Lawsuit: Department of Children and Family Services, Guardians Ad Litem, et al. UPDATED

“A new lawsuit describes claims of mental, physical, and sexual abuse against boys under the care of Clearwater foster parents that date back to 1997.

Close to a dozen agencies that are tasked with keeping children safe are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

In January, Clearwater Police removed nine boys from that Clearwater home.

Raymond Gilbert is a former foster child of Jacklyn and Jerold Logemann, the foster couple who is named in the lawsuit. He said when he first arrived at the Logemann home nearly 20 years ago, he was impressed by the nature of the large, waterfront house.

“You go into this place and it looks really nice on the outside,” Gilbert said.

Miguel Fawcett shared the same feeling when he entered the home in 2012.

“I was like, it’s a mansion,” Fawcett said.

Kyle Maskell said the same. Maskell is 37 years old now but entered the Logemann home more than 25 years ago.

“When I first walked in the door, they had a pool table. They had video games. They had a workout room. They had all of this cool stuff,” Maskell said.

The three men had different reasons for being in the foster care system, but the stories they tell about what happened inside the Clearwater home share disturbing similarities.

“Pretty much hell in the beginning,” Maskell said.

All three men and other plaintiffs in the lawsuit report little to eat, manual labor from sun up to sun down, and what they thought was only happening to them, sexual abuse by their foster father.

“He was touching my shoulder and he would say like oh, can you scratch my back? So, I would scratch his back and stuff like that and he would try and caress my body and touch me,” Fawcett said.

Maskell said the abuse happened to him too.

“He would touch you and he would cuddle up with you and he would massage you and show you pornography,” Maskell said.

Those same allegations are contained in a 669-page lawsuit filed in Pinellas County.

Twenty men and children shared stories about the abuse they endured in the foster home dating back to 1997.

The defendants in the case are large child welfare agencies like the Department of Children and Family Services, Guardians Ad Litem, and the Logemanns.

Adam Hecht is representing the plaintiffs.

“Their stories were so similar. There was a pattern that all of these boys and men had experienced and then I came to the realization that this is real,” Hecht said.

Hecht is also representing Crystal Ferrera. Her son recently lived in the Logemann’s home and was removed.

“I was told very early on that he was refusing to see me and that the foster mother did not communicate with the family,” Ferrera said.

She hasn’t seen her son since 2018. The lawsuit states he experienced the same abuse as dozens of others had for nearly three decades.

According to the lawsuit, children were given little to eat. In order to get more food, they claim they had to give their foster parents massages.

A number of former foster children allege the foster father would take them to another house where they were sexually abused.

“This changed me forever. It killed the little Miguel. It killed the little boy,” Fawcett said.

The Logemanns obtained attorneys with Escobar and Associates shortly after Clearwater Police removed nine boys from their home in January and began an investigation. The investigation was closed in April after the police chief said they could not corroborate claims of criminal conduct.

Dino Michaels and Rene Palomino are representing the couple. Michaels said he can’t answer whether the claims from the men and victims themselves hold any validity because “I haven’t questioned them. I don’t know what their motive is. I don’t know what their precise statements are.”

As for his client, Jacklyn Logemann, he said the accusations against her were all false.

“She is an upstanding citizen. She’s a model citizen. She is a person who fills a void in our society helping these children that need foster care,” Michaels said.

Since January, ABC Action News has requested information from DCF about the foster parents.

It was asked how many children in total the Logemanns have fostered and the allegations.

Initially, a representative with DCF released this statement:

“The heinous allegations, in this case, are troubling, and upon learning of the allegations, the Department took immediate action. We are working with law enforcement and will ensure a full investigation will take place.

The Department is launching a review of the licensing process and related concerns of this home with our contracted providers, as well as our own internal processes. This is in addition to the standard investigations conducted by the Department concerning any allegation of abuse, neglect, or abandonment.

Further details regarding the investigation are confidential per section 39.202, Florida Statutes.”

Attorneys for the Logemanns said that DCF also closed its investigation.

Hecht is continuing his fight for dozens of men like those he is representing.

“It’s got to stop. You know there has got to be a stopping point,” Gilbert said.

“I don’t want them to ever be in the presence of another child. I don’t want nobody to experience what I did,” Fawcett said.

Meanwhile, Hecht said he believed there are one hundred or more men out there who share the same story of abuse.”

Lawsuit claims Clearwater foster family abused children for nearly 30 years
[WTFS 4/18/23 by Vanessa Ariaza]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update:“The lawsuit, which chronicles abuse allegations from the late 1990s to this year, says boys staying there often went hungry and were allowed few necessities. Jacklyn Logemann made the boys do manual labor in the Florida heat but allowed them only five-minute showers, the lawsuit states.

Some boys also were taken to what they referred to as the “river house” in Citrus County, where Jerold Logemann sexually abused them, the complaint states.

