Wednesday, July 22, 1998

'He wasn't Mr. Hard Core no more'

By Bob Greene

By the time we were able to locate the child known as Joe, he was 7 years old. His life had descended into a hell no little boy should ever have to know about, much less endure.

And the people who loved him had no idea where he was.

"We had lost track of him," said Karyl Findley, who was supposed to have been Joe's adoptive mother. "The court wouldn't allow a hearing to look into where he was going. They just sent him away."

That court - an Illinois appellate panel, with James D. Heiple writing the order - had removed Joe, at the age of 2, from the safe, loving home of Mrs. Findley, her husband, Craig, and their son, Andy, and had given the child, on 24 hours' notice, to a convicted felon and his wife - people we are referring to as Ronnie and Teresa Smith. They were not related to the boy in any way.

By the time we found Joe, in the central Illinois town of Erie, the Smiths had divorced after violent altercations. Ronnie Smith had a second felony conviction, for aggravated battery. Teresa Smith had moved in with a man with a conviction and jail time for criminal sexual abuse. She had taken Joe with her.

By the time Joe was halfway through first grade, he had been in and out of six schools. At Erie Elementary School, administrators - who had not been informed of Joe's background until we told them about it - had classified the boy as a disabled person: "a danger to himself or others." The happy, hopeful child who had lived with the Findleys was gone.

One day, according to Erie schools administrator Bill Urban, Joe broke down in class. "He was out of control," Urban told us. "He was yelling and screaming, almost bouncing off the walls. Our principal, Kathy Heim, tried to get (Teresa Smith) to come pick him up, but she said she couldn't. So Kathy drove him home.

"As Kathy drove toward his house, (Joe) tried to jump out of the car door, and then the car window. He threatened to kill her. Kathy got him to his house, and told (Teresa) she needed to get him some help."

Instead of doing that, Teresa told the child that as punishment he was going to have to go live with Ronnie Smith. Ronnie and Teresa were by this time living in separate counties. They were shipping Joe back and forth whenever one got tired of him.

Now, after Joe's breakdown in school, Teresa Smith told the boy he had to leave again. We spoke with her about it; she described Joe's reaction:

"At first (Joe) was all cocky with me when I said he had to leave. He was Mr. Hard Core. But when the time came he actually had to go, he wasn't Mr. Hard Core no more. He was bawling like a baby."

We asked Ronnie Smith, in the nearby county, about this.

"Yeah, (Teresa) said she didn't want him no more," Ronnie told us. "He was crying a lot when he got here. I told him this was where he was living now."

Within two weeks, Ronnie had sent him back to Teresa again. Teresa told us:

"(Joe) got in trouble his first day at school over there. (Ronnie) threw all of (Joe's) clothes in a sack. He told (Joe), 'You're playing your little (obscenity) games again - you're out of here.' "

And so that sad, confused little boy was packed up and moved again. He had had a wonderful life waiting for him, with people who cherished him. Now he was being shipped back and forth like a parcel, between two people full of anger.

"That kid's mine," Ronnie Smith told us. "He was gave to me."

Yes, he was - by the order written by James Heiple for the appellate panel. An appellate court, if it is unsure of all the pertinent facts in a case before it, virtually always has the option of remanding the case to a lower court, so a trial judge can carefully sort through testimony and evidence. Especially when a child's life is at stake, this kind of caution and diligence is essential.

Not only would the Heiple panel not allow a lower court judge to look into the circumstances of where Joe was going - but when that judge, Robert J. Cashen, concerned about Joe's safety, tried to delay the transfer of Joe to Ronnie and Teresa Smith, the Heiple panel threatened to hold contempt proceedings against Cashen.

We have been reporting on this case for 312 years; we are telling the entire story of Joe's life now because of a heartbreaking turn of events in recent weeks that has left the boy as lost and alone as a child can possibly be.

Lonny Dennison, the sheriff of Stark County when Joe was removed from his safe home and ordered given to the Smiths, told us:

"That poor kid - what was done to him. The (court) system just kind of ground him up. The court is supposed to care for and protect these children. It sure didn't with him."

Bob Greene's complete coverage of this case is available at www.chicago.tribune.com/go/greene

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