How Could You? Hall of Shame-Kira Friedman case-Child Death 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 Bemidji, Minnesota, a 2-year-old foster daughter,Kira Friedman, was ” found dead at about 11:30 a.m. Sunday[June 5, 2016]. Friedman was left unattended in a shower and apparently drowned in a laundry tote, according to a criminal complaint.”
“A 38-year-old man was charged Wednesday in connection with the drowning of a 2-year-old girl who was found in the bloodied basement of the family’s Bemidji home with injuries on her body, according to court documents.
Nathan Daniel Jackson Sr. told police that Kira Friedman, one of two foster children living in the tribal-licensed home, needed a shower about 7:30 a.m. Sunday after she soiled herself. He then left her unattended in a shower, which had an 18-gallon plastic bin in it.
He returned to find the girl in the bin, which was filled with water, the second-degree manslaughter charges cite him as saying.
The home was not licensed as a foster care provider by the state Department of Human Services (DHS), but instead through the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, which is based in Cass Lake, said DHS spokeswoman Karen Smigielski.
Part of the band’s mission, it explains on its website, is to seek “extended family members or other Native Families to care for children who need to be placed out of the home.”
Criminal background checks are part of the screening of families, according to the band’s website. Jackson’s criminal history in Minnesota includes convictions for property damage, disorderly conduct, assault, drunken driving and two convictions for theft.
Band officials did not return calls for comment Thursday about the history of Jackson and his fiancée, Amanda White, as foster care providers.
On the same day that Jackson was charged, county officials petitioned the court to terminate the parental rights of Jackson and White, who lives with him and their five children, ages 1 to 13.
The county said in its petition that it believes that the children are “in need of protection … and would be concerned for their safety if they were returned to the care” of Jackson and White at this time.
The petition noted five times, from April 2013 to June 2015, when county Health and Human Services officials addressed concerns with the family’s care of the foster children.
Three involved neglect, with all ruled unsubstantiated. The other two involved mental health assessments for one of their children.
Jackson on Wednesday provided to police a urine sample, which will be tested for methamphetamine abuse, one of the affidavits read. A child protection investigator was told Jackson was using meth and other illicit drugs. In the meantime, Jackson remains jailed in lieu of $100,000 bail.
Jackson acknowledged to a detective that he had a drug problem, the court document continued, and some of the children in the home told authorities that lately he had been having trouble sleeping at night.
Blood found in home
Jackson told police that the girl “did not seem normal” after he found her in the bin but that she was awake and breathing, the charging document continued. He dressed her and laid her in her bed, according to the criminal complaint.
Police were called to the home in the… about 11:30 a.m. on a report that the girl was unresponsive. They found the child on her back in a toddler bed, the complaint said.
She was cold to the touch, according to search warrant affidavits filed in Beltrami County District Court by police. The documents noted bruises and superficial cuts on Kira’s body.
The affidavits also mentioned blood detected on a wall near the shower and on the front of the washer and dryer.
White told police that she had put Kira to bed at 9:30 the previous night. She said one of her children woke her up the next day to tell her the girl was not breathing.
White told police they typically bathed the toddler in a bathtub. She said the toddler was “nonverbal” and had just learned to walk eight days before her birthday on April 21 in Duluth.
In keeping with Kira’s American Indian tradition, a through-the-night visitation was scheduled for her starting Thursday night at the Fond du Lac Head Start gymnasium in Cloquet and continuing until 10 a.m. Friday, when a traditional service begins. Along with her birth parents, Kira is survived by a sister and two brothers.”
Charges: Girl, 2, in Minn. foster home drowns in care of admitted drug user[Star Tribune 6/10/16 by Paul Walsh and Brandon Stahl]
“An investigator said in the search warrant affidavit that White told dispatch she could not move Friedman’s head to start CPR.
Jackson is being held in the Beltrami County Jail and his next court appearance is set for June 20. Each count of second-degree manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, a fine of $20,000 or both.”
