Children tell court about ex-foster mom

MIKE KATAOKA

THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE

Six-year-old Andrew Haley, propped up in the witness stand by a makeshift booster seat of pillows and phone books, instantly recognized Cynthia Marie Jackson in court Wednesday as his former foster mother.

Andrew said he broke his arm while living with Jackson but couldn't remember how.

His stepmother, Crystal Brooks, later filled in the blanks for Riverside County Superior Court jurors.

"He told me that (Jackson) grabbed his arm, and she threw him down," Brooks testified.

Andrew broke his arm in March 2000. Four months later, another toddler died in Jackson's foster home in Riverside as a result of what doctors called fatal child-abuse syndrome.

Andrew Ibarra died a month shy of his second birthday, and Jackson, 39, is on trial, accused of his murder through prolonged abuse.

She also is charged with harming Andrew Haley and five other foster children in what prosecutors say was a three-year pattern of child abuse and a massive breakdown by Riverside County's child-welfare system.

Another child, 9-year-old James Donovan, testified Wednesday that he and his brother, Tyler, lived with Jackson in 1999.

Tyler hurt his leg, James said, when he fell down the steps at Jackson's home.

Prosecutor Michael Hestrin asked James how Tyler, then 15 months old, fell.

"She pushed him," James said. "She pushed him on the back." Tyler is among the children that Jackson is accused of hurting, Hestrin said.

Although the Donovan brothers were removed from Jackson's home in 1999 and Andrew Haley was removed in March 2000, authorities never revoked Jackson's license to operate a foster home.

Darnell Sherman, Andrew Haley's social worker, testified Wednesday that he disbelieved Jackson's explanation that the child broke his arm in a fall from an above-ground pool ladder.

Sherman asked for an investigation but his suspicion of child abuse was deemed unfounded, he said. Yet, he still took steps to get Andrew Haley away from Jackson, he said.

Two brothers, Kenneth and Brandon Shoemaker, subsequently were placed in Jackson's home on Via San Jose and were there when Andrew Ibarra died.

Gerald Stone, an investigative social worker, testified that the older Shoemaker brother, then 2, seemed lethargic, dehydrated and possibly malnourished when he saw the children in the home after Andrew Ibarra's death.

Jackson told police and child welfare officials that Andrew had fallen off a slide at a park the day before he died but seemed fine afterward. But on July 19, 2000, the child lost consciousness and died despite paramedics' efforts to revive him.

After Jackson's arrest, county officials acknowledged that social workers had placed children in her home unaware that other youngsters had been removed amid abuse allegations. They said they subsequently overhauled the communications process.

Reach Mike Kataoka at (909) 368-9411 or mkataoka@pe.com