How Could You? Hall of Shame-Layla Mary Ann Jackson case-Child Death and Lawsuit 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 Jordan, Minnesota, foster parent Jason Robert Betlach, 30, was arrested “in connection with the death of an 18-month-old baby girl in foster care in Sand Creek Township on Aug. 26.[2018]”

“He was booked into the Scott County Jail, and later charged with second-degree homicide.”

Due to the complexity of the child’s injuries, additional examination was required by specialists, prolonging the autopsy results. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office has now ruled the child’s death as a homicide, according to a Scott County press release.

On Aug. 26, at about 4:41 p.m., Scott County Dispatch received a call of a child not breathing in the … Morlock Drive in Sand Creek Township. Deputies and emergency responders arrived to find a baby girl not breathing.

She was transported to St. Francis Hospital in Shakopee and later airlifted to Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis. At the time, doctors believed she had an obstruction in her lungs and throat that caused her to go into cardiac arrest; she was put on life support at Children’s Hospital. The baby died on Aug. 28.

Lifeless

According to the charging documents:

Detectives spoke with Betlach, who said he and his wife had been foster parents for the past four or five months. They also have a 2-year-old daughter. He said at about 10:30 a.m. that day, his wife left to pick up the baby, who was staying overnight at her biological grandmother’s home in Shakopee as part of regular weekend visits.

He said his wife put the baby down for a nap in her bedroom and then left with a friend.

Betlach said he laid on the couch with his daughter for the rest of the afternoon, and went in the bedroom to check the baby and found her lying on her back on a pile of clothes next to her infant bed, with vomit all over. He said she was either not breathing or struggling to breathe, and limp. He said he shook her to try to wake her up, but she didn’t wake up and her eyes were rolled back.

He said he picked her up to move her, and noticed her diaper was soaked with urine and vomit, so he changed it while contacting his wife and mother-in-law, who told him to call 911.

He did so, and the dispatcher told him to start CPR, which he said he did until the Jordan Police Department arrived. He stayed in the house until the Scott County Sheriff’s Office arrived.

He said the baby was in the hospital for asthma a few weeks prior, and sometimes needed a nebulizer. He said she came from a home where she had unexplained broken bones, and her 7-year-old brother had recently briefly lived with them as a foster child.

A Scott County Child Protection Worker made plans to have his biological daughter stay with her grandmother, upsetting Betlach, who began complaining to a detective about the foster parent situation, saying he never wanted the baby to come stay with them and that she had added more stress to their lives and family.

He said his wife hadn’t discussed being a foster parent to the baby and her brother, and he never agreed to allow them to live in their home. Defendant said when he looked at the baby, all he could think about was her parents and where they were, and why he had to take care of someone else’s child.

The baby’s biological grandma said the baby was fine and didn’t sustain any injuries while staying with her, providing videos and photos showing as much.

On Aug. 27, a detective contacted Children’s Hospital, where the baby was still on life support. Dr. Noelle Noah, a trauma physician, had located retinal hemorrhaging on the baby’s eyes, which is common after a violent shaking. A head CT scan showed extensive subdural hemorrhaging and severe brain injury. And a physical exam found severe bruising on her buttocks, all indicating “severe child physical abuse.”

Dr. Alice Swenson, a pediatrician at Midwest Children’s Resource Center at Children’s Hospital, told a detective the CT scan showed abusive head trauma, subdural hemorrhages, severe brain injury, and retinal hemorrhages. Swenson said the retinal hemorrhaging in her eyes were “grossly obvious, and highly indicative of abusive head trauma and child abuse.”

Swenson said subdural hemorrhages occur when the blood vessels surrounding the brain in the subdural space are torn or sheared, and the most common cause in infants and children is abusive trauma. The type of trauma associated with this type of injury is a massive acceleration-deceleration event with a rotational component, with or without impact, as when a child is shaken or thrown, not in short falls.

