Girl to face rape suspect; Local women bring alleged foster-care victim back from Guatemala

News-Press, The (Fort Myers, FL)

By AMY WILLIAMS and JEFF CULL

awilliams@news-press.com jcull@news-press.com

Two determined Southwest Florida women have brought a 17-year-old girl back from Guatemala to testify against her foster father, who's accused of raping her.

Mary Lewis and Anna Rodriguez, who made the grueling trek to retrieve the girl last week, returned with her Thursday.

"We wanted to make sure justice was served," Rodriguez said.

"I think she's relieved to have a sense of safety now," Lewis said. "I think that God has a plan for this special child."

Lewis is the director of Our Mother's Home in San Carlos Park, a foster home for teens and their babies. Rodriguez is the founder of the Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking.

The girl, whom The News-Press is not naming because she's an alleged rape victim, had fled the United States in August after charges were filed against Robert Jackson, 56.

He's set to go on trial soon on charges of sexually assaulting the girl in January.

At a hearing today, assistant state attorney Francine Donnorummo will ask Circuit Court Judge James Thompson to revoke Jackson's bond for tampering with a witness.

"He may have aided her leaving the country," Donnorummo said.

Jackson was arrested Jan. 3 after his wife, Janie, reported finding him engaged in sex with the girl, who at the time was 16. He was released from the Lee County Jail in May after posting $150,000 bond.

Jackson was originally charged with unlawful sexual activity and battery, both second-degree felonies punishable by up to 15

years in prison. However, Donnorummo changed the charge to sexual battery by a person of familial or custodial authority. He now faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted.

Jackson could not be reached for comment.

After Jackson's arrest, the girl moved to another foster home in Southwest Florida, but in August she fled to her native Guatemala without telling authorities or her caretaker. She stayed there with her family in the remote, mountainous state of Huehuetenango.

Relatives and social workers wondered how the girl could pay for and arrange an international flight. They suspected that someone helped her.

Lewis and Rodriguez braved a 14-hour trip by auto over treacherously rutted, one-lane mountain roads to reach the girl's village.

"I was holding Mary's hand I was so scared," Rodriguez said. "The car would slip and slide sideways trying to get up that mountain."

Rodriguez used connections she developed in her anti-human trafficking campaign to secure help from the Guatemalan government. A driver and social worker met the American pair and escorted them throughout the four-day rescue.

Yet, they still had to knock on doors late in the night as they searched for the girl's family in a village with no streetlights or house numbers. Finally, they found her, in a dirt-floored shack with no furniture.

"She didn't hesitate when we told her she could come back with us," Rodriguez said.

The abject poverty staggered Lewis.

"I have never seen anything like it," she said. "And now that I have, I wish everyone else could."

The Ricky Martin Foundation paid the women's airfare to Guatemala. The successful Latin American pop singer is a leading advocate for child welfare around the world.