How Could You? Hall of Shame- Brandon J. Weathers UPDATED
This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.
From Omaha, Nebraska, Former Foster Father Brandon J. Weathers,38, “has been arrested after police say he sexually abused his 13-year-old foster daughter.
The 38-year-old man has been charged with five counts of first-degree sexual assault. He is being held at the Douglas County Correctional Center without bond.
Prosecutors said he abused the girl during a six-month period this year. She told authorities they had sex multiple times.
The man and his wife became foster parents for the girl and her 10-year-old sister in September 2013. The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services removed the girls from the home in June.”
Prosecutor: Man abused foster daughter[Journal Star 11/18/14 by Associated Press]
“A former foster parent has been charged with five counts of first-degree sexual assault involving the 13-year-old girl the state placed in his care.
Brandon J. Weathers, 38, is in the Douglas County Correctional Center, facing 15 years to life in prison on each count. After hearing prosecutors’ allegations that Weathers had sexually abused the girl over a six-month period, a judge ordered him to be held without bail.
Weathers and his wife became foster parents in September 2013 — despite Weathers’ three felony convictions and two prison stints in the 1990s and early 2000s.
The couple also fostered the alleged victim’s 10-year-old sister. At another point, they had two boys placed with them.
Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman Kathie Osterman said Weathers and his wife “completed all processes necessary including a home study and background checks.”
Weathers had been convicted of two counts of burglary and one count of theft. He finished his last prison term in August 2001.[
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Regarding Weathers’ record, Osterman pointed to state regulations that allow felons to be foster parents if more than five years pass from a conviction in certain crimes, such as burglary and theft. Convictions for other crimes, such as child abuse and sex assault, automatically disqualify a person.
Any foster children were removed from the Weathers home after the allegations came to light, Osterman said.
According to an Omaha police affidavit:
Brandon Weathers and his wife, LaQuela, became foster parents for two sisters, ages 13 and 10, earlier this year.
At the start of June, the girls went to a summer camp. While walking to an activity with a volunteer, the 13-year-old girl told her younger sister that she was no longer a virgin. The volunteer told them that it was an inappropriate conversation and that they should be quiet.
Later that day, the volunteer overheard the 13-year-old girl telling her brother that she “had sex with Mr. Brandon.”
The 13-year-old also wrote “I love Brandon” while doing crafts.
A camp counselor called Child Protective Services on June 4 and reported those facts.
Following that report, HHS removed the girl and her sister from the Weathers home.
The 13-year-old was then interviewed at Project Harmony, a collaborative center where Omaha police and specialists investigate child abuse. She denied having any sexual contact with Weathers.
In July, the 13-year-old told her therapists that Weathers had sex with her several times. After one episode, she said Weathers told her he had to go to the store to get a pill because he was afraid “something got inside her.” He returned with the pill, but the girl refused to take it.
Asked why she hadn’t told Project Harmony interviewers about that, the girl said that she was “too scared” and that Weathers told her that she would get to live with him again if she kept quiet.
The girl said he also told her not to tell anyone, “because he would go to jail as a rapist.”
In August, the girl told a Project Harmony forensic interviewer about several sexual assaults by Weathers.
Even after the girl was removed, Weathers continued to get in touch with her — supplying her with cellphones at least three different times so the two could text and meet, Omaha police allege. He once paid a classmate of hers $40 to deliver a cellphone to her, police say.
In October, the girl had a positive pregnancy test. She eventually told her foster mother that Weathers had had sex with her in his car.
This month, the girl told a Project Harmony interviewer that she and Weathers had sex “too many times to count.”
Weathers could not be reached for comment.
The girl said Weathers told her he was “lucky to have me” and “would never let me go.”
She told investigators that made her feel good.
“Like he loves me,” she said.”
Foster dad accused of sex with girl, 13[Star Herald 11/18/14 by Todd Cooper]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Update:“A suspected child predator used his authority as a trusted foster parent to allegedly rape a young girl. Thursday, we learned there may be more victims out there.
New Sex Allegations Against Foster Parent[KMTV 1/8/15 by Rebekah Rae]
Update 2:A search of The Nebraska court records shows that on
"06-18-2015
Hearing held on defendant's motion to suppress. Defendant appeared
with counsel, Rob Marcuzzo. State appeared by Don Kleine. Evidence
adduced. Briefs, if any, to be submitted by June 26, 2015 and then
matter will be taken under advisement. "
on 7/1/15,he wrote a letter.
