Fenty: 6 Will Be Terminated in Jacks' Case

WASHINGTON - Six D.C. employees will lose their jobs for improperly handling concerns about a woman's care for her four daughters. The decomposing, murdered bodies of the girls were found in their Southeast home last week.

"A minimum of six people will be terminated from their positions. That number could rise to eight," D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty said during a news conference Monday morning.

Banita Jacks, 33, is charged with the murders of her daughters. The girls ranged in age from 5 to 16. Jacks was charged with four counts of first-degree murder after reportedly telling investigators that the children were possessed by demons and died in their sleep. The children were found when U.S. marshals came to serve an eviction notice.

"I deeply regret our failures in responding effectively and rapidly to this family," says Sharlynn Bobo, director of D.C.'s Child and Family Services Agency.

Bobo says agency workers were "grieving just like the rest of the community."

"We accept our responsibility for the missed opportunities for protecting these children and helping the Jacks family," Bobo says.

She adds it is the agency's intention "to demonstrate to the citizens of the District of Columbia our passion for protecting children and caring for their families and to turn that passion into extraordinary practice."

Kathy Lopes, a social worker at Booker T. Washington High School, where the oldest girl was a student, tried twice in April to raise the alarm about the family by calling city hotlines.

At a news conference Monday, Fenty played tapes of two calls Lopes made after Brittany Jacks stopped coming to school. The social worker wanted city agencies to investigate. She describes visiting the Jacks' house, but not being let in by the mother, Banita Jacks. She said Jacks told her she did not want Brittany going to school because she was afraid she would run away.

Lopes reported seeing two or three younger children, who were also not in school and told call takers "they did not look neat or well-kept."

In a follow-up call, Lopes expresses frustration at being transferred among several departments.

"It appears the mother is suffering from some mental illness and is holding all the children hostage," she says on the tape.

Fenty praised Lopes, saying she did an "exceptional" job in following up on Brittany.

"She stands out because so many other people did not do their jobs well," Fenty says. "The sense of urgency that she showed should be shown in every case and every call that comes through our hot line."

The social worker's call was not the first time someone had tried to alert city officials about the family's situation.

In July 2006, a nurse who had been treating the father of Jacks' youngest two daughters at George Washington Hospital contacted the Child and Family Services hotline to say the family was living in a van and that both parents were struggling with substance abuse. The nurse couldn't provide an address for the family so social workers did not follow up.

Saying that the city is "committed to full accountability" and systematic reforms, acting Attorney General Peter Nickles says he and City Administrator Dan Tangherlini will meet with the city's inspector general to lay out the facts of the case and discuss possible reforms to CSFA.

City Council member Tommy Wells says the City Council also will hold an oversight hearing into the government's response to the case to determine whether there were individual or systematic failures in this particular case.

The mayor also says he's offered to the children's grandmothers the city's help in the preparation of their funerals and a memorial service.

Meanwhile, neighbors of Jacks are planning a candlelight vigil for the family this week.

Terrie Louden, who lives next door, says they're asking all Ward 8 residents to attend the vigil at 5 p.m. on Thursday in front of the home in the 4200 block of Sixth Street in Southeast.

Louden says she and other neighbors tried to help Jacks, giving her food and water in recent months when they learned her utilities had been cut off. Louden says she thought the girls were living elsewhere.

Authorities have said the girls died at least 15 days before they were found. Jacks' statement to police indicated they had been dead for months. The medical examiner's office has said there is evidence that Brittany was stabbed and that Tatianna Jacks, 11; N'Kiah Fogle, 6; and Aja Fogle, 5, had other signs of trauma.

Court documents initially identified Brittany Jacks as being 17 years old; however, her 17th birthday would have been Jan. 5.

(Copyright 2008 by WTOP and The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)