Parenting & kids - Ex-San Carlos Park foster father pleads guilty to raping teen fosterdaughter

Ex-San Carlos Park foster father pleads guilty to raping teen fosterdaughter

Ex-San Carlos Park foster father pleads guilty to raping teen foster
daughter

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs..../80616048/1075

AMY BENNETT WILLIAMS • • June 16, 2008

A former San Carlos Park foster father pleaded guilty Monday to charges
he raped his teenage foster daughter three years ago.

Robert Jackson, who will be sentenced Sept. 2, faces 10 years in prison
and 20 years of probation. He also will be required to have no contact
with the victim and to register as a sexual predator for the next 30 years.

“Mr. Jackson is looking forward to getting these charges behind him and
paying for the mistake he made,” said his attorney, Joseph Viacava.

Jackson, 58, declined to comment.

The felony charges — one count of sexual assault by a person of familial
or custodial authority and two counts of unlawful sexual activity —
could have meant up to 30 years in prison had the case gone to trial and
he’d been convicted.

The complex case began with Robert Jackson’s arrest in January, 2006.

Jackson’s wife, Janie, called the police after finding him and his
foster daughter, then 16, having sex. The Jacksons had been foster
parents since 2003 and had cared for at least 22 foster children over
the years. The News-Press is not naming the girl because of the nature
of the case.

In May, Jackson was released after posting $150,000 bail.

In July, the girl disappeared.

In August, The News-Press learned she was at her parents’ in her native
Guatemalan village and reached her there by phone.

She said at the time that she’d been told Jackson would be jailed for
the rest of his life and she thought if she were gone, he’d be in less
trouble.

The girl later said Janie Jackson had orchestrated the trip to
Guatemala, bought her a plane ticket, suggested she steal her sister’s
passport and drove her to the Miami airport.

But in November 2006, two social workers, Mary Lewis and Anna Rodriguez,
flew to Guatemala to retrieve the girl. With the help of the Guatemalan
government and other social service agencies, they were able to get the
girl a passport for the return trip.

She sat silently on one side of the court Monday, surrounded by family,
as Janie Jackson sat on the other, shaking her head as her husband
entered his plea.

In the hallway afterwards, she told the girl, “I hope you’re happy now.”

The girl did not respond.