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A.J.'s Story - Newspaper Articles

The following links take you to various articles in AJ's story as it appeared in the South Florida media.

PLEASE DO NOT COPY THE INFORMATION ON THIS SITE BEFORE ASKING.

Thank you!

In Loving Memory Of Andrew James "A.J." Schwarz April 24,1983 - May 2,1993 "Beautiful Child who has found love from the angels...RIP..."
This page contains articles from the Palm Beach Post and The Sun-Sentinel from the year 1993.

If you are interested in reading the FULL DETAILS of this case aside from what is posted here, please purchase "No One Can Hurt Him Anymore" by Carol J.Rothgeb and Scott H. Cupp. Mr. Cupp thinks it's the book that nobody will read...please show your support and show him that you care about AJ, too by ordering his book by clicking on the cover image below.

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Stepmom Arrested In Boy's Death (10/9/93)
Lantana Woman Charged With Killing Stepson (10/9/93)
HRS to Examine its Families in Wake of Lantana Boy's Death (10/15/93)
Not Guilty Plea Entered in Boy's Death (10/16/93)
Ask The Hard Questions Before Next Child Dies (10/17/93)
Paper Trail Precedes 10-Year-Old's Death (10/17/93)
Stepmom Held in Boy's Death Freed (10/26/93)
Mother Tells Daughter: 'Don't Talk to Nobody' (10/26/93)
Woman's Place? On Police Blotter (10/29/93)
Family Cases Top Turner's List -- HRS Head Hopes Teams Will Prevent Another Child's Death (11/1/93)

STEPMOM ARRESTED IN BOY'S DEATH
Sun-Sentinel
October 9, 1993
By JIM Di PAOLA and KIRK SAVILLE Staff Writers

A woman accused of abusing her stepson by making him sit naked outside the house and eat his meals from a bowl next to the cat litter box - was charged with murder on Friday in connection with his drowning in May.
For family members, the arrest of Jessica Schwarz, 38, in the death of her stepson, Andrew "A.J." Schwarz, came as a relief.
"It's about time," said Georgiana Soini, A.J.'s grandmother. "We said it right away, that Jessica was responsible. This has been five months of knowing that."
Soini's daughter, Ilene Schwarz, is A.J.'s biological mother. Schwarz was too upset to talk about the arrest, Soini said. A.J.'s father, David Schwarz, could not be found on Friday for comment.
On Friday, while being taken to the Palm Beach County Stockade in handcuffs, Jessica Schwarz said she did not kill her stepson.
During an interview in May, Schwarz also said, "I don't hit nobody, but I have a big mouth."
Schwarz is being held without bond in the Stockade.
About 6 a.m. May 2, David Schwarz found his 10-year-old son lying nude in the above-ground pool at their home in the 5800 block of Triphammer Road, west of Lantana. Autopsy results showed A.J. died from drowning, but Sheriff's Lt. Steve Newell said on Friday that A.J. could not just accidentally fall into the pool and die.
"Children that age don't commit suicide," Newell said. "You don't just find a child naked in a pool at that hour in the morning. And if he stood up, his nose would have been above water, which would have let him survive."
Newell said he thinks Jessica Schwarz held A.J. underwater until he drowned or hurt him so badly that he was not able to swim.
The grand jury indicted Jessica Schwarz for second-degree murder and four counts of aggravated child abuse in relation to A.J. She was also indicted on a charge of witness tampering and one count of felony child abuse for allegedly trying to influence the testimony of another child, who was not named in the indictment, about the circumstances of A.J.'s death.
After A.J.'s death, Jessica Schwarz's two other children, ages 4 and 10, were placed in the care of her parents. According to the grand jury indictment, Jessica Schwarz forced her stepson A.J. to eat food from a bowl placed next to the litter box of the family's cat and punished him by making him stay home from school. Schwarz also punished A.J. by making him wear a shirt that read, "I'm a worthless piece of ----, don't talk to me," and by making him edge the entire yard with a pair of hand scissors, according to the grand jury indictment.
The indictment and arrest of Jessica Schwarz came as no surprise to Schwarz's neighbors, who had called in complaints about A.J.'s welfare months before he died.
"He was a good kid - a real good kid," said Ronald Pincus, who lives next door to Jessica and David Schwarz in the Concept Homes development. "He was never a hellion and always did whatever he was asked to do.
"Maybe he's in a better place," Pincus said. "A place where he won't be hurt anymore."
An autopsy report by the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner's Office shows that A.J., a third-grader at Indian Pines Elementary School, had more than two dozen cuts, bruises and scrapes from head to toe. The report said the injuries probably occurred over a period of time. Neighbors had called the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services about A.J., and the agency had been monitoring him since he had been transferred into his father's custody. When A.J. was 2, David and Ilene Schwarz were divorced and custody of A.J. and his older half-sister - Ilene's daughter by a previous marriage - was awarded to Ilene. When A.J. was 5, Ilene Schwarz married a man who was eventually convicted of abusing Ilene Schwarz and molesting A.J.'s half-sister.
In 1990, HRS officials awarded custody of A.J., then 7, and his half-sister to David Schwarz, saying Ilene Schwarz had failed to protect her two children from molestation. Ilene Schwarz eventually regained custody of her daughter, but A.J. remained in his father's custody.
HRS officials continued to visit A.J. at his father's house because neighbors had complained that Jessica Schwarz was abusing A.J.
Soini, A.J.'s grandmother, said the family believes that David Schwarz should also be charged in Andrew's death. "You cannot live in a household where someone is being neglected or abused like that and not know what's going on," Soini said. But detectives said David Schwarz was unaware that his wife may have contributed to A.J.'s death. "I don't think he knew until very recently," Newell said.
Pincus said that before A.J.'s death, David Schwarz was a long-distance trucker who spent long periods hauling material to Louisiana. "He really doesn't say much," Pincus said of David Schwarz. "But he was the only one who ever had tears in his eyes."

