HRS reviewing child's death; Counselor in case was on probation

St. Petersburg Times

Author: BOB PORT

Kevin E. Washington

TAMPA - A state counselor was reprimanded two months ago for failing to properly supervise the home where authorities say a 40-year-old woman used a wooden board to fatally beat her 5-year-old foster son.

The counselor, Kathleen A. Matthews, was criticized Feb. 5 for ''performance below standards'' and placed on an extended employee probation, according to records of the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (HRS). Ms. Matthews could not be reached for comment.

The reprimand was one of several developments that surfaced Thursday in the case of Rosa Lee Jones, 40, of Clair Mel, who was jailed Wednesday and accused of second-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in the death of her foster child, Albert Smith. Mrs. Jones, an associate pastor at the Church of the Living God near Plant City, had been a state foster parent for eight years.

Albert suffered a cracked skull when Mrs. Jones hit him for not saying his prayers properly, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.

Mrs. Jones remained in jail Thursday. Meanwhile, prosecutors said they may consider seeking an indictment against her for first-degree murder.

''We're still reviewing the charges,'' Assistant State Attorney Michael Benito said. A decision is expected next week, he said.

HRS officials in Tampa also began reviewing the case. A written summary was prepared for HRS Secretary Gregory L. Coler, and ''there'll probably be an independent investigation by the HRS Inspector General's Office,'' said Joseph Tagliarini, a local administrator.

What is already clear from HRS records is that last November, three HRS foster care counselors in Tampa knew that Mrs. Jones was using corporal punishment to discipline Albert Smith even though such punishment is prohibited by HRS rules. A telephone caller warned them that Mrs. Jones had spanked Albert.

The three counselors prepared a plan to correct the problem. Ms. Matthews was to make a return visit with Mrs. Jones in a week. Each month Ms. Matthews was to coach the foster mother on ways to avoid using corporal punishment, HRS records say. Mrs. Jones had repeatedly asked state counselors for help in handling the children.

Ms. Matthews, however, never made the follow-up visits; she only mailed Mrs. Jones a book on alternatives to corporal punishment, records say. She had, according to records, only telephoned the Jones home and checked once with Albert's teacher.

After the child's death, a stern reprimand in the form of a special employee evaluation was added to Ms. Matthew's personnel file. The counselor, who earns $17,000 a year, had ''failed to comply with follow-up ... Her perception of her role was that of support to the foster parent rather than a teaching of alternate means of discipline,'' her supervisor wrote.

Ms. Matthews and other counselors involved with the Jones foster home ''are personally upset and hurting,'' Tagliarini said Thursday. ''They truly feel the pain, and they feel responsible.''

Tagliarini said he did not know if a heavy caseload might have hampered Ms. Matthews' handling of the case.

Meanwhile, a babysitter Mrs. Jones used said Thursday that the foster mother often used corporal punishment.

Mary Frances Wynn, said she had seen Mrs. Jones ''whip the children whenever they did something wrong.'' She said Albert Smith, his brother Eugene and three adopted children had received spankings in her presence.

HRS records list Mrs. Wynn, who is Mrs. Jones' niece, as the only babysitter for the children. Under HRS rules, any regular caretaker of the children is supposed to be listed with the agency and interviewed.

Mrs. Wynn said Mrs. Jones took a belt or switch and hit the children frequently on the behind whenever they shoved each other or knocked something over. She said she had never seen Mrs. Jones strike a child for religious reasons.

''It was the normal kind of thing to do if they were acting up - nothing special,'' Mrs. Wynn said. ''She was a strict mother. She always has been a little strict.''

In the biographical narrative Mrs. Jones wrote for her application in 1979, Mrs. Jones said she was spanked as a child by her parents. On a check list in the initial application, Mrs. Jones said that she would spank foster children on occasion as a form of punishment.

At the time of the application, HRS rules allowed corporal punishment.

Mrs. Wynn also said that her mother, Bernice Taylor, was the main sitter for the family, especially during the past year. Mrs. Wynn said her mother also spanked the children from time to time.

Bernice Taylor, who is Rosa Lee Jones' sister, is not listed in HRS records as the babysitter for the foster children in the family.

''I really haven't taken care of the children for a year or so, though I see them,'' Mrs. Wynn said. ''My mother took them to her home in Lakeland or babysat them at Rosa Lee's home.''

Bernice Taylor declined to comment when reached at her Lakeland home.

Greg Mathison, the local district administrator for HRS, said that although the children may have stayed with Mrs. Taylor, Mrs. Jones' failure to report her as a babysitter did not appear to be a violation of HRS policy.

Using another babysitter is okay ''if it's sporadic sitting and not a regularly planned thing,'' he said.