The lawsuit states that some of the boys raised alarms with their caseworkers and guardian ad litems over the years, but no action was taken. The Clearwater Police Department as recently as January responded to the home for a report of neglect and abuse but police said they didn’t find evidence to corroborate the allegations. Nine boys staying at the home were removed at the time, however, according to a Clearwater police report.

“At this time, detectives have conducted multiple interviews and cannot corroborate claims of criminal conduct,” Clearwater Police Chief Daniel Slaughter wrote in a statement to the Tampa Bay Times. “The case has been inactivated. If additional information or evidence is developed, the case will be reopened.”

Rick Escobar, an attorney representing the Logemanns, said rumors spread on social media after the boys were removed in January. His firm began an investigation after the boys were removed and shared the results with Clearwater police.”

“The Department of Children and Families completed its own investigation after the January incident. The investigative summary states the agency found no evidence of abuse, however the agency recommended that foster children no longer be sent to the Logemann home.

The agency found during that investigation that Jacklyn Logemann limited who was allowed to come into her home to those who “appeared aligned with her and how she ran her foster home” while she had her foster children.”

“The lawsuit alleges that Jacklyn Logemann told multiple foster boys what to say to child welfare workers in the short time they would see them.

One former foster boy, named only as C.T. in the complaint, lived in the home from 2009 to 2011. C.T. said he would see a child welfare professional for about five minutes, and Jacklyn Logemann would sit next to him during those conversations. Jacklyn Logemann told C.T. his mother did not want to be unified with him, and he would be safer living with the Logemanns. He was required to say he enjoyed living with the Logemanns, the complaint states.

Other instances laid out in the complaint describe times when the boys were rarely alone with a child welfare worker, or if they were, Jacklyn Logemann was in earshot of conversations.

The Department of Children and Families had told the Times that it would release a statement about the case this week, but had not provided it as of Wednesday. The department did release a statement to WTVT-Ch. 13 that states:

“The heinous allegations in this case are troubling and upon learning of the allegations the Department took immediate action. We are working with law enforcement, and will ensure a full investigation will take place. The Department is launching a review of the licensing process and related concerns of this home with our contracted providers, as well as our own internal processes. This is in addition to the standard investigations conducted by the Department concerning any allegation of abuse, neglect or abandonment.”

News coverage of the January incident spurred one former foster child of the Logemanns to reach out to a Tampa lawyer, who then reached out to Adam Hecht, a West Palm Beach lawyer who has handled similar cases, according to Hecht. Hecht met with the first man, heard his story and asked him if he knew any other foster boys who had lived in the home.

The man told Hecht there was one other foster brother he kept in contact with. From there, it snowballed. Hecht said soon he was bombarded with phone calls.

“What everyone says to me is, ‘I thought I was the only one,’” Hecht said. “And that’s what’s so shocking about this. They all thought they were the only one, and they had no idea that when they lived in the home, their foster brothers were going through the same thing.”

Raymond Gilbert was around 12 when he arrived at the Logemanns’ foster home in 2006.

In an interview with the Times, Gilbert described a home where upwards of 12 boys slept on bunk beds downstairs. If the boys wanted anything, they used a phone to call upstairs.

He said food was rationed — the pantry and fridge were locked, he said, and Jacklyn Logemann allowed the boys one toilet paper roll a month and wrote down the date they received tooth paste.

Gilbert said if he misstepped, like telling a child welfare worker that he didn’t like living in the home, he would be grounded, which meant doing manual labor around the Clearwater home or other rental properties owned by the Logemanns.

The lawsuit states that Jerold Logemann sexually abused boys at the “river house.”

“I didn’t really find out that it was happening to other boys until all of this happened … I didn’t know what he was doing to the other boys at the time,” Gilbert said.

The complaint also alleges the Logemanns dropped the boys off in neighborhoods and told them to knock on doors to ask for work. Some, if not all, the money the boys received from the work went to Jacklyn Logemann, the complaint states.

Jonathan Feyes, 36, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said the boys were even told to give their Christmas gift cards to Jacklyn Logemann.

Feyes lived there for four years, which he said were some of the worst times of his life and included instances of sexual abuse.

“I was scared to go upstairs,” Feyes said. “I was scared to be home. I didn’t want to live there, but I knew it was a place to stay.”

He said he told his caseworker about the abuse when he was 14.

“I remember them asking me details of what happened, what if, and I told them everything,” Feyes said.

The Logemanns previously had warned him he would be taken to a new home if he told caseworkers anything. After he reported the abuse, Feyes was transferred to a new, locked-down group home, he said.

“They did exactly what they said they were going to do if I said anything — they were going to put me in a locked up facility,” Feyes said.

He saw news reports about the January incident, which brought the memories flooding back. He said he contemplated suicide. In the weeks since, he has received help.

