Records show foster home met standards

GRETCHEN WENNER

Apr 24 2006 10:59 PM

The Rosedale foster home where some alleged victims of a high-profile child molestation case lived racked up just a single complaint in the past 10 years, a review of public records shows.

Annual county inspections of the home run by the late Stephan Anthony Erbacher, 44, and his wife, Melody Erbacher, 45, indicate the couple maintained a clean, well-organized facility.

Stephan Erbacher apparently shot himself last week shortly before he would have been arrested on suspicion of child molestation. Less than three weeks earlier, his son and a teen girl were charged with a total 38 counts of child molestation suspected to have taken place over five years.

The Erbachers' home consistently met standards, county records show. Annual inspection and licensing reports since December 1996 show nothing in need of correction, save a hot-water heater that needed to be turned down nearly 10 years ago.

The Erbachers stored cleaning solutions and poisons high in the laundry room. They locked medications in a file cabinet in the master bedroom. When the family lived in a house with a pool, it was fenced off.

Smoke detectors, up to nine of them, always worked, records show. Hot water hovered around a safe 118 degrees. Stephan and Melody Erbacher stayed current on CPR and first aid techniques.

Records indicate the Erbachers never kept firearms or ammunition.

Each inspection also included a discussion of foster care policy, including a review of the "personal rights" of foster children.

"Children treated with respect & dignity," a social worker hand-wrote in the couple's first pre-licensing evaluation, indicating the required discussion had taken place.

A call to the home was not immediately returned late Monday afternoon.

A complaint filed in December 1997 ended inconclusively. The birth mother of a 23-month-old foster child apparently reported bruises and scratches on the back of the child's legs. But the marks may have been a rash, the report says. Melody Erbacher had brought the child to a doctor not long before for redness and swelling in the legs. The doctor prescribed meds.

"Unable to substantiate," the report concludes. "Appears miscommunication between parties involved."

The Erbachers' 22-year-old son, Justin Erbacher, was arrested April 4 on suspicion of having molested five girls, all under 14, over nearly five years. He is charged with almost two dozen felony counts of child sexual abuse and is in Lerdo jail on $400,000 bail.

A 13-year-old girl, whose name has not been released because she is a minor, was arrested April 7 on suspicion of 15 felony counts of sexual assault. She is in Juvenile Hall.

The teen is also one of Justin Erbacher's five alleged victims, Bakersfield police officials say. The other alleged victims are 11, 10, 9 and 5. The Californian does not identify the victims of sexual assault.

The relationship between suspects and alleged victims is not clear, although police have said both Justin and Stephan Erbacher were well acquainted with all of the alleged victims.

The Erbachers, who have four biological children, according to a story from 2000, also adopted others and had foster children, some of whom they adopted.

At least three of the victims lived in a foster home where Justin Erbacher also lived at one point, court records show. A fourth lived in a second foster home; Erbacher lived in that home for a time after he graduated from high school, the records show.

Some alleged victims referred to Justin Erbacher as a brother in court documents, although it is unclear whether he is a biological sibling.

Stephan Erbacher apparently shot himself shortly before he would have been arrested on two child molestation charges.

Bakersfield police were driving to his home in the 2900 block of Redwood Hill Court when they heard sheriff's deputies were responding to a suicide report. Erbacher was found in the back yard of the home.

Neither police nor sheriff's officials know whether the elder Erbacher was aware of the impending arrest, they said.

The father's case was being investigated separately from his son's, police said.

Justin Erbacher is scheduled to next appear in court for a pretrial hearing May 10.

-- Staff writer Christina Sosa contributed to this report.