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After Rape Charge, Mom Tries To Cut Ties To Adopted Son

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By JOSH POLTILOVE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 9, 2008

TAMPA - Ronda Gary-Jackson said that though her 14-year-old adopted son is smart and entertaining, he always has been an angry person with emotional issues.

She unsuccessfully tried to legally relinquish parental rights, she said.

Hershel Jackson recently was charged with sexually battering a 63-year-old mentally disabled woman at knifepoint, and his adoptive mother remains adamant that she wants him out of her family.

"Right now it's estranged, and hopefully it'll be dissolved," she said of their relationship.

He was in court Tuesday morning in the sexual battery case, but the arraignment was rescheduled because he needs a guardian ad litem appointed to guide him through the court process.

After the incident Dec. 9 at his Temple Terrace home, Jackson was arrested and taken to a juvenile detention center, Temple Terrace Police Department spokesman Mike Dunn said. Jackson remained there until the state attorney's office decided to charge him as an adult and he was sent to Orient Road Jail.

Gary-Jackson first met the boy in late 1999, and she adopted him in 2001. He was cute and got along well with her son, she said.

Now, she said, he is highly intelligent and personable when things go his way. But Jackson has emotional issues and has harassed the 63-year-old woman before, Gary-Jackson said.

Her attorney, Clay W. Oberhausen, said there likely wasn't an adequate disclosure of Jackson's mental health history before his adoption.

"This child has quite a lengthy mental health history since he was adopted," he said.

Nick Cox, the Department of Children & Families' local regional director, said the department has made it a priority to be more transparent to prospective parents during adoptions.

Gary-Jackson met the boy through an adoption event sponsored by the Department of Children & Families.

If known, medical and mental issues should be discussed with prospective parents during the process, DCF spokesman Andy Ritter said.

"You would specify as much information as you could without being specific to what that issue is because of guidelines for patient privacy and other confidentiality laws," he said.

Some of the undisclosed information, however, could be accessed through other means, such as through the legal process.

Records of an adopted child's history and issues are confidential and unavailable to the media through the department, Ritter said.

He said it would be difficult but not impossible for Gary-Jackson to terminate parental rights. A judge would need to determine whether it is in the child's best interest.

If an adoptive parent simply refuses to provide her child a home, she could be charged with child abandonment, he said.

"When you become an adoptive parent, you assume the same responsibilities as a biological parent," he said.

The Sylvia Thomas Center in Brandon supports people working to maintain a family. It recently has opened a case for Gary-Jackson and supports her and people with similar struggles.

"The children are victims here and also the parents are made out to be vicious people, and I just don't think they have the resources to handle this," said Renee Walker, the center's executive director.

Jackson faced a separate charge of misdemeanor battery after an incident Aug. 24 in Hillsborough County. He was placed in a diversion program. It was his first weekend home when the attack on the 63-year-old woman occurred, Gary-Jackson said.

Jackson was charged after the December incident with felony counts of sexual battery, lewd or lascivious battery upon an elderly person, lewd and lascivious molestation of an elderly person and adult abuse.

"I'm not prosecuting him," Gary-Jackson said. "He is prosecuting himself. This is a choice he made."

Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at (813) 259-7691 or jpoltilove@tampatrib.com.

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