20 foster boys allege abuse by Clearwater couple over decades, lawsuit states
A recent lawsuit alleges that a Clearwater foster couple abused at least 20 boys in their care over more than two decades and that complaints made to social service agencies about it were ignored.
Jacklyn and Jerold Logemann, who live in a waterfront Clearwater home valued at about $1 million, are defendants in a lawsuit filed in late March along with nearly a dozen child welfare agencies. In all, at least 20 men and boys have alleged similar stories of sexual, physical and mental abuse at the hands of the Logemanns. The lawyer representing the former foster boys said most previously didn’t know each other.
The lawsuit, which chronicles abuse allegations from the late 1990s to this year, says boys staying there often went hungry and were allowed few necessities. Jacklyn Logemann made the boys do manual labor in the Florida heat but allowed them only five-minute showers, the lawsuit states.
Some boys also were taken to what they referred to as the “river house” in Citrus County, where Jerold Logemann sexually abused them, the complaint states.
The lawsuit states that some of the boys raised alarms with their caseworkers and guardian ad litems over the years, but no action was taken. The Clearwater Police Department as recently as January responded to the home for a report of neglect and abuse but police said they didn’t find evidence to corroborate the allegations. Nine boys staying at the home were removed at the time, however, according to a Clearwater police report.
“At this time, detectives have conducted multiple interviews and cannot corroborate claims of criminal conduct,” Clearwater Police Chief Daniel Slaughter wrote in a statement to the Tampa Bay Times. “The case has been inactivated. If additional information or evidence is developed, the case will be reopened.”
Rick Escobar, an attorney representing the Logemanns, said rumors spread on social media after the boys were removed in January. His firm began an investigation after the boys were removed and shared the results with Clearwater police.
“Our investigation was extremely thorough. Obviously, we wanted to get a jump on this particular case,” Escobar said. “And it certainly revealed that none of the allegations that were being made against our clients were true.”
Escobar said the lawsuit was “based upon false and baseless accusations.”
The Department of Children and Families completed its own investigation after the January incident. The investigative summary states the agency found no evidence of abuse, however the agency recommended that foster children no longer be sent to the Logemann home.
The agency found during that investigation that Jacklyn Logemann limited who was allowed to come into her home to those who “appeared aligned with her and how she ran her foster home” while she had her foster children.
Child welfare officials agreed to have a single licensing specialist — an advocate for the Logemanns — conduct monthly home visits for all the children in the home instead of the case managers tasked with checking on their assigned foster children. Each of the boys’ case managers should have conducted the home visits, an investigative summary states, not a licensing specialist.
The summary does not state how long a licensing specialist was visiting the home instead of the boys’ case workers.
The lawsuit alleges that Jacklyn Logemann told multiple foster boys what to say to child welfare workers in the short time they would see them.
One former foster boy, named only as C.T. in the complaint, lived in the home from 2009 to 2011. C.T. said he would see a child welfare professional for about five minutes, and Jacklyn Logemann would sit next to him during those conversations. Jacklyn Logemann told C.T. his mother did not want to be unified with him, and he would be safer living with the Logemanns. He was required to say he enjoyed living with the Logemanns, the complaint states.
Other instances laid out in the complaint describe times when the boys were rarely alone with a child welfare worker, or if they were, Jacklyn Logemann was in earshot of conversations.
The Department of Children and Families had told the Times that it would release a statement about the case this week, but had not provided it as of Wednesday. The department did release a statement to WTVT-Ch. 13 that states:
“The heinous allegations in this case are troubling and upon learning of the allegations the Department took immediate action. We are working with law enforcement, and will ensure a full investigation will take place. The Department is launching a review of the licensing process and related concerns of this home with our contracted providers, as well as our own internal processes. This is in addition to the standard investigations conducted by the Department concerning any allegation of abuse, neglect or abandonment.”
News coverage of the January incident spurred one former foster child of the Logemanns to reach out to a Tampa lawyer, who then reached out to Adam Hecht, a West Palm Beach lawyer who has handled similar cases, according to Hecht. Hecht met with the first man, heard his story and asked him if he knew any other foster boys who had lived in the home.
The man told Hecht there was one other foster brother he kept in contact with. From there, it snowballed. Hecht said soon he was bombarded with phone calls.
“What everyone says to me is, ‘I thought I was the only one,’” Hecht said. “And that’s what’s so shocking about this. They all thought they were the only one, and they had no idea that when they lived in the home, their foster brothers were going through the same thing.”
Raymond Gilbert was around 12 when he arrived at the Logemanns’ foster home in 2006.
In an interview with the Times, Gilbert described a home where upwards of 12 boys slept on bunk beds downstairs. If the boys wanted anything, they used a phone to call upstairs.
He said food was rationed — the pantry and fridge were locked, he said, and Jacklyn Logemann allowed the boys one toilet paper roll a month and wrote down the date they received tooth paste.
Gilbert said if he misstepped, like telling a child welfare worker that he didn’t like living in the home, he would be grounded, which meant doing manual labor around the Clearwater home or other rental properties owned by the Logemanns.
But Gilbert said there was an alternative — the “river house” with her husband, Jerold.
“We’d go up to the river house, and he would say ‘we’re good to hang out and watch movies, play video games and stuff,’” Gilbert said. “So it seems like a win situation for a young boy who’s grounded.”
The lawsuit states that Jerold Logemann sexually abused boys at the “river house.”
“I didn’t really find out that it was happening to other boys until all of this happened ... I didn’t know what he was doing to the other boys at the time,” Gilbert said.
The complaint also alleges the Logemanns dropped the boys off in neighborhoods and told them to knock on doors to ask for work. Some, if not all, the money the boys received from the work went to Jacklyn Logemann, the complaint states.
Jonathan Feyes, 36, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said the boys were even told to give their Christmas gift cards to Jacklyn Logemann.
Feyes lived there for four years, which he said were some of the worst times of his life and included instances of sexual abuse.
“I was scared to go upstairs,” Feyes said. “I was scared to be home. I didn’t want to live there, but I knew it was a place to stay.”
He said he told his caseworker about the abuse when he was 14.
“I remember them asking me details of what happened, what if, and I told them everything,” Feyes said.
The Logemanns previously had warned him he would be taken to a new home if he told caseworkers anything. After he reported the abuse, Feyes was transferred to a new, locked-down group home, he said.
“They did exactly what they said they were going to do if I said anything — they were going to put me in a locked up facility,” Feyes said.
He saw news reports about the January incident, which brought the memories flooding back. He said he contemplated suicide. In the weeks since, he has received help.
“I want to help the kids that can’t stand up for themselves, or that won’t stand up for themselves,” Feyes said.
