'This child was tortured'

'This child was tortured'

Judge sends Isaac's foster mother to prison.

July 3, 2007

Jack Kresnak

Free Press

Isaac Lethbridge, a 2-year-old whose death highlighted problems in Michigan's child welfare system, died in agony after being burned with a hot iron and beaten repeatedly by someone in the Detroit foster home of Charlsie Adams-Rogers, a Detroit judge said Monday.

"Isaac screamed and he screamed and he screamed, and Mrs. Rogers was there and did absolutely nothing," Wayne County Circuit Judge Vera Massey Jones said as she sentenced Adams-Rogers to 5 1/2 to 15 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter.

"This child was tortured," Jones said. "The defendant was there, and it was her responsibility to stop it."

Adams-Rogers, 60, sat with head slightly bowed as she listened to the judge. A jury also found her guilty of second-degree child abuse, a four-year felony, but Jones sentenced her on that charge to time served -- the two weeks since she was jailed after her June 18 convictions.

Others -- particularly social workers from the Lula Belle Stewart Center and whoever in Adams-Rogers' home actually abused the boy -- also share the blame for what happened to Isaac, Jones said. Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Lisa Lindsey said the investigation continues and others may be charged.

The case was the subject of a three-part series in the Free Press in January that documented failings in the state's foster care system.

Karl Troy, the former Lula Belle foster care worker for Isaac and his 4-year-old sister, was given immunity to testify at the trial. According to his testimony, he and others at the agency failed to closely monitor the children's care and failed to address suspicions that someone was abusing the boy.

"The gentleman who was given immunity ... he never did the job," Jones said.

"I don't want to talk about what the social workers had done because I didn't see where they did anything that they should have done," the judge said. "Lula Belle Stewart and the social workers placed infants in a home where you have these young women and nobody is checking on anything." While in the home, Isaac and his sister often were watched by Adams-Rogers' then 12- and 18-year-old adopted daughters.

When told of the judge's comments, Ken Merritt, a Southfield lawyer who represents the Detroit-based Lula Belle agency, said the judge doesn't understand the complexities of the system.

"I'm not blaming her for it; she just doesn't have all the facts," Merritt said. "There are difficulties placing children in homes. There's not a whole lot of homes out there that are available that would be great for a child. You put them where you can. Your obligation is to place them somewhere."

Given a chance by Jones to say something, Adams-Rogers apologized. "I'm sorry about what did happen," she said in a barely audible voice. "But I never intended for any of this to ever happen in my home, and I do apologize."

Isaac's father, Matthew Lethbridge of Canton, said, "Her crime was one of the worst kinds of crimes. While acting like she wanted to help children and cared for so much about them, she really did not care at all. ... Isaac would be alive today had she done the right thing."

But Adams-Rogers daughter Dana Rogers said her mother was "convicted for something she did not do."

Laura Champagne, deputy director of the Michigan Department of Human Services, called Isaac's death a needless tragedy.

"An accredited private child placing agency was responsible for monitoring the foster home to ensure that this child was safe and properly cared for," Champagne said. "Now the court has determined that the foster parent failed to ensure the safety of this child and has granted some measure of justice for Isaac Lethbridge."

Much of the testimony in the trial addressed the emotional and behavioral problems of a 12-year-old girl, a former foster child adopted by Adams-Rogers whom police and prosecutors identified as the person who likely killed Isaac.

The judge wasn't so sure.

"Everybody wants to blame everything on her," the judge said, referring to the girl, now 13. But "I don't think any of us knows who killed the baby," Jones said.

She noted that there were at least two other adults in the home when Isaac died -- Deborah Roberts, an unemployed woman taken in by Adams-Rogers to help care for the foster children, and Leanthea Jones, now 19, the biological half-sister of the 13-year-old girl. Both were adopted by Adams-Rogers last year.

The judge had rebuked Leanthea Jones, who is not related to the judge, for an angry demeanor, rude responses and memory lapses at the trial. But the judge noted that the case was about Adams-Rogers and her "willful and wanton negligence" in failing to carry out her legal duty to protect foster children in her home.

"This is not a 'whodunit.' It's a 'on-whose-watch-it-was done,' " the judge said.

Contact JACK KRESNAK at 313-223-4544 or jkresnak@freepress.com.