Swenson said the pattern of bruising on the baby’s buttocks is a classic indicator for child physical abuse “as an inflicted abusive spanking.”

“Dr. Swenson confirmed that what happened to victim was a non-accidental medical incident, and did not expect her to survive the injuries,” the complaint says.

Swenson said with the amount of trauma and bleeding in the baby’s brain, she would have exhibited symptoms immediately and severely upon sustaining the traumatic injury to her head, including vomiting, unconsciousness, cardiac arrest, and the inability to walk, talk, eat or play.

On Aug. 28, detectives spoke to Betlach again in his home, while his wife waited outside in a vehicle. The complaint notes the house was “completely cleaned” this time, “a marked difference from the date of the offense.”

Betlach’s story didn’t change, except he said when he grabbed the baby to change her diaper, he noticed his cell phone was dead and laid the baby face down so he could go charge the phone in the kitchen. Then he got the baby and went to the kitchen to call 911.

He denied hurting the child, and said the injury must have occurred when she was at the grandma’s house or elsewhere. When pressed on the fact that he had said the baby was fine when his wife put her down for a nap, but not when he checked on her, he said, “I know what you guys are trying to do, you want me to say that I murdered her.”

Then he “became increasingly irritated and said he just wanted to move on with his life and move past this.”

Asked to clarify what he meant, since he had not even visited the baby in the hospital, Betlach said, “No, I want to get on with my life. I want to fix my boat. I want to work in the garage. I want to work outside in the yard. I want to pay my bills.”

Then he said he was done talking and “pleads the fifth.”

His wife then came in and gave a statement, saying she picked up the baby at about 12:40 p.m. on Aug. 26 and the baby was behaving normally when she put her down for a nap. She began crying, saying she didn’t understand why the baby stopped breathing, and insisting Betlach would never hurt the baby, that the baby suffered cardiac arrest because she vomited and choked on her food, and the doctors were wrong.

Video surveillance at Cub Foods showed the baby was normal when there.

The couple’s cell phones were seized, and contained videos showing Betlach pretending he was going to strike the baby with a vacuum several times, stopping within inches of the baby, then laughing and telling the baby all the toys belong to his daughter.

In another video, Betlach’s wife brings up an incident about him hitting their daughter in a restaurant, and making the baby’s face black and blue.

“I’ve never touched that mongoloid, I told you that,” he replies on the video.

He then looks at his daughter in the back seat, and says, “Sorry you have to deal with all of the mongoloid stuff. You’ve dealt with it for a long time. Pretty much wasted a year of your life with these mongoloids. It has been a full year that we have had these mongoloids over here. Poor kid.”

In another video, Betlach screams “white power” in front of the baby and his daughter.

In a June text message from Betlach’s wife to her brother, she says Betlach has been acting crazy with the foster kids, calling them “4th Ave,” and knocking over the baby for no reason.

In another text between Betlach and his wife, he wrote that he was “messing around” and wrote “Loser” on the baby’s face with a marker. His wife says the baby’s biological brother said Betlach threw him, and told Betlach to “stop hitting him.”

“You better pray we don’t lose our daughter,” she texted Betlach.

On Sept. 14, a nurse who interviewed the baby’s brother told detectives the boy said when he lived in the foster home, it was “bad,” saying “He was mean to my baby sister and me. He would slam her in her crib and say, ‘I’ll murder you.’”

He said this happened more than once when Betlach’s wife was at work.

On Nov. 5, the autopsy report from Dr. Andrew Baker at the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office revealed the immediate cause of death was a type of brain damage that occurs when an infant’s brain doesn’t receive enough oxygen and blood due to or as a consequence of, resuscitated cardiopulmonary arrest, and blunt force head and neck injury.

The manner of death was listed as homicide.

The child’s biological mother, declined to comment when contacted about the arrest Tuesday.

“This has been heartbreaking for the family, community, and all those involved in this case,” Hennen said in a press release. “Our investigation will continue to ensure that this child will get justice. I anticipate that people will have questions about this incident. Many of these questions will be addressed in the charging documents when they are filed.”