Foster parent may have been on drugs in death of 2-year-old in Bemidji [Inforum.com 6/9/16]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Update:”A social worker urged that 2-year-old Kira Friedman be removed from her foster parents more than a year before the girl drowned in their home, according to court records.
Emelie Rivera, an intake and assessment coordinator with the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, filed a report in March 2015 listing concerns about past abuse allegations and poor supervision in the Bemidji foster home of Nathan Jackson and Amanda Darlyne White, where Kira had been since December 2014.
About two months later, Leech Lake accepted jurisdiction over the case following a request by Rivera. However, over the next year the tribe still kept the girl in the foster home, which was licensed by Leech Lake.
Kira’s grandmother, Penny Wait, said she was aware of concerns at the home before the girl died, but could not reach a tribal social worker after the case had been transferred.
“Leech Lake would never answer us,” she said.
Jackson, 38, has been charged with two counts of second-degree manslaughter after he told police that he left Kira unattended in a shower with an 18-gallon plastic bin on June 5, according to the criminal charge. He told police that when he returned the tote was full of water. Kira was nonverbal and just learned to walk eight days before her second birthday in April.
Jackson and White’s foster home had been investigated at least three times since April 2013 for alleged neglect. Each was unsubstantiated, according to court records.
In her March 2015 report, Rivera wrote that with eight children in the home, “this agency has received multiple reports, since the time of [Kira’s] placement that there is significant discord in the home between biological and foster children.”
She also wrote that “issues of past supervision” resulted in “serious injury to a former foster child and a facility investigation.”
Rivera noted that no maltreatment was found in that investigation, however another inquiry in January 2015 followed “significant bruising on one of the foster children. It was found that the biological children of the foster parent had assaulted the child,” she wrote.
Rivera declined to comment for this story. A Leech Lake spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
A St. Louis County social worker, Michelle Pederson, wrote in an April 2015 court report that she had no concerns about Kira being in the foster home, and noted that the girl was placed there at the request of her biological mother. The foster parents were being considered as possible adoptive parents for the girl, Pederson wrote.
“Kira is doing well and appears to be happy and attached” to the foster parents, she wrote.”
Social worker wanted girl out of Bemidji foster home a year before 2-year-old died there[Star Tribune 7/5/16 by Brandon Stahl]
Update 2: “A 39-year-old man is scheduled to be sentenced February 24th in the death of his foster child who drowned in a shower at their home in Bemidji.
Nathan Jackson has pleaded guilty to one charge of second degree manslaughter by negligence. Two-year-old Kira Friedman died last June fifth at a home where Jackson lived with his children and a former fiancee.
He testified that he took methamphetamines the night before the incident and early the following morning — and he put Kira in a shower because she soiled her diaper, and he left her there when he went off to do laundry.
She was later found dead in the shower.”
February sentencing for Bemidji man in death of foster child [KFGO 1/22/17]
“The foster mother of a 2-year-old girl who drowned last June has been charged with child neglect.
Amanda White, 33, of Bemidji, lived with and was engaged to the Bemidji man convicted of second-degree manslaughter in connection with their foster daughter Kira Friedman’s death. Friedman died June 5 after Jackson left her unattended in the shower along with an 18-gallon Rubbermaid tote without holes.
Jackson, who was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison Friday, admitted to using meth hours before Friedman died during a guilty plea in January. White was not charged with Friedman’s death.
According to a criminal complaint against White, who is charged with one count of neglect of a child and one count of contributing to a need for child protection or services, an autopsy of the 2-year-old’s body showed that while she died of freshwater drowning, she also had other injuries. The Pioneer has requested autopsy data from the Beltrami County Attorney’s Office.
The criminal complaint states that the child had bleeding between the skull and the scalp, as well as soft-tissue injuries to her scalp, face, neck, torso and upper and lower extremities.
