UNNAMED CHILDREN - ages unknown (2007 - 2012)/ Convicted; Foster Mother; Barbara Brooks - Cincinnati OH

Former foster mom pleads guilty to molesting children

Jennifer Edwards Baker, jbaker@enquirer.com
2:52 p.m. EDT August 22, 2014


(Photo: Provided)

A former Hamilton County foster mom pleaded guilty Friday to molesting children in her care and was immediately sentenced to seven years in prison.

Barbara Brooks, 64, pleaded guilty to four counts of rape before Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Steve Martin.

Brooks initially pleaded not guilty to 15 charges of rape and three charges of gross sexual imposition. She has been locked up at the county jail on $500,000 bond since her June 7, 2012, arrest.

Had she not pleaded out Friday -- just weeks before her Sept. 2 trial was to begin -- Brooks could have spent the rest of her life in prison if convicted on all charges.

She declined Friday when the judge asked if she wished to say anything on her own behalf in court.

Her husband and several victims who were present in the courtroom also declined to speak.

Cincinnati Police Det. Dana Jones told the judge these were the worst sexual abuse cases she has investigated in her 17 years of law enforcement.

"Although we have several victims on paper, following her arrest the case grew and was much bigger," she said. "There were many people who asked me to stand here today and speak on their behalf who were also victimized who, for whatever reason, cannot speak. Some of the victims consider Mrs. Brooks family, so for them the trauma was deeper than the act ...The trauma that they suffered is unlike anything I have ever seen."

Brooks will serve seven years in prison with credit for the 807 days she has already served in the county jail; she will be locked up another five years.

Upon release, she will be on parole for five years.

The woman also was designated a Tier 3 sex offender, the highest level, which means she has to register her address with the sheriff's office in her residential county every 90 days for the rest of her life.

Brooks was accused of sexually molesting four children she babysat from Jan. 1, 2000, to Feb. 27, 2007, in her homes in Mount Healthy and Springfield Township.

In April 2011, two people accused Brooks of sexually abusing them while they were in her care.

That set off the investigation.

Brooks worked as a licensed foster parent for the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services from July 1996 to December 2008.

She was terminated as a foster parent in 2008 when JFS and the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department investigated allegations of sexual abuse.

Those charges could not be substantiated, so the case was dropped.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/crime/2014/08/22/foster-mom-accused-of-molesting-kids-to-plead-guilty/14429053/

" ... the worst sexual abuse cases she has investigated in her 17 years of law enforcement"


7 years? That's it?  

7 years?  Her victims must be shaking their heads in disbelief.  The judge should be ashamed of pronouncing this sentence.  The persecutor should be disbarred for incompetence.