The Scott County Sheriff’s Office was assisted by the Minnesota Bureau of Apprehension in the investigation and arrest.”

Jordan man charged with homicide in baby

[Jordan Independent 11/6/18 by Deena Winter]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update: She finally has a name! Layla Mary Ann Jackson!

“Ignoring repeated warning signs, two Minnesota social workers failed to protect 18-month-old Layla Mary Ann Jackson from a foster family that physically abused, mocked and ultimately murdered the infant girl, according to a new lawsuit.

Layla, a Black and Native American girl, died on Aug. 28, 2018, after suffering blunt force trauma to her head and neck. Her foster father, Jason Betlach, 33, pleaded guilty to murder last year, admitting he shook her violently to make her stop crying. He is serving a 30-year sentence in Rush City correctional facility.

But a trustee for Jackson’s next of kin says Betlach isn’t the only one responsible for the young girl’s death. The lawsuit, filed last week in Minnesota U.S. District Court, says Layla is the latest casualty of Hennepin County’s broken child welfare system. The suit names Hennepin and Scott counties for negligence, and Hennepin specifically for violations related to deprivation of rights.

It also names two social workers — Bree Meduna, of Hennepin County, and Julie Malecha, of Scott County — along with Jessica Betlach, Jason’s wife, for not intervening and stopping the abuse.

“Layla Jackson’s death follows in the footsteps of the equally horrific deaths of Kendrea Johnson and Arianna Hunziker, all foster children to whom Hennepin County owed duties of protection,” said Jeff Storms and Jeff Montpetit, the attorneys representing the trustee, in a statement. “Sadly, we expect that Hennepin County will once again reject accountability as it did by forcing the families to endure prolonged litigation in the Johnson and Hunziker cases.” The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office declined to comment on pending litigation. Scott County did not return a request for comment.

According to the lawsuit:

Jason Betlach
Layla and her brother were placed in the Betlaches’ home in April 2018. Over his period as her caretaker, Jason Betlach, who is white, referred to Layla as a “Mongoloid” and other racist and abusive terms. He recorded a video shouting “white power” at her, mocked her medical needs and status as a foster child and wrote “loser” on her forehead.

Jason Betlach lied in paperwork, saying he had no criminal history, despite convictions for possession of drugs and paraphernalia, theft, DWI and a citation for not using a car seat with a child under the age of 8. No one from the foster system ran a background check on him.

The Betlaches were able to take Layla in because she was a relative to Jessica Betlach, with the understanding they would complete licensure. But the family was “hostile” toward training and the licensure process, and took no steps to do so, which the social workers knew, the complaint said.

At her only home visit, Malecha “noted a lack of smoke detectors properly installed and working on every level of the home and that weapons and ammunition were stored together and not locked in areas that are not accessible or visible to children.” She made Meduna aware, but neither spoke to Jason Betlach about it.

Jessica Betlach knew her husband was abusing Layla. The abuse appeared to be psychologically damaging the young girl and stunting her growth. But she did not stop him. The social workers also didn’t intervene, even when Layla’s biological mother and Jessica Betlach told them Layla wasn’t safe, according to the complaint.

By late August, the Betlaches were canceling necessary appointments with the social workers, and Meduna recognized that the Betlaches were unfit foster parents, which she conveyed to Malecha. Yet both failed to act, according to the suit. On Aug. 28, 2018, Layla was left alone with Jason Betlach and his biological daughter.

Layla was hospitalized that day. She’d suffered head and neck injuries so severe that she sustained cardiac arrest and a brain injury. She died two days later. The lawsuit alleges the social workers and counties acted negligently and failed in their duties to ensure Layla’s safety and welfare. “Meduna and Malecha had reason to know [Layla] was suffering from these constitutional violations. They had a realistic opportunity to intervene to stop these constitutional violations, but either maliciously or with reckless disregard for whether [Layla’s] rights would be violated, failed to intervene.”

