How Could You? Hall of Shame-Robert Stephens III

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 Jacksonville, Florida, a 15-year-old teenager in a group home operated by Panama Youth Services claims he was kidnapped and raped by Robert Stephens III.

‘I was kidnapped and raped’ Foster child calls out group home for negligence

[First Coast News 7/16/18]

“When a child gets into trouble, makes a mistake or is even the victim of a crime, a common reaction is: “Where were the parents?”

But what about when the child is in the care of the state and living at a state-contracted group home? Who is responsible then?

That question has been highlighted by the struggles of a 15-year-old boy who discusses that issue and others in a viral Facebook video. In it, he describes a sexual assault at a nearby park that was detailed in a police report — an assault for which the head of the Jacksonville group home where the boy lived accepts no responsibility.

“If a child leaves their sphere of protection, and doing what they want to do,” said Panama Youth Services CEO Willie Green, “oftentimes they put themselves at risk.”

He later added: “This kid was supposed to be home and he left the home. There was no reason for him to leave the home. When you leave the home, you put yourself at risk.”

John Harrell, regional communications director for the Florida Department of Children and Families, said that the department and the community-based care agencies it contracts with are responsible for the care and safety of foster children.

“It is a sacred mission that we take very seriously,” Harrell said.

In a video that has received about 50,000 views since it was posted on Monday, the teen, a Jacksonville native, details his experiences with the foster care system, in juvenile court and at the Panama Youth Services group home on East 63rd Street. The Times-Union is not naming the boy because of his age and his status as a crime victim.

“They make money off of us. We’re children of the state,” he said in the video. “We’re little peanuts to them. They don’t care.”

In the video, he pleads for someone to help stop his transfer from a home with a foster father he said he has done well with recently to yet another group home in Melbourne against his wishes. He says another group home won’t help him complete probation or make him a better person.

“They think I need to go to a group home for my help. The foster home that I’m at now, I’ve been doing good,” he said. “I’ve been doing everything that I need to do: talking to my caseworker, all of that, talking to my therapist, opening up to people.”

After a Friday morning hearing, the boy was transferred. The judge in the case, Circuit Judge David Gooding, said he can’t comment on specific cases.

‘A LIFE OR DEATH SITUATION’

It was a few hours after sunset on Feb. 24 when a boy walked across the train tracks near Wilder Avenue and East 63rd Street in Jacksonville’s Panama Park neighborhood. He’d only gotten a couple of blocks away from the foster care group home he’d been living in when, according to a police report, a strange man approached and threatened to kill him if he made a sound.

“This guy threatened me with a gun to come with him or he was going to shoot me,” the 15-year-old said in his Facebook video. “So I came with him, ’cause you know, this is a life or death situation.”

According to the police report, the boy walked with his attacker to Tallulah Park nearly a mile away. That’s where, police said, the boy was raped.

The boy said he was out of the group home because he got home late from work and wasn’t allowed inside until the staff shift change at midnight.

Harrell said DCF “does not tolerate” group homes throwing or locking children out.

“If we received evidence that this happened, then we would investigate the group home,” Harrell said.

Green, the group home’s CEO, said the teen’s statement was “definitely not true.”

“I don’t know what happened,” Green said. “We had enough staff, a Sheriff’s Officer here; the child left the home and was gone for a few hours and said that somebody did whatever they did.

“It can be true or it can’t be true.”

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office arrested 39-year-old Robert Stephens III, a convicted felon living just a few blocks away from the scene of the alleged crime. Stephens had served a decade in Florida prisons for a 2003 carjacking and was released in 2014.

On March 12, police matched DNA evidence from the boy’s attack with Stephens, and he was interviewed and arrested on March 13. Stephens was already in the Duval County jail for a violation of probation when police identified him as a suspect. He has since entered not guilty pleas to charges of sexual battery and kidnapping, both first-degree felonies, and remains in jail without bail.

While the victim’s name is redacted in the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office report — which is standard practice for victims of crimes — the boy’s account shared online and with the Times-Union aligns with the contents of the police report, including the time, location and the group home for foster children.

Green was insistent that he was not responsible for what happened.

“We didn’t have a kid ever to be kidnapped out in front of our place and raped,” Green said when first contacted. “That did not happen.”

When told about the police report that lists Panama Youth Services’ address as the one the teen was walking from, Green then said he did not want to be misquoted. He wanted it made clear that a child was not kidnapped from his property.

Panama Youth Services is a group home for boys in foster care who are “tough to place,” Green said. It has a capacity of 12 children.

He said the staff is not negligent, but instead the boys have a history of problematic behaviors, which he said include truancy, frequent school suspensions, ADHD and that “they’re not children that are unfamiliar with the law.”

‘IT’S UNFORGIVING’

Green said foster children have the same opportunities that all other kids have, like going to the movies or pool with friends or having a sleepover away from home. He said they can’t keep the children locked in.

Asked how the facility helps to keep its children safe, Green said a Jacksonville Sheriff’s officer is at the facility from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. and that staff are present on site 24/7. During the day, the ratio is one staffer for every four boys. Overnight the ratio is one to 12.

Green said he’s not sure who should be held accountable when a foster child is harmed.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I know who gets blamed, and that’s the group home or foster parents.”

If a child is kidnapped from a supermarket, he said as an example, people have sympathy for the parents. But, he said, people who aren’t the biological parents don’t get that same consideration.

“It’s unforgiving,” he said.”

Attack on teen in foster care raises questions of responsibility

[The Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville 7/14/18 by Tessa Duvall]

 

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