Florida case shows dangers of solo child care
___By Barbara Denman
___Florida Baptist Convention
___COCOA, Fla. (ABP)--John Barber gingerly guides the brush through his daughter's fine golden hair. He adds a whiff of hairspray to hold wayward strands and clips on a big red bow. Two-year-old Rebecca is ready for the day.
___Looking up with deep brown eyes, the toddler says in the simple, honest manner of a child, "My mommy doesn't live with us."
___It's moments like these that break his heart, says the father of two girls, Rebecca and Brooke, 5.
___"I can do anything I need to do to take care of my girls," he said. "It is just that their mommy should be here to read them a bedtime story, color with them, bake with them. They are being robbed of so many things they will never get back."
___Barber, a Baptist minister, has been Rebecca's sole caregiver since she was five weeks old. That's when her mother, a worker at a church day-care center, went to a Florida prison for child abuse, a crime she and her husband insist she didn't commit.
___Ann Barber, 36, was sentenced in January 1999 to nine years in prison after being convicted of aggravated child abuse of an infant boy.
___The baby was one of two children briefly under her care who were diagnosed near the same time with injuries resulting from shaken-baby syndrome. Defense attorneys claimed it was a coincidence. Investigators, however, said it is virtually impossible that two children could suffer such similar injuries while in one person's care without her being involved. They prosecuted the child-abuse charges aggressively, winning a felony conviction and a lengthy prison term.
___"In Brevard County, we take severe inflicted injuries to children very seriously," said Meryl Allawas, chief of the sex-crimes and child-abuse unit for the state's attorney office. "We feel the evidence was clear and overwhelming in establishing Ann Barber as the person who inflicted these grievous injuries.
___"The jury agreed and found her guilty as charged, and the appellate court has agreed by upholding that conviction. We intend to continue to pursue justice in the remaining case."
___But John Barber, minister of music, children and senior adults at First Baptist Church of Cocoa, Fla., has spent the past three and a half years trying to win her release.
___"Ann is innocent," he said. "My wife was convicted on coincidence, not on evidence. There were no eyewitnesses to any abuse--ever."
___Despite medical evidence suggesting the children were injured before they were in her care, Ann Barber is in prison for a crime she and her husband--and almost every person who knows her--vigorously assert she is incapable of committing.
___"Do I think the person who was arrested was capable of this? No," said her pastor, William Marr, after the arrest. "Do I think she is guilty? No."
___Barber's husband has criticized the way the case was handled. Among his accusations:
___ Police officers testified incorrectly from memory rather than with the benefit of notes or a recording.
___ A presiding retired judge often asked lawyers to explain what had occurred.
___ Investigators never considered other suspects, including the children's parents, even though studies indicate that parents are behind at least 75 percent of such cases.
___ And in a key turn, a doctor changed his testimony about when the alleged abuse occurred, contradicting his own medical records.
___This has left the Barbers, seeming model citizens, extremely jaded about the legal system.
___"I was brought up to believe in the police and the justice system," John Barber said. "I have no faith in them any more."
___He reports similar feelings for the Florida Department of Children and Families, which twice attempted to remove Rebecca and Brooke from the Barbers' custody.
___"If I for one minute thought Ann was guilty of what they accused her of, I love my daughters and I would not want them with her," he explained. "But I have been married to Ann for 12 years. Without a doubt, I know that Ann is innocent. I know that Ann would never hurt anyone, especially not a baby."
___Every Saturday since their wife and mother has been incarcerated, Barber and the girls have visited her in prison, first in Ocala and now in Florida City. The eight-hour trip allows them to spend six hours together, time usually spent with the girls sitting on their mother's lap while she reads to them.
___Two or three times a week, Barber said, Brooke cries for her mother. She asks, "Why can't she come home?" he said. "How do you explain to a 5-year-old why mommy can't come home?"
___The family's nightmare began in February 1998 when police first questioned Mrs. Barber for three hours. The inquiry came after physicians said a two-month-old girl and three-month-old boy were victims of child abuse. She had cared for both children at the church's day care.
___After a preliminary interview, even before Mrs. Barber was charged, the Department of Children and Families took Brooke, at the time the couple's only daughter, into protective custody. The Barbers went to court to have her returned. The family would later discover Mrs. Barber was pregnant with their second daughter.
___Mrs. Barber was arrested in April, charged with nine counts, including aggravated child abuse.
___Still, the Barbers felt relieved upon reviewing the state's evidence against her, her husband said. The attending physician, John Tilelli at the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children and Women, had written in the medical records that injuries to both infants occurred before they arrived at the church-run day-care center. The girl's injuries were believed to have been 10 to 12 weeks old, according to the medical report. The boy's injuries were six weeks old, the report concluded.
___The only evidence connecting the two cases was circumstantial--both children had similar injuries and were in Mrs. Barber's care for two weeks.
___She first went to trial in September on charges of abusing the infant girl. On the stand, however, Tilelli, who had examined both the girl and boy, changed his original opinion, testifying that the girl was hurt during the time she was under Mrs. Barber's care.
___The child-care worker took the witness stand in her own defense, testifying for nearly eight hours. The jury deliberated for two days without reaching a verdict, resulting in a mistrial.
___Two weeks later, Mrs. Barber, by then seven months pregnant, stood trial again on charges stemming from abuse of the infant boy. Unlike the first trial, however, prosecutors were allowed to introduce the other child's injuries as evidence and compare the two cases.
___The physician again testified that his original medical diagnosis was wrong. This time, the victim's mother also testified, apparently contradicting earlier statements about who was caring for the child before the injuries were found.
___Still, the burden of proof was on the state. Believing that prosecutors had not met that burden, Mrs. Barber's attorney advised her not to take the stand. In fact, the defense rested without calling any witnesses.
___Defense attorney Gregory Eisenmenger pointed in his closing argument to inconsistencies in testimony. Prosecutors, meanwhile, focused on similarities between the two cases. A day later, the jury returned a guilty verdict.
___Despite receiving more than 300 letters asking for leniency, Judge Martin Budnick Jr. sentenced her to nine years in prison and five years probation. In January 1999, five weeks after Rebecca's birth, Mrs. Barber began serving time.
___The Barbers have appealed the verdict to the Florida Supreme Court. If that fails, they plan to hire new lawyers and seek a new trial. She still could stand trial, meanwhile, on charges still pending after the earlier mistrial.
___In the meantime, Barber said his wife of 12 years is "sitting in prison for something she didn't do." She will be eligible for supervised release in 2007.
___He talks to her by phone for 10 minutes every day, costing the family about $350 a month in phone bills. And the family travels the eight-hour round trip every weekend to see her. "If we are going to keep our family together, that daily contact and that weekly contact are a must," Barber said.
___Despite the heartache the family has experienced during the ordeal, Barber says he sees God's hand on their lives. Parents, family and church members have stood resolutely behind them.
___"We still know that God is seeing us through," he said. "And although our lives have been tormented beyond belief over the past three years, God has continued to be faithful and loving. We praise God for giving us our faith, our family and friends, and the determination to fight on."
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