Lawsuit: Hennepin County, social workers failed to stop murder of infant in foster care

[Star Tribune 3/27/21 by Andy Mannix]

Update 2: “Though child protection workers didn’t know what was happening at the time, records show that they failed to follow state laws that may have revealed the abuse.

Foster family never licensed or trained
Neither Jason nor his wife, Jessica, were ever trained, licensed or properly vetted to be foster parents, KARE 11 Investigates has found.

The two never went through a state mandated training and were never licensed. A Scott County social worker tried often to schedule interviews with Jessica, who instead put them off as she hid the abuse her foster children were enduring, records show.

By the time an interview was set up, it was too late. Jason shook the girl so violently in August 2018 that she was already brain dead when she was taken to a hospital.

“Voiceless victims shouldn’t be allowed to die because somebody didn’t do their job,” said Attorney Jeff Montpetit, who represents a family trustee in a lawsuit against Hennepin and Scott Counties.

“If people are doing their jobs correctly and doing what is expected of them both under policy and under law – we’re not talking today,” he said.

Hennepin County said in a statement that, “while we cannot comment on pending litigation, the death of any child is always tragic.”

Scott County referred questions to an attorney, who did not respond to a request for comment.

History of failure

Layla’s death was the latest in a string of catastrophic failures involving foster children under Hennepin County’s care.

A lawsuit last year accused the county of missing numerous red flags following the death of 3-year-old Arianna Hunziker, whose foster parents starved her and left her tied to a bed for hours.

In 2018, the county settled a lawsuit for $1.5 million after a foster child who had previously reported suicidal ideations hung herself with a jump rope in her bedroom in 2014.

A class action lawsuit in 2017 accused the county of numerous other child protection failures.

As part of a settlement, Hennepin is in the process of analyzing its foster care system to determine what contributed to the abuse and what improvements need to be made.

For Layla’s mother, the promised improvements are too late to protect her daughter.

Layla’s mother now works for a non-profit helping parents with children in child protection.

“This is the system we put in place to protect our kids. To be there when they say we’re not fit to, and they’re ignoring things that are important to not ignore. It’s costing kids their lives and it’s not fair to these children or to their families,” she said.

Red flags missed

Hennepin County Child Protection placed Layla and Davonte into foster care in April 2018 after receiving a report that the girl had a broken leg that was not an accident.

Though the county believed that Layla was being abused, Latasha Bacon denied knowing how it happened. A child protection report concluded that while “the offender was unknown,” the mother had failed to provide a safe environment for the children. A judge agreed and ordered the children removed while Bacon went through the court-ordered steps to get her kids back.

Under state law, social workers must work to place foster children with family members whenever possible. Bacon recommended Jessica Betlach, a close, childhood friend whom she referred to as her cousin. She said she had only met Jason twice and knew nothing about him.

Jason Betlach is serving a 30 year sentence for murdering Layla.

Hennepin CPS agreed to the placement in the Betlachs’ home in Jordan in Scott County – creating a situation in which social workers from two counties were involved in the case.

The federal lawsuit alleges workers from both counties missed red flags, leaving Layla “racially harassed, mocked, beaten, and then murdered.”

“That’s a duty of a county to follow-up and vet the people they’re placing voiceless victims to,” said Montpetit. “That’s their job and when they don’t do that it’s a failure – a catastrophic failure.”

Past Criminal records

In May, as part of the licensing process, the Betlachs filled out licensing forms stating that neither of them had any criminal convictions, had never been arrested, and never abused drugs or alcohol, records show.

But a quick check of state court records would have shown that was a lie. Jason had convictions for DWI, possession of drug paraphernalia and theft; Jessica had two disorderly conduct convictions.

A social worker who toured the Betlachs’ home that May noted that firearms and ammunition were accessible to children. Records show they were asked to lock them up, but another tour of the home two months later again found that firearms were still not locked away from the children.

