said, during the sentencing as her Guardian ad Litem, Barbara Spotts, patted her back. "I didn't know how to stop what was happening to me."

The News-Press is not naming the woman because of the nature of the crime.

Jackson pleaded guilty to sexual battery, but two charges of unlawful sexual activity against him were dropped as part of the plea agreement, said his lawyer, Joe Viacava.

Jackson expressed remorse but said there was a "great distortion of truth."

"I regret my actions, and I know I need to stand in judgment of them," he said.

The young woman lived with the Jacksons from May 2003 to January 2006 after her father illegally brought her from Guatemala when she was 11 years old, documents state.

After Jackson's arrest, the girl said that Janie Jackson drove her to Miami and paid for her ticket to Guatemala, where the girl returned to live with her family.

Two advocates, including Mary Lewis, the executive director of the organization Our Mother's Home, traveled there in November 2006 to bring her back to Southwest Florida so that charges against Jackson wouldn't be dropped.

Lewis sat with her arm around the woman, now a 19-year-old nursing student, at the sentencing.

Spotts' voice wavered as she spoke about how the child welfare system failed.

"She was placed there to keep her safe. Keeping a child safe does not involve sexual abuse of that child," she said. "The abuse didn't stop there because no one from within the system got her the therapy she needed. No one kept her from falling prey to the wife of the defendant."

Erin Gillespie, a local Department of Children and Families spokeswoman, declined to talk about the case specifically but said the agency tries its best to get abuse victims help.

Spotts blasted Jackson for taking advantage of the girl's confusion in a foreign country.

"She felt trapped," Spotts said.

Though Jackson apologized, he implicated the victim in his actions and pointed to other former foster children who could testify on his behalf. The couple had cared for at least 22 foster children over the years, The News-Press has reported.

"I told her it was wrong, told her was not fair to my wife and she agreed, and within two weeks, when we were doing goodnight hugs," he said, "she said, 'she missed it.'"

Viacava told Steinbeck there was "no direct force," and in a later interview, the lawyer asserted his client was not a rapist and not accused as such.

Advocates huddled around the woman as she filed out of the courtroom. But they could not protect her from the angry shouts of a young woman, who chased her to the elevators and cursed at her.

A deputy ushered her away, while another guarded the victim and her advocates.

Once the elevator doors closed, the victim crumbled into the arms of Lewis. Outside, she squinted into the sun, her brown eyes still teary.

"I'm glad that it's over with," she said, relieved. She pledged to move from this and be successful — whatever it takes.

"I hope it's a new beginning, a new birth, and a new life for her," Lewis said.

Certainly, it will be a new year. Monday, the day her abuser was handed justice, was her birthday.