Antioch school district adds to payout in torture, death of Jazzmin Davis

By John Simerman

Contra Costa Times

The Antioch Unified School District has agreed to a hefty settlement with the twin brother of a 15-year-old Antioch girl over the years of torture that authorities said they suffered at the hands of their foster mom, leading to his sister's death in 2008.

A judge sealed terms of the deal, but the payout is believed to reach $750,000 over allegations that school officials dropped the ball on clear signs of abuse of Jazzmin Davis, and failed to respond to her habitual truancy, leaving both twins under violent attack. Superintendent Don Gill could not be reached.

It adds to a $4 million settlement that San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee signed Wednesday in the same case. The San Francisco Human Services Agency oversaw the twins' foster care. Trent Rhorer, the agency's executive director, said it was his agency's largest payout in his 11 years there.

"But it was also the most egregious case of abuse and neglect," he said.

Police found Jazzmin's naked body covered in open sores, scars and bruises on Sept. 2, 2008, the result of years of torture and abuse by their paternal aunt, Shemeeka Davis, their foster mom since they were infants, authorities said. Weapons at the house on Killdeer Drive included a belt with a padlock attached to the end, a clothes iron, a bloody, broken closet rod and carpet tack strips that police said Davis would strafe across the twins' bodies as punishment, police said. Davis, 40, has pleaded not guilty to the twins' abuse and Jazzmin's murder. A trial date is scheduled for March. 14.

Jazzmin's brother, who turned 18 Friday, has myriad physical and mental problems, court documents show. Bay Area News Group is not naming him.

"He's doing the best he can do under the circumstances," said one of his lawyers, Steven Effres.

Child welfare documents revealed that Ann Marie Smith, a veteran San Francisco social worker assigned to the foster twins, violated state regulations that require regular reports from doctors, therapists and others, while she steered Shemeeka Davis toward legal guardianship of the twins.

A San Francisco judge awarded Davis guardianship six days before Jazzmin's death, based largely on Smith's shoddy and misleading reports of a "stable placement." Rhorer said Smith lied about Jazzmin's school attendance -- she hadn't attended Antioch high for a year -- and doctor's appointments for the twins. The lawsuit claimed Smith never climbed the stairs to look at the feces- and urine-stained room where police say Davis abused and tortured the children and locked them in a putrid closet. The agency placed Smith on leave after Jazzmin's death, and she retired, Rhorer said.

"The city admits fault for some of what happened to the kids, certainly through Ann Marie Smith's negligence as a caseworker," Rhorer said. "We think the $4 million, given the amount of trauma "... will at least provide the support he needs to live as healthy a life as he can."

Rhorer also acknowledged weak oversight of Smith's work, saying his agency has improved caseworker supervision. The agency also has quit seeking exemptions from a monthly home visit requirement for some foster children, he said. The agency had kept a biannual schedule with the twins for more than a decade.

Attorneys for Jazzmin's brother cautioned against blame on any one individual. The case highlighted a chain of weak links: welfare workers and supervisors, school staff, a public health nurse and others, said Darren Kessler, an El Cerrito lawyer for Jazzmin's brother.

Last May, the court-appointed advocate for the foster twins, Tali Soltz, agreed to settle with Jazzmin's brother for $100,000, court records show.

"This was a failure on a lot of levels "... It was a horror right before their eyes and no one seemed to notice," he said. "It was astounding, actually."

With steep budget cuts for child welfare agencies statewide, the system is vulnerable to more abuse cases even with more competent social workers, he said.