Authorities want parent back in jail

Pete McCarthy

The Gloucester County

WOODBURY - Freedom could end as early as Wednesday for a former Franklin Township woman who has already been convicted of child endangerment in the 2001 death of her adopted son.

The Gloucester County Prosecutor's Office filed a request to have bail revoked for 41-year-old Heather Lindorff on Friday - three days after learning that she is again being investigated by the state Division of Youth and Family Services for allegedly neglecting her four other adopted children.

She is due in court Wednesday at 10 a.m.

Lindorff, who now lives in Salem County, was sentenced in 2004 to serve six years in state prison, but has been out on $50,000 bail while she tries to appeal the conviction.

"We're outraged and really want the court to revoke bail," said Assistant Prosecutor Mary Pyffer, who filed the request on Friday.

Heather Lindorff and her husband, James, were arrested after their 5-year-old son, Jacob, died of a head injury in 2001.

James Lindorff, 56, was convicted of fourth-degree child abuse and placed on probation.

When the couple was convicted, the remaining four children were placed in the custody of Heather Lindorff's mother, but the children have since been returned to the couple, according to Pyffer.

One child, identified in court documents as 12-year-old James Lindorff, weighs "merely 61 pounds."

The child's physician described him as suffering from "moderate" malnutrition, according to Pyffer.

"It was a significant enough concern that the child was immediately hospitalized," Pyffer reported on Friday.

The child was admitted to Cooper Medical Center in Camden.

Pyffer said she had received this most recent information from DYFS officials and a physician who was called in to examine the children.

The prosecutor was first contacted by DYFS on Tuesday.

Michele Doaman of DYFS reported that the four children were placed in DYFS custody on May 20. DYFS had obtained information that the children had been living with Heather and James Lindorff in Salem County, even though the legal custodian - the children's grandmother - lived elsewhere.

A doctor's evaluation of the other children, Jamie, 15; Jackie, 14; and John, 10, revealed "continued abuse and neglect at the hands of Heather Lindorff," according to Pyffer's motion.

The court document asks that Judge Walter Marshall Jr. revoke Mrs. Lindorff's bail and order "her immediate incarceration and imposition of sentence."

Meanwhile, Salem County officials have already begun their investigation into the allegations there.

"We have a full-court press on in terms of investigating this," said Salem County Prosecutor John T. Lenahan.

He said there are multi-jurisdictional issues because the Lindorffs live in Salem County, the grandmother who was supposed to have custody of the children lives in Vineland, and Heather Lindorff is free on bail on the child endangerment conviction in Gloucester County.

DYFS is also investigating the allegations of abuse, according to Pyffer. The children are currently in the state's custody.

DYFS reportedly closed the case against the Lindorffs in 2003 after a court order granted custody of the children to Mrs. Lindorff's mother.

Jacob Lindorff died in December 2001 as the result of blunt force trauma to the head, which prosecutors insisted was the result of child abuse. The boy was also found to have second-degree burns on his feet, hemorrhaging in one eye and bruises to his body.

At trial, Heather Lindorff was convicted of child endangerment but found not guilty of manslaughter and aggravated assault.

Defense attorney John Morris declined to comment on Friday, saying he will wait until Wednesday's hearing.