The complaint also reveals text messages between White and Jackson regarding the alleged abuse. In one message, sent on April 18, White texted that the child “has bruises on her forehead and eyes so much for keeping her and having our rent paid for sure.” In a message allegedly sent the next day White wrote, “I need help to glue her head. It’s the only thing I can think of to do even tho I kno it needs staples. But she just had stitches 1.5 weeks ago.” White also texted, “I have kids that abuse foster kids,” according to the complaint.
In a message sent on May 11 White said, “(KRF) should just die then maybe u will quit using.” White later texted that she was going to turn everyone in because she couldn’t live with the abuse of Friedman, and that Friedman would end up dying.
While speaking to the Pioneer, White said the text messages were taken out of context.
“Mostly I was just trying to say whatever I could to get Nate to stop doing what he was doing,” White said.
According to the complaint, White admitted that Friedman had been dropped, and that she had bruising and swelling on her forehead near her eye. White also said her children were “rowdy” with Friedman and that she chose not to take the child to a hospital because she was concerned it would result in another investigation.
“White’s lack of action in protecting (Friedman) from the acts of abuse and neglect caused the demise of (Friedman),” the complaint reads.
White is scheduled to appear in court Friday, March 17.”
Northern Minnesota foster mom of drowned 2-year-old charged with child neglect [Duluth News Tribune 3/1/17 by Grace Pastor]
“A Bemidji man whose 2-year-old foster daughter drowned after he left her in the shower received the maximum sentence for second-degree manslaughter Friday.
Nathan Daniel Jackson, 39, received a 4¾-year sentence, despite requests by his attorney, public defender Heather Labat, to sentence him only to probation. Jackson will receive credit for the 264 days he has already spent in the Beltrami County Jail.
During the emotional sentencing hearing the family of Kira Friedman spoke to Judge John Melbye about the effect of her death. Before the victim impact statements began, Melbye warned the courtroom, filled with supporters of both Jackson and Friedman, that outbursts would not be tolerated and said anyone behaving inappropriately would be removed.
Randi Ruhanen, the mother of Friedman’s brothers, tearfully remembered the last time she had seen the toddler, who had just learned to walk.
“I will always cherish the memories I have of my boys and Kira,” Ruhanen said. “Kira was loved by her family. She was not forgotten in foster care.”
Friedman was living with Jackson, his former fiance and their children when Jackson put her in the shower the morning of June 5. When pleading guilty to second-degree manslaughter last month Jackson admitted that he had been using methamphetamine earlier that morning.
According to Jackson’s testimony, he put Friedman in the shower along with a laundry tote he said he noticed was dirty. Jackson left the child and the laundry bin — an 18-gallon Rubbermaid tub without holes — in the shower with the water running for about 15 minutes. When he did check on Friedman she was fully submerged, and was later found to have died as the result of freshwater drowning.
While summarizing a motion asking Melbye to sentence Jackson to 10 years of probation, Labat said Jackson is remorseful and that he needs treatment for substance abuse and mental health issues.
“He has to change his behaviors and seek the treatment he needs,” Labat said. “I think he learned a lot while he’s been incarcerated.”
Jackson apologized to his family, Friedman’s family, the Bemidji Police Department, the Beltrami County Sheriff’s Office, all attorneys involved, the Bemidji Fire Department, the city of Bemidji, Beltrami County and all of northern Minnesota.
Following the sentencing, Jackson’s mother Debbie Jackson said her son was also hurting because of Friedman’s death.
“I’m proud of my son,” she said. “He’s a good dad.”
Friedman’s family members, however, said in court they did not believe that Jackson was sorry for causing the child’s death.
“This man has no remorse for taking her life,” said Kimberly White, Friedman’s aunt. “How can a father of five murder a baby?”
Melbye followed prosecutors’ recommendations to give Jackson the maximum sentence.
“You may have addictions you need to address but that did not cause this,” Melbye told Jackson. “Your actions caused this.””
Man receives maximum sentence in foster child death[Inforum 2/24/17 by Grace Pastoor]
Recent Comments