Kierra Harrison Foundation

Britlea Kressler

18 months

Survivor

INVESTIGATING THE INVESTIGATORS

The Morning Call (Allentown)
April 3, 1999, Saturday, SECOND EDITION

* STATE PROBES LEHIGH COUNTY'S HANDLING OF ABUSE CASES AT BABY-SITTER'S HOME

KEITH HERBERT; The Morning Call

Joann I. Stout, the Allentown woman who was baby-sitting two children who
were seriously injured while in her care this year, was implicated but never
prosecuted in at least three child abuse cases over nearly 10 years, according
to police and Lehigh County Children and Youth Services records.

In cases from 1990, 1992 and 1994, authorities did not file criminal charges
against Stout, despite findings by the county children and youth office that
abuse allegations were substantiated, according to records provided by
parents.

The records detail cases of battering, spanking and other abuses, and
injuries ranging from bruises to a broken arm. Stout admitted in one report
that she put tape over a child's mouth and also taped the same child's hands to the sides of her pants.

In addition to the three cases where abuse allegations were substantiated,
the county investigated the possible abuse of a 3-year-old boy referred by a
doctor in 1996.

Most recently, in another case still under investigation, 14-month-old Andrew
Wagner died Feb. 19, a day after being critically injured in Stout's 947 Green
St. home. Autopsy findings or a determination in the case has not been
announced.

Caseworkers from a state office in Scranton that oversees the county children
and youth office investigations have questioned at least three parents who
reported Stout in the early 1990s, according to the parents.

Three workers from the Northeast Region Office of Children, Youth and
Families also have been in Allentown interviewing county case workers and
reviewing files.

Allentown Police Department officials said they didn't press charges because
they lacked sufficient evidence to get charges approved by the Lehigh County
district attorney; the cases involved children who were too young to talk and
couldn't testify about what had happened.

"Even in cases where you have an admission, you need evidence independent of
the admission to prove the case," said District Attorney James B. Martin.

Abuse cases aren't black or white, and prosecutors must prove abuse "beyond a
reasonable doubt," Martin said.

"The quantum of proof that the children's bureau operates under is different
than what we operate under," Martin said. " ... In criminal court, you don't
hear 'substantiated evidence.' "

Martin said he was satisfied with the investigations done by Allentown police
in the cases where county children and youth office found substantiated
allegations of abuse.

Police Chief Gerald M. Monahan Jr. defended the investigations done by
detectives.

"What influences our decision is the threshold of probable cause to make
arrest," Monahan said. "We either have enough or we don't."

Stout has been charged in one case, that of 7-month-old Daisy Martinez, who
was bitten repeatedly by a pet skunk in Stout's house in January.

Stout's attorney, Charles Gordon of Easton, called the Stout inquiries into
alleged past cases of abuse a "fishing trip" prompted by the skunk bite
incident.

State Children and Youth officials would routinely review county children and
youth offices following a child's death -- as in the Wagner death -- but they
are prohibited from speaking specifically about cases.

John Stoffa, Lehigh County director of human services, said the state is
investigating how the county handled the Stout cases.

"I don't doubt that they'll find something that needs improvement," Stoffa
said. It could be "a couple of months" before the county gets a final report that
details the state's findings, he said.

Under the state Child Protective Services Law, a substantiated allegation of
abuse can be an "indicated report," which is a county children and youth
office determination that substantial evidence of abuse exists based on
medical evidence, evidence uncovered during the investigation or an admission by the
perpetrator.

The 1990, 1992 and 1994 cases were indicated reports of abuse, according to
county children and youth office investigation reports provided by the parents
of the children involved.

Stout was caring for the 14-month-old Wagner boy Feb. 18, when he was found
critically injured in her home. The Lehigh County district attorney is
investigating the death.

In a Feb. 26 interview at her home, Stout told a reporter from The Morning
Call that the child was suffering from a cold and diarrhea that day. "He just
kind of collapsed," she said, adding she was not responsible for his death.

Jay Pagni, a spokesman with the state Department of Public Welfare in
Harrisburg, said he could not comment directly on the Wagner case but said the
state reviews a county investigation in all cases in which a child dies, he
said.

"In any child death, the state would review that death, employ any
information available in making a decision," Pagni said, "and if needed or
warranted would provide that information to proper authorities for review."

Allentown police said the results of the autopsy done on Andrew Wagner are
expected soon. Andrew was flown to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where
he died Feb. 19.

Stout has not been charged in the boy's death. However, on Feb. 25, Allentown
police charged her with endangering the welfare of a child, recklessly
endangering and keeping a prohibited animal after the skunk bit Daisy Martinez
several times on the arm Jan. 21, leaving more than 240 puncture wounds. Stout
is free on bail and faces a preliminary hearing on May 13.

Those cases do not represent Stout's first brush with child welfare
investigators. According to the county children and youth investigation
reports, the three substantiated cases were:

*A March 22, 1990, report that found "indicated" abuse against 1-1/2-year-old
Britlea Kressler, who suffered bruises on her lips, cheeks and around her
right eye, including bruises that "appeared to be fingerprints." Donna Kressler, who
has since remarried and goes by the name Donna Jesse, said she took her child
to the emergency room because she suspected abuse. Hospital personnel notified
Allentown police and the county children and youth office.