“I want to help the kids that can’t stand up for themselves, or that won’t stand up for themselves,” Feyes said.”

20 foster boys allege abuse by Clearwater couple over decades, lawsuit states
[Tampa Bay Times 4/27/23 by Michaela MulliganTimes and Natalie Weber]

Update 2:“Clearwater Police said Wednesday the department has reopened an investigation into foster parents who have been accused by numerous children of abuse dating back to the late 1990’s.

Police said the case was reopened after additional people came forward and police needed to conduct additional interviews.

Jacklyn and Jerold Logemann were recently sued by a group of former foster children who stayed with the couple. The lawsuit described claims of mental, physical, and sexual abuse against boys under the care of the duo. Close to a dozen agencies that are tasked with keeping children safe are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

In January, Clearwater Police removed nine boys from that Clearwater home. However, the police investigation was closed last month when the chief said the department couldn’t corroborate claims of criminal conduct.

In the nearly 700-page lawsuit, the children reported little to eat, manual labor from sun up to sun down, and what they thought was only happening to them, sexual abuse by their foster father.

A number of former foster children allege the foster father would take them to another house where they were sexually abused.

The plaintiff’s attorney, Adam Hecht, said since ABC Action News reports and the spread of the allegations, an additional six men have come forward with reports of the same abuse at the hands of the Logemanns. As of Wednesday, Hecht said there are now 26 plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

Attorneys from Escobar and Associates were representing the couple but are no longer due to the lack of criminal charges.

ABC Action News spoke to Rick Escobar Wednesday. He said he believes the reopening of the case is another example of the allegers simply ‘chasing a pot of gold’. Escobar said he is confident in the conclusion of their investigation.

DCF conducted an investigation of the couple, but attorneys for them said the DCF case has been closed.

Family Support Services are part of the lawsuit, but confirmed to ABC Action News the Logemann’s are no longer foster parents.

“It is standard practice to restrict new placements in any foster home during pending investigations by the Department of Children and Families. The Logemann foster home license was scheduled to expire and they chose not to renew. As this family does not have an active license, they do not have children placed in their home. The Department of Children and Families is the regional licensing authority and is responsible for retaining foster care licensing records. Payment information made to foster parents is confidential pursuant to Chapter 39.202, Fla. Stat. We cannot comment on any active litigation.””
Clearwater Police reopens case against couple accused of abuse in lawsuit
[ABC Action News 5/2/23 by Vanessa Araiza]

Update 3:“The Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney’s office will not prosecute a Clearwater couple accused in a lawsuit filed in March of abusing more than 20 foster boys over decades. Prosecutors said they determined the statute of limitations had expired in the cases.

The state attorney’s office said in May it began looking into allegations of sexual abuse against Jacklyn and Jerold Logemann that were contained in the civil complaint.

The state attorney’s office told the Times this month it is “unable to prosecute these cases as the alleged sexual acts brought to us by (the Clearwater Police Department), which would have taken place in our jurisdiction, are barred by the statute of limitations.”

However, some of the alleged sexual acts involving minors may not be precluded from prosecution by the statute of limitations in another county, the state attorney’s office said.

According to the lawsuit, Jerold Logemann took the boys to a place referred to as the “river house” in Citrus County, where he allegedly sexually abused them.

Sgt. Shelley Clark, a spokesperson for the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office, confirmed on Tuesday that detectives are early in their investigation into the Logemanns.

“Detectives are in the preliminary stages to determine what crimes and when they may have occurred in Citrus, if any,” Clark said.

In 2020, Florida passed Donna’s Law, which removes the statute of limitations for “any sexual battery offense involving a victim younger than 18 at the time the offense is committed.”

The bill only applies to crimes committed on or after July 1, 2020, and does not apply retroactively.

The Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney’s Office said that because it determined the statute of limitations had expired in the cases of the people they spoke with, the office could not go further in its analysis to determine if it could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that abuse had occurred.

The Logemanns’ attorney, Rick Escobar, told the Times on Wednesday he was aware that Pinellas prosecutors would not pursue charges and “never expected charges to be filed.”

His law firm conducted its own investigation in Pinellas and Citrus counties and did not find evidence to support the allegations, he said.

“The Citrus County case will not be filed either,” Escobar said. “There is no evidence — here, in Pinellas, in Citrus — there is no evidence, period, that in the least bit corroborates any of these allegations. So we are not concerned.”

In January, the Logemanns were investigated by the Clearwater Police Department for a report of neglect and abuse at their home. Police closed the case after they determined there was not enough evidence to corroborate the allegations. However, police said the case was reopened in May after further allegations.”
State attorney won’t prosecute Clearwater couple accused of abusing foster boys
[Tampa Bay Times 10/26/23 by Michaela Mulligan]