PORTLAND — An infant boy remembered for his bright blue eyes died at a Hood River day care that state regulators allowed to operate illegally for months.
A child care regulator, a day care operator with whom she was friends and two other women were quietly indicted last month on criminal charges arising from the May 15 death of Cyrus Macioroski.
Exactly how the baby died has not been made public, but the indictments say day care operator Rochelle R. Jones and the other two women left Cyrus, then 4 months old, unattended for “a period of time that was likely to endanger (his) health and welfare.”
The Oregon Office of Child Care had revoked the license of Mama Shell’s Day Care in April 2017. A criminal indictment alleges that child care licensing compliance specialist Julie A. Smith helped Jones, whom it calls her friend, maintain the business after it was shut down.
Jones, 51, her wife, Debra L. Jones, 61, and a third woman, Donna J. Pilcher, 62, are charged with second-degree manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, first-degree criminal mistreatment and five counts of operating a child care facility without state certification from January 22 through May 15 of this year.
Smith, 59, of The Dalles, is charged with official misconduct for failing to enforce state child care regulations. The indictment also charges her with operating a child care facility without certification from May 2017 to December 2017, but does not make clear what role, if any, she held at Mama Shell’s.
She remains a full-time state employee but was placed on leave the same day she was indicted. It is extremely rare for state employees in Oregon to be criminally charged with official misconduct.
Criminal charges against day care providers when children die in their care are also exceptionally unusual. This appears to be the first such case in Oregon in more than two decades. No criminal charges resulted from the non-accidental death of a Lane County infant at an unlicensed daycare in September 2016.
The indictments in the latest death arrive amid heightened scrutiny of Oregon’s child safety net that is supposed to keep kids safe at home and at day care.
In January 2018, state inspectors cited Debra Jones and two other unnamed women for caring for as many as six kids without a license, state records show. An inspector wrote that she informed the women that they must cease operating and notify the parents of the children why they had to shut down.
Cyrus died suddenly four months later at local hospital, according to his obituary. He was 4 months old, “a precious little boy who had bright blue eyes and was full of smiles,” it read.
A grand jury indicted all four women Sept. 12. A judge has ordered that Debra Jones, Rochelle Jones and Pilcher be arrested but they have not been located.
Officials did not announce the charges, which The Oregonian/OregonLive discovered in court filings. The Hood River district attorney’s office and the Hood River Police Department have not shed any light on their investigation. In fact, Pilcher said she was not aware of any charges in the case until contacted by a reporter and had to call the sheriff’s office to learn more.
The secrecy surrounding the case is far-reaching. Carrie Rasmussen, the assistant district attorney prosecuting the case, said she would not address the allegations before they make their way through the court system. Hood River Police Det. Andy Frasier, who testified to the grand jury, said he could not comment because the investigation was active. Dr. Rebecca Millius, the deputy medical examiner who performed an autopsy on Cyrus, referred all questions to Hood River police.
What little is known about Cyrus’ death and any missteps that may have preceded it comes from the indictment and the small sliver of state records that are available online.
Messages left at three numbers listed for Rochelle and Debra Jones were not returned. Neither was a message left with Smith’s attorney, Andrew Myers.
Office of Child Care records show Mama Shell’s was licensed to care for 10 children in 2012, and then for as many as 16 in 2013.
In May 2015, regulators received a complaint accusing Mama Shell’s of failing to adequately supervise children and improperly punishing kids, according to a Office of Child Care database previously provided to The Oregonian/OregonLive. Inspectors closed their investigation into those allegations, saying they were either “invalid” or unable to be substantiated.
Mama Shell’s passed a subsequent inspection in July 2016, the records show. But “concerning info” from the Department of Human Services prompted regulators to immediately suspend Mama Shell’s that November.
Regulators revoked Mama Shell’s license five months later in April 2017.
The Office of Child Care has not yet provided any information to The Oregonian/OregonLive regarding the suspension and revocation orders, nor the 2015 complaint.
The agency also did not say what role Smith may have played, if any, in the oversight of Mama Shell’s.
Smith is a longtime state employee. She transferred to the Department of Education, which oversees the Office of Child Care, in August 2013, according to the Department of Administrative Services.
She’s still employed as a “compliance specialist 2,” with an annual salary of nearly $60,000.
“We are concerned by these developments, are deeply committed to child safety and have started our own personnel investigation into this matter,” Department of Education spokesman Marc Siegel wrote in an email.
The indictment says Smith failed to perform duties “inherent in the nature of her office” by not enforcing compliance through “helping a friend, Rochelle Jones, maintain a child care business.”
Regulators discovered Jan. 12 that Debra Jones and another unnamed woman were still caring for as many as six children at the Jones family home without a license. Rochelle Jones and Donna Pilcher were also cited for running illegal facilities, but the state’s child care website only lists the details of the citation against Debra Jones.
Inspectors cited Debra Jones for failing to register the operation, even though they also noted that she was working at her “other job” at the time and two different women were actually watching the children.
“I also made it clear that parents would need to be notified immediately that care could no longer provided for those families,” the inspector wrote.
Whether or not that ever happened is not clear.
A message left at a phone number listed for Cyrus’ father was not returned.
His death was the second in six months to occur at a day care previously cited by regulators for watching children without a required license.
A four-month-old infant died in November at a Portland day care cited three times before she died. Police found no foul play connected to the baby’s death.
In September, the parents of the Lane County infant who died in 2016 sued the Department of Human Services for failing to take steps that could have prevented his death, including by notifying them of abuse allegations against his day care provider. A doctor concluded that A.J. Swearengin died from non-accidental injuries.
Lane County Assistant District Attorney Bob Lane confirmed to The Oregonian/OregonLive that no criminal charges have been filed in the case.
The only other time a day care death led to a criminal prosecution appears to have been in 1996. A Medford man, Terry Lee Carruthers, was sentenced to three years in prison after being convicted of criminally negligent homicide and second-degree manslaughter of Tre Chase. Carruthers held the toddler face down on a bed when the boy cried during naptime.
Oregonian archives say Tre’s death was the first criminally negligent death at a day care in Oregon. Carruthers was married to Tre’s day care provider.
Rochelle and Debra Jones have recently moved out of state, Frasier said. Their Hood River house is listed for sale.
The Hood River residents married in 2015, according to a marriage license listed in the local paper. Court files show the couple was raising two of Rochelle Jones’ sons.
Neither woman, nor Pilcher nor Smith has a criminal record in Oregon.
Warrants are active for the arrests of Rochelle Jones, Debra Jones and Pilcher.
Pilcher told The Oregonian/OregonLive she knew about the baby’s death but not about the charges against her.
“I’m going to let you go, because I don’t want to talk about this until I know more,” she said, crying.
She said she planned to turn herself into the Hood River sheriff Monday. As of 6 p.m. Monday, she had not been booked into jail.
Brad Schmidt of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report.
