Feb. 29--A mother accused of drowning her 3-year-old son has now been accused of assaulting a jailer.
Amanda Smith was supposed to appear before a judge through a television monitor Wednesday afternoon, but that did not happen. According to Johnson County Sheriff Doug Cox, at 11:20 a.m. a jailer went to check on her. Cox said Smith attacked him. Smith is staying in a padded cell on suicide watch.
"She rushed the officer from behind, pushing him to the ground," said Sheriff Cox in a written statement. "I can't discuss the injuries inflicted, but they were serious enough for treatment at Johnson Memorial Hospital."
Cox said Smith could be charged with battery.
Smith has not been formally charged with murder and attempted murder for her son's death. Monday, deputies and Trafalgar police detectives were called to the 700 block of West Trafalgar Point Way. When officers got there, they found 3-year-old Jacob Smith. He was described as lifeless. Officers said Smith then came out of a closet, swinging an ax. Smith eventually surrendered.
Robert Crim, Jacob's father was emotional when Fox59 spoke with him Tuesday night. He expressed how upset he was, stating the courts failed him.
"They were blind. It was right in front of their face and they just looked past it," said Crim.
Crim was trying to get custody of his son. There was a hearing scheduled March 14.
"The courts, Mark Loyd, Judge Mark Loyd and CASA, they knew. They knew she was unstable from day one," said Crim.
Crim referred to a hearing he and his wife were at on January 4. Judge Loyd said he based his decision to let Smith have unsupervised visitation on what he knew at the time. He said in Jacob's parents voluntarily asked for the state to take care of their son because of drug issues back in 2009. Then, in 2010, Smith's mother, Wanda Smith, was granted guardianship of Jacob.
The Department of Child Services was not involved after that because guardianship had been established. Loyd said from what he remembered about the hearing, Crim was able to see his son a few hours a week. Loyd also said Wanda Smith allowed Amanda Smith to spend supervised and unsupervised time with Jacob.
"The guardianship had been going very well. It had been in place since June 2010 and therefore the father's request was really the primary issue as to whether or not that guardianship was going to be terminated," said Loyd.
According to Loyd, Crim wanted to "expand his parenting time and see if he couldn't get the guardianship terminated so he could regain custody of Jacob."
Loyd said he issued a temporary order to guide the guardian, which in this case was Wanda Smith, and to essentially keep everything as it was until the evidentiary hearing scheduled March 14. He also said he made his decision based on what he knew in court.
"There was no evidence brought to the court, at any point in time, or that there was any concern as to anger, physical abuse, anything such as that that would give any kind of alert that this kind of consequence could or should be expected," he said. "It is a circumstance that we will review, re-review to make absolutely certain that we know what occurred, what information we had, what information we didn't have that we should've, what steps can be taken to make certain that we improve if improvement is necessary in the future."
Judge Loyd also stated CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) became involved in the case in December, before the January hearing.
He said, "CASA was not yet, hadn't done investigation. At that point in time wasn't able to prove information to the courts."
Copyright 2012 - WXIN-TV, Indianapolis