Update 3:"A man accused of raping his then-13-year-old foster daughter told a Nebraska jury in court that he impregnated her with a syringe.
While representing himself at trial, Brandon Weathers explained to a jury Tuesday that his foster daughter ‘dreamed of becoming pregnant,’ and that at worse he is guilty of ‘child abuse or something’ since he claims to have never had sex with her, Omaha.com reported.
‘We’re not here for first-degree sexual assault of a child,’ Weathers told the courtroom. ‘We’re here for child abuse.’
However, Brenda Beadle, the chief deputy Douglas County attorney and prosecutor in the case called his claims ‘cockamamie,’ as he allegedly sexually abused the girl over a six-month period.
The 39-year-old man is facing 15 years to life in prison on each of the two counts of sexual assault of a child he has been charged with.
Despite the fact that Weathers has three felony convictions and served two prison stints in the 1990s and early 2000s, he and his then-wife, LaQuela Chism Weathers, became fosters parents in September 2013.
Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman Kathie Osterman said Weathers and his wife ‘completed all processes necessary including a home study and background checks,’ the Scottsbluff Star-Herald reported.
Weathers finished his last prison term in August 2001 after he was convicted of two counts of burglary and one count of theft.
Osterman said that Nebraska state regulations allow felons to become foster parents if more than five years pass from a conviction in certain crimes such as burglary and theft.
In addition to the alleged victim, the couple also fostered her 10-year-old sister. They also had two boys placed with them at another point in time, the Star Herald reported.
After the allegations against Weathers came to light, all of the foster children were removed from the home.
During Tuesday’s court preceding, Beadle explained that the alleged victim had a rough childhood and that she was removed from her birth mother at the age of four along with her siblings.
Beadle said that the girl and her siblings bounced around from foster home to foster home before arriving at the Weathers’ home in April 2014.
The alleged victim testified in court Tuesday, which was her 15th birthday, about the abuse that occurred while living at the Weathers’ house in the two months she was there, and the four months afterward that he continued to contact her, Omaha.com reported.
She told the courtroom while testifying that she was a virgin when she arrived at the Weathers’ house, and that he subjected her to oral and vaginal sex ‘more times than she could count,’ Omaha.com reported.
The alleged victim also claimed that Weathers gave her a cellphone so that he could track her and send her text messages.
However, while at summer camp about two months into the abuse, the alleged victim told her little sister that she wasn’t a virgin anymore and told her brother that she had sex with ‘Mr Brandon,’ Omaha.com reported.
Child Protective Services was contacted by a camp counselor who overheard the conversation. But when she was interviewed by police at the time, she denied having sex with anyone other than a boy her age.
She testified in court that she initially lied because she ‘loved him,’ referencing Weathers.
CPS officials removed her and her younger sister from the home, and they bounced again from foster home to foster home, Beadle said in court.
The alleged victim testified that Weathers would track her down and they would have sex in his car, back at his home and even at his workplace, Omaha.com reported.
She testified that while at his workplace, Weathers pulled out a plastic syringe and told her that he was going to insert the syringe to ‘protect himself’ from any trouble that he might get in and then after they had sex, Omaha.com reported.
Weathers also reportedly tried to force the victim into taking a morning-after pill, but she refused
She discovered that she was pregnant in November 2014, but suffered a miscarriage shortly after.
Authorities who were already investigating Weathers collected the tissue from the fetal sample and DNA tests showed that he was the father, Beadle told the courtroom.
During questioning by Beadle, Weathers told the courtroom that his foster daughter had a crush on him.
‘I helped her indulge a fantasy — it was very stupid on my part,’ Weathers told jurors. ‘We never had sex. Did we use a syringe? We did. She even told me what her menstrual cycle was. She told me, and we timed it perfectly.
‘(But) it doesn’t fit the narrative of the county attorney and the police.’