Investigators discovered a video of Layla taken the day before she was shaken to death.
After Layla died, a detective took photos of the home showing several firearms left out in the open, including a bullet lying next to a semi-automatic rifle.

Meanwhile, the parents would never become licensed or trained to care for the children.
Though state law requires foster parents to complete licensing applications within 10 days of placement, it would take more than twice that long for the paperwork to even be signed.

State law also requires orientation training within 30 days, including lessons on racial and cultural bias, but there’s no record that ever happened.

Repeated delays

It would be three months after the children’s placement before a Scott County licensing worker reached out to meet with the Betlachs in June 2018. But even then, the meeting was only with Jessica. The licensor agreed to meet with both parents a month later, but Jessica cancelled that meeting a day before it was supposed to happen.

As the children continued to be tormented, the worker wouldn’t talk to Jessica again until the next month, when she agreed to complete the licensing process and meet with the worker again in early-September.

In between the delays, Davonte lashed out. His school told social workers that he needed to be moved to a more restrictive setting or a full day treatment program.

Jessica said she wanted him out of their home and turned the abuse he was suffering against him – claiming he was making up the stories.

“Last night (Davonte) had such a severe episode, he began threatening to drown himself, he threatened to run away to lie intentionally to get us into trouble,” she texted a social worker in July. “I have had officers look at him because he will say we hit him.”

The next day she texted the social worker, “He is saying we starve him and that we hit him. He’ll say and do anything to cause harm.”

“No one can force me to continue to care. He isn’t my child.”

Child protection placed the boy with his father that day – but left Layla with the Betlachs.
The next month, Jason murdered Layla.

Investigators found a text message saying Jason had written “Loser” on Layla’s forehead.
After her death, detectives discovered the abuse Layla and her brother suffered during those delays.

Videos and texts on Jessica’s phone showed Jason screaming “white power” at the child, threatening to beat her and calling her racial and derogatory names.

The same day Jessica first met with the licensor, Jason sent Jessica a text saying he wrote “Loser” on the girl’s forehead and asked her to wash it off.

“That’s messed up,” Jessica responded. “Now Devonte will probably tell someone.”

During the police investigation, Jason told investigators that he never wanted Layla, never agreed to have her in his home, and that she caused stress to their lives and family.

He is now serving 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to second degree murder. Despite evidence that she knew the abuse was happening, Jessica was not charged.

Visiting Layla’s grave

Bacon acknowledges she too missed red flags and Davonte’s warnings.

During visits while he was in foster care, she said her son told her that Jason beat him and threw his sister into the crib. She said she told the county, but both thought he was lying.
“He tells tales sometimes,” Bacon said. “So, it was hard for anybody to believe him.”

She said child protection assured her that her children were being well cared for. She believed them, until she got a call from her mother telling her Layla was in the hospital and “they’re just waiting for me to get here to take her off of life support.”

“Regardless of why those kids ended up in child protection’s custody, it’s not ok for them to be dead there,” she said.

As Bacon and Davonte visited Layla’s grave this past Mother’s Day weekend, the two tried to look for something positive to come from the girl’s death. Her gravestone reads “Rain Joy Not Pain.”

Layla’s gravestone reads “Rain Joy Not Pain.”

Bacon has since turned her life around. She regained custody of Davonte and started work as a mentor at a non-profit for parents whose children are in child protection.

“Mommy tried to get a job to help other kids go through this,” Davonte said. “God made a positive out of a negative.”

“You’re a really strong kid because you’ve been through all this – you know that right?” His mother tells him.

“Every time we come here it’s hard,” Davonte said. “I don’t want to leave (Layla) here.”

“It’s hard,” she says as she wipes away tears. “As a mama, it’s hard.””

KARE 11 Investigates: A boy tried to save his sister from a racist abuser. No one believed him.
[Kare 11 5/19/21 by A.J. Lagoe, Brandon Stahl (KARE11), Steve Eckert]