The report states that 3-year-old Tonya L. Kressler, Britlea's sister in
Stout's care, told a county children and youth investigator that Stout spanked
Britlea's hands, buttocks and face with an open hand, and that the child cried
louder when she was spanked.

Stout denied the allegations of abuse but admitted to "lightly hitting the
child on the buttocks with an open hand," the report states. Stout said her
10-year-old child took Britlea for a walk and said Britlea fell. There were no
bruises when Britlea left Stout's house on Feb. 20, 1990, the day the mother
took the child to the hospital, Stout told children and youth investigators,
according to the report.

Stout admitted that she put tape over Britlea's mouth and also taped her
hands to the sides of her pants.

Britlea's older sister gave a credible history of events, the report states,
and Stout's actions resulted in injuries that caused Britlea "severe pain," it
said.

Jesse said she, too, was interviewed by state investigators. "It's nice to
know somebody's looking into it, even though it's late," Jesse said.

*A March 17, 1992, report that found "indicated" abuse against Tyler M.
Miller, who was 18 months old when his mother Brenda found him with bruises
around both his eyes, on his cheeks and between his buttocks.

Stout said the child fell onto a Fisher-Price workbench, according to the
report. However, a doctor who examined the child determined that the injuries
were not consistent with a fall, and investigators determined Stout's story
was "neither plausible nor acceptable," it said.

Brenda Miller, of Allentown, said an investigator from the state visited her
on March 18 and asked questions about her 1992 complaint.
"They came right out and asked me how I thought my case was handled," Miller
said. "I think they're investigating the office down there," she said,
referring to the Lehigh County Children and Youth Services.

*A June 24, 1994, report that found "indicated" abuse against Kaitlyn S.
Johnson, who was 14 months old when her mother, Lori, discovered her child
had a broken arm, bruises on her cheeks, forehead and nose and a red mark above her
upper lip and a scrape on her chin. Also found were three bruises above
Kaitlyn's groin. Stout told a county children and youth worker that some of
the injuries occurred when another child in her care kicked Kaitlyn in the face.

She also initially claimed the bruises on the child's right cheek resulted
from a fall the previous night at Toys-R-Us, as the parents told her, and
claimed no knowledge of the other bruises, scratches, or the broken arm. Stout
later changed her story, according to the report, and claimed that bruises on
both sides of the child's face occurred as a result of the fall at Toys-R-Us.
The broken arm, Stout said, could have occurred when her boyfriend stepped on
the child's arm by mistake or another child "backed up" onto the arm.

Stout told police the child fell out of a playpen, then said the child's
facial bruises came from a kick in the face by her grandson, the report
states. Stout "disclaimed any knowledge of the child's arm fracture," the report
states. No "satisfactory accidental explanation" could be found by investigators, the
report states.

In an interview last week, Lori Johnson, now of Lowhill Township, said a
field representative from the state's Office of Children, Youth and Families
was at her home asking questions about her 1994 complaint of child abuse lodged
against Stout.

"Their office feels these cases were handled wrong," Johnson said she
concluded after being interviewed by the state worker.

At least one other abuse allegation against Stout was investigated by the
county.

In that case, county children and youth officials informed the parents of
Robert Spitler, the 3-year-old who was cared for by Stout at her Allentown
home, that they were investigating possible abuse involving Robert. The county wrote
to the Spitlers in a March 21, 1996, letter that a referral from a doctor
identified Stout "as the alleged perpetrator of the suspected abuse."

Franklin Spitler, the boy's father, took the boy to a Delaware County
hospital on March 21, 1996, after discovering a bruise on the child's scrotum
and other bruises on his back, chest, abdomen and on his left arm, according
to medical records provided by the boy's mother, Kathleen Spitler of Allentown.

The doctor who examined the boy suspected abuse and called the state's Child
Protection Line to report it, according to medical records provided by
Kathleen Spitler.

Gordon, Stout's attorney, said officials are attempting to show a "pattern"
of conduct by Stout.

"I know they're alleging prior incidents," Gordon said in an interview last
week. "It's a fishing trip.

"They think they can come up with a pattern," Gordon said. "If all of a
sudden, that now you have this, you can prove something else. I think this
other child ... who ultimately died, caused them to go back and look at the skunk
incident, and all of a sudden, because we haven't cooperated ... they're
looking for something that she's done wrong. Personally, I really don't think this is
an abusive woman."

Gordon said he refused to submit Stout to a lie detector test when officials
recently asked him.

The state's investigation comes at the same time that Lehigh County Children
and Youth Service's license is up for renewal. The investigation and the
license-renewal review are being combined. State officials are pulling cases,
reviewing files and interviewing supervisors as part of the license renewals.

"They like to get in three months early," Stoffa said of the license renewal
process. "Then we had this death, and they decided to do them both at the same
time."