Beadle said that this is a classic case of a sex predator grooming his child victim, showering her with attention, giving her cellphones, texting her tickling her, touching her and raping her, Omaha.com reported. “
Man accused of raping his 13-year-old foster daughter claims that he impregnated her with a syringe and did NOT sexually assault her [Daily Mail 12/11/15 by Regina F.Graham]
“A jury has found an Omaha man guilty of impregnating his teenage foster daughter.
The jury found Brandon Weathers guilty of two counts of child sexual abuse.
The 15-year-old victim, who arrived at Weathers’ home in September of 2013, took the stand during the trial, testifying about multiple times she said Brandon Weathers sexually abused her.
Then, in November of 2013, she found out she was pregnant. She eventually suffered a miscarriage.
But investigators already in contact with her were able to collect DNA and match it to Weathers.
Investigators are now preparing to use that DNA to see if Weather is connected to any other crimes.
Weathers will be sentenced in February.”
Jury finds man guilty of child sexual abuse [KETV 12/11/15]
Update 4:“A Nebraska man was sentenced to at least a century in prison for raping his teenage foster daughter.
Brandon Weathers, 39, said that he injected the 13-year-old girl with a syringe of his semen because she wanted to get pregnant.
Representing himself, Weathers unsuccessfully argued that he was, at most, guilty of “child abuse or something,” as he continually asserted he never had sex with the girl, according to reports.
But his argument fell on deaf ears, as the convicted felon was sentenced to 100 to 160 years in prison for two counts of sexual assault of a child,the Omaha World-Herald reported.
“I’ve heard a lot of things, working in this building over the years. And that sir is one of the most ridiculous,” Douglas County Judge Shelley Stratman said to Weathers of his syringe defense during sentencing.
“You are a menace. You are a threat to society. You’re one of the worst I’ve seen,” she said.
Despite Weathers’ three felony convictions and stints in prison in the 1990s and early 2000s, he and his wife—who has since filed for divorce— were approved to become foster parents in 2013.
State policy does not exclude felons from becoming foster parents, as long as the crimes committed do not include murder, child abuse or sex offenses.
In addition to the victim, the couple fostered the girl’s 10-year-old sister, and at one point, two boys.
The girl, now 15, testified in December that Weathers quickly went from showering her with affection in a fatherly way she never experienced before to raping her.
She told her younger sister within two months of moving into the home that she and “Mr. Brandon” had been having sex.
A camp counselor overheard the confession and alerted Health and Human Services officials, who removed the girls from the home.
But the separation did not prevent further abuse, as officials said Weathers continued to sexually assault the girl and supplied her with pay-as-you-go cell phones to stay in touch.
She told a Project Harmony interviewer that she and Weathers had sex “too many times to count,” and that her foster father said he was “lucky to have me” and “would never let me go,” in every way possible,” said prosecutor Brenda Beadle, the Omaha World-Herald wrote.
“What he caused this victim and continues to cause her is not even comprehensible. Fortunately, she is a very smart, strong, loving girl with a wonderful network of support.”
With mandatory terms for child sex crimes, Weathers won’t be eligible for parole for 65 years. Absent parole, he cannot be released for 95 years.”
Man Convicted of Raping 13-Year-Old Foster Daughter Gets 100 Years in Prison [Inside Edition 2/19/16]
Update 5:“New DNA evidence has led local investigators to a suspected serial rapist.
Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine believes Brandon Weathers is responsible for a string of cold-case rapes in North Omaha between 2002 and 2004. Kleine said: “This shows us the power of forensic DNA evidence.”
Investigators found Weathers in prison, already serving 100-160 years for another rape. His victim in that case was his 13 year-old foster daughter. The sexual assault resulted in a pregnancy.
WOWT 6 News checked Weathers’ criminal history and discovered that before he was a foster parent, Weathers was already a felon. He was convicted for theft and burglary.
The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services prohibits some felons from becoming foster parents – including anyone convicted of abuse, neglect, or a violent crime. Other felons, however, are eligible to become foster parents five years after their conviction or at the Department’s discretion.
Lisa Blunt, Chief Operating Officer at the Child Saving Institute, told WOWT 6 News: “That’s the minority of the folks who wish to become foster parents. We have so many wonderful foster parents in the community. And they serve a vital role.”
Suspected serial rapist was also a foster dad; raped, impregnated foster daughter
[WOWT 6/14/17 by Brandon Scott]
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