Foster mother faces new charges

Press-Enterprise, The (Riverside, CA)

Foster mother faces new charges : Prosecutors allege she has abused six children, including the tot who died Wednesday.

Author: Lisa O'Neill Hill and Laurie Koch Thrower; The Press-Enterprise

RIVERSIDE

When he died, 23-month-old foster child Andrew Ibarra had a broken rib, a hemorrhage in his brain, bruises on his head, back, nose and ear and a punctured lip.

He is one of six foster children who prosecutors accuse Cynthia Marie Jackson of abusing.

On Friday, the Riverside County district attorney's office filed seven felony charges -- including murder -- against Jackson. Prosecutors say the 37-year-old Riverside woman has endangered the lives of five other foster children who have been in her care.

Before a court hearing in which Jackson agreed to have her arraignment postponed until Aug. 4, her husband, Jeffery Jackson, said his wife of 17 years has done nothing wrong. The couple had planned to adopt Andrew, who died Wednesday at Parkview Community Hospital.

"It's ridiculous," he said of the charges. "My wife has been around kids all her life."

Andrew, whose biological mother lives in San Bernardino County, was a hyper child who often banged his head against the wall behind his bed, Jeffery Jackson said.

"We used to go in every night to put pillows to keep him from bumping his head," he said.

Prosecutors tell a different story.

They say Andrew was the victim of ongoing abuse. All but one of the children Cynthia Jackson is accused of endangering suffered broken bones, Deputy District Attorney Deena Bennett said.

Prosecutors filed the charges after reviewing Child Protective Services files and determining that Jackson's explanations were inconsistent with the children's injuries, Bennett said.

Andrew is the second child to die in the Riverside County foster-care program within a year. A foster mother is charged with killing 4-year-old Andrew Setzer in 1999 in an unlicensed foster-care home. Her husband also was charged in connection with the death.

After Andrew Setzer's death, the county expanded its system for checking criminal backgrounds and removed several children from foster care.

"You certainly think that you've got everything covered, and then something else happens and you have to find out why," Riverside County Supervisor Tom Mullen said.

Mullen said the board would likely call for a complete report from Child Protective Services on the case.

"It's got to stop," he said.

Jackson, operating Jackson Foster Family Home, was licensed in July 1997, when she lived in an Arlington Avenue apartment, according to the California Department of Social Services' Community Care Licensing.

Although a judge had issued a warrant for Jackson's arrest in 1993 after she failed to appear in court for speeding and driving without a valid license, a background check did not turn up "anything that would in our judgment disqualify her," said Kevin Gaines, spokesman for the Department of Public Social Services.

In May 1998, she was allowed to increase the number of children she cared for from three to four. She was licensed to care for up to four children at her Via San Jose home in April 1999.

County and state officials say there was nothing to indicate Andrew Ibarra was in danger.

"There weren't any red flags," said Robert Gonzalez, district manager for the California Department of Social Services' Community Care Licensing.

But Jackson has been investigated in the past.

Two county social workers and a nurse reported three abuse allegations over a three-year period. Those allegations were investigated by social workers trained to spot abuse who are called in on an emergency basis. The allegations were not substantiated, said Dennis Boyles, director of Riverside County's Department of Public Social Services.

None of the complaints involved Andrew Ibarra, and additional details were not available.

"The social workers were very comfortable in the determination they made," Boyles said. "There was no doubt."

Children are typically not removed from a foster home unless the suspicions are substantiated, Boyles said. And he said it is not unusual for a foster home to be the target of several complaints.

Gonzalez said the state has received one complaint about Jackson since she was licensed. Six allegations were part of that complaint, which was investigated in June 1999.

Two of the allegations were substantiated, he said. The others were unfounded or could not be substantiated.

Jackson was cited for failing to make the children available for court-ordered parental visits.

She also was cited when a former foster child was sent to a new home without a Medi-Cal card and complete medical records.

An analyst investigated Jackson in March 1999 after she reported that a foster child had fallen down the stairs of her home, Gonzalez said. Jackson and her husband were ordered to have a hand rail installed.

Prosecutors now allege that the child did not fall on his own. Among the charges filed Friday was a count connected with the incident that left Tyler D., a 15-month-old boy, with a broken bone.

Jackson was arrested Wednesday after firefighters and police were called to her three-bedroom home when Andrew stopped breathing. She told investigators that the boy had hurt himself a day earlier when he fell from a slide.

Police said her story was inconsistent with the boy's injuries.

Two other children, Riverside County brothers ages 1 and 2, were also living with Jackson and her husband. Both have been placed in protective custody. Among the charges filed Friday was a count that Jackson had endangered the 2-year-old.

Jackson was being held at the Robert Presley Detention Center in downtown Riverside. Bail has been set at $250,000.

State officials suspended Jackson's license Friday.

Funeral arrangements for Andrew are pending.