How Could You? Hall of Shame-Debra Zeldin

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 El Cajon , California, foster and adoptive mother (and San Diego County foster parent of the year),Debra Zeldin, “was sentenced to prison Thursday for felony child abuse.”

“Prosecutors said Debra Zeldin fabricated her adopted daughter’s illnesses for years, which nearly killed the girl.
The daughter, Anna Donalson, 18, arrived for the sentencing hearing surrounded by members of her support group, Bikers Against Child Abuse.

Donalson needed support because she spoke in court with her former adoptive mother present.
“I think it’s safe to say that Debra should get the consequences she deserves,” Donalson said in court.

Zeldin had fostered Donalson since the girl was an infant and later adopted her.

The teenager said she has now taken control of her own life after years of abuse, where prosecutors say Zeldin fabricated illnesses and convinced doctors the child was sick.

Donalson ended up being misdiagnosed with several illnesses. She was hooked up to a feeding tube and became severely malnourished before being admitted to Rady Children’s Hospital in 2017. It took months for the girl to recover.

“My childhood was taken from me. My education was taken from me. And I was told I would not make it to be an adult,” Donalson said in court.

Zeldin previously pleaded guilty to one count of felony child abuse, but the prosecutor told the judge the abuse was long lasting.

“This is not a single, isolated incident. This was almost a decade of the defendant falsifying Anna’s symptoms to make her sick, to make her take opiates, to make her have unnecessary procedures, all while not giving her the proper calories and nutrients that she needed to survive,” said Taren Brast, the deputy district attorney in the case.

After her recovery, Donalson was adopted by another family, where she is doing well. She recently took up surfing and now knows it was not her fault.

“It was a game to you. The sicker you made her, the more powerful you felt. You could fight and argue, and you could get more money from the state, and you could get a constant supply of pain meds,” Libby Donalson, the victim’s current adoptive mother, said in court.

Zeldin had fostered more than 50 children over two decades of being San Diego County foster parent, according to her public defender, Victoria Ramirez, who told the court Zeldin had no criminal history.

Zeldin apologized to her daughter and read a statement in court, claiming she had been undergoing therapy since the criminal case against her was filed in 2018.

“I have changed my life from when this happened. I am confident that I am not a danger to others and will not reoffend,” Zeldin told the judge.

El Cajon Judge Roderick Shelton sentenced Zeldin to two years in prison. She was taken into custody in the courtroom.

The felony conviction counts as a violent strike against her, and Zeldin will not be allowed to foster children in the future.”

Longtime foster mom in El Cajon sentenced to prison for child abuse
[CBS 8 11/10/22 by David Gotfredson]

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