Pubdate: Mon, 17 Sep 2007
Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL)
Copyright: 2007 Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Contact:  http://www.heraldtribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/398
Author: MICHAEL A. SCARCELLA

CHILD NEGLECT CHARGES ARE OFTEN TOUGH TO PROVE

BRADENTON -- Drug needles were scattered around the  house and the 
refrigerator did not work. Rotten food  clung to dirty dishes. A 
notice on the door said the  power was about to be turned off.

The authorities called the living conditions at Luz M.  Jaime's house 
in Bradenton deplorable, and Manatee  County sheriff's investigators 
arrested Jaime, 40, on a  child neglect charge.

A few miles away, Jaime's 11-year-old daughter was  living at a 
reputed safe-haven for prostitutes. Jaime  knew the man running the 
escort service there, and she  believed her daughter would be safe in 
his company.

Despite what appear to be egregious circumstances, the  state 
recently declined to prosecute the child neglect  charge. Prosecutors 
said the state could not prove at  trial that Jaime knew her behavior 
created an imminent,  potentially life-threatening danger for her 
daughter, who was not physically injured.

Prosecutors in Florida often abandon child neglect and  abuse charges 
because the burden of proof has been set  high by the appellate 
courts. The dropped charges are a  constant source of frustration for 
law enforcement  officers.

Criminal charges rooted in cases of so-called "simple  neglect," 
where a person shows a temporary lapse of  sound judgment, have been 
deemed unconstitutional. The  appellate courts have shown a 
preference toward resolving abuse and neglect allegations in 
family  court, not in the criminal arena.

Still, not every neglect and abuse charge is dropped.  Cases 
involving seriously injured children are  routinely prosecuted. And 
prosecutors and law  enforcement officers say the interests of the 
children  -- which includes removing the victims from their  parents 
- -- are paramount.

"What's most important, on everyone's mind, is that the  children are 
safe. That helps out any frustration,  knowing that the kids are 
safe," said Capt. Kris  Ministral, who heads the Sheriff's Office 
child  protection services unit.

A relative of Luz Jaime in New York has expressed  interest in 
adopting Jaime's son and two daughters, who  are under the age of 13, 
according to court records.

After the dropped charge, Jaime did not walk away  unpunished. She 
was sentenced this month to three years  in prison and to a year of 
probation for violating her  probation in a Manatee County theft case.

"Drugs have affected my attitude, my outlook and my  lifestyle," 
Jaime said in a jailhouse letter to a  judge. "I know that I have a 
chronic drug problem and  have become a drug offender, not 
necessarily a  criminal."

In 2000, the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Lakeland,  which 
oversees courts in Manatee, Sarasota and  Charlotte counties, 
reversed a child neglect conviction  against a Hillsborough County 
man whose home was in  worse condition than the house in the 600 
block of 68th  Avenue West where Jaime lived.

At David Arnold's trailer, a newspaper shielded a knife  on the 
floor. Nails protruded from a board. A shredded  mattress in the 
child's room exposed the coils. An  investigator wrote about the 
"skittering" cockroaches  and the "grimy, smelly and repulsive" odor 
in the  house.

The appellate court said the facts did not show a  "reasonably 
expected" potential risk for serious harm.  A mere potential for 
injury is not enough to secure a  conviction. A person's neglect, the 
court said, must be  willful.

"It is apparent that child neglect is a difficult (but  we think not 
impossible) crime to prove," an appellate  court judge, Darryl 
Casanueva, wrote in the opinion,  which is routinely cited in dropped 
neglect cases.

In some cases, a neglect charge is reduced and  prosecuted as the 
misdemeanor crime of contributing to  the delinquency of a minor. 
That happened in a recent  Sarasota case in which a mother was 
charged with neglect for leaving her children at a drug house.

Tamara D. Lightfoot, 23, was sentenced to probation.  Family members 
had made several abuse complaints this  year against Lightfoot.

Julie Binkley, an assistant state attorney in  Bradenton, declined 
the child neglect charge against  Jaime in part because jurors were 
not likely to deem  the facts worse than those against Arnold.

Jaime's daughter, according to sheriff's reports, said  she enjoyed 
living at the known-prostitution house in  the 4000 block of Ninth 
Street East in Bradenton  because she was allowed to use a computer there.

Her mother called on occasion, checking in. One time,  Jaime asked 
her daughter whether anyone had touched  her. The girl said she was 
not being abused, and so  Jaime allowed her to stay there longer.

The girl said she wanted to come home, but Jaime  reportedly said 
"she had too much going on" at her  house to allow her daughter to 
return, according to  sheriff's reports.

At the prostitution house, the girl said people were  "fighting" over her.

"I also don't like being around the drugs, and all the  strange 
people are coming over, staying for a few  minutes and leaving," 
Jaime's daughter told  investigators. "I miss my mom."

Authorities said the girl cut her foot after stepping  on a crack 
pipe at the house. She said she washed her  foot but did not get 
medical treatment.

Jaime admitted using crack cocaine and heroin the night  before she 
was arrested. She told a sheriff's deputy  that she is unfit to raise children.

She said in her letter to a judge that she needs to  turn her life around.

"I am a good woman with strong values," Jaime said in  her note, 
which was filed a week after the state  abandoned the neglect case.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart