Lawyer questions judge in Isaac case
Lawyer questions judge in Isaac case
February 16, 2007
Jack Kresnak
Free press
The attorney for a Canton man whose 2-year-old son was killed in foster care and who is trying to regain custody of two other children today questioned the judge in the case.
Attorney Robert Killewald asked Washtenaw County Family Court Judge Darlene O'Brien whether she could be fair and impartial in the case.
He posed a series of questions after she said she had read coverage in the Free Press in January about the death of Isaac Lethbridge in a Detroit foster home.
O'Brien indicated she had read details of the paper's four-month investigation of the case.
Killewald asked her if she could remain fair and impartial in deciding whether to return Isaac's two sisters to their birth parents, Matt and Jennifer Lethbridge.
"I certainly do, that's my job," O'Brien responded.
The girls -- a 4-year-old and a 10-month-old -- are in a foster home in Washtenaw County.
Today's hearing is to determine whether the request of the state Department of Human Services to terminate the parental rights of Matt and Jennifer Lethbridge to the youngest child will be granted.
It also will determine a long-term plan for the 4-year-old, who is still recovering from the trauma of being in the foster home with Isaac when he was fatally beaten and burned.
The children's attorney, F. Joy Gaines, clarified that she is not calling for reunification of the family.
That decision will rest on the evidence presented and O'Brien's ruling.
The parents had a positive visit with their older daughter on Thursday, according to DHS foster care worker Scott Virgo.
The parents do not have visitation with the younger girl, who was placed in foster care after her birth last April.
The Lethbridges had nine children, all of whom were placed in foster care on complaints of neglect.
The couple's parental rights to the six oldest children were terminated in 2001 and 2002.
Those children were adopted by three other families.
In testimony today, Jennifer Lethbridge, 30, was asked by her attorney, Kathleen Brown, what she could have done differently with the six children she lost permanent custody of.
"I want to go back in time and slap myself in the head.
I was very irresponsible," Jennifer Lethbridge, who is about seventh months pregnant with her 10th child, said.
Brown also asked her whether people could trust her to take care of her children again.
"Anyone who trusts me enough to give me a chance would not be disappointed," Jennifer Lethbridge said.
"I will do what it takes to keep them healthy and happy and safe."
She also said she and her 33-year-old husband made many complaints to authorities about the care Isaac and his sister were getting in the home licensed through the Lula Belle Stewart Center of Detroit.
She said the children came to visits bruised, scraped and dirty.
"We had a lot of complaints about Lula Belle," Jennifer Lethbridge said, saying they went to Child Protective Services, the Children's Ombudsman Office and the governor's office.
"No one was listening," she said.
Brown also asked her about the allegation that her 4-year-old daughter may have been sexually molested while in foster care.
"I feel angry but more than that I feel so hurt for herthat is one of the worst ways you can ever hurt a child," Jennifer Lethbridge said.
Testimony was to continue this afternoon.