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LANTANA WOMAN CHARGED WITH KILLING STEPSON
The Palm Beach Post
October 9, 1993
JENNY STALETOVICH

The stepmother of a 10-year-old boy whose bruised and naked body was found floating in his backyard pool in May was charged Friday with killing him after months of mental and physical abuse.
Andrew ``A.J.'' Schwarz lived a brief but hellish life, records show. An indictment issued Friday said he was forced to eat from a dog bowl, sit in his yard naked and trim the yard with scissors.
The arrest of his stepmother, Jessica Schwarz, 38, came as a grim but not unexpected chapter after detectives uncovered torture allegedly inflicted despite neighbors' calls to state health workers.
Even after a complicated five-month investigation, detectives say they have not finished with the sad case of A.J. Schwarz.
Sources say the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Resources knew A.J. was being abused but left him in the home while putting his older sister in foster care. And questions remain about the role A.J.'s father, David ``Bear'' Schwarz, 36, played in the home, investigators say.
``I've never seen a case like this where you had the outcry. It was like people couldn't give us enough information,'' said Palm Beach County sheriff's Sgt. Ken Deischer.
``You have that kind of outcry, it tells you something's not right.''
Jessica Schwarz, a former day-care worker, was indicted on one count of second-degree murder, four counts of aggravated child abuse, two counts of felony child abuse and one count of witness tampering.
The state attorney's office claims Schwarz threatened A.J.'s stepsister if she cooperated with the investigation. Schwarz faces up to 22 years in prison and is being held without bail in the county stockade.
Born in Broward County, A.J. lived with his mother, Ilene Schwarz, and half-sister until November 1991.
That month, his half-sister told authorities her stepfather had sexually molested her. So HRS officials sent her and A.J. to live with their father and Jessica Schwarz at 5881 Triphammer Road. Only three months passed before there was trouble in the home and the girl was placed in foster care.
On Triphammer Road, neighbors say things worsened for A.J., who entertained them with his antics but seemed so quiet and sad. With his father away most of the time driving a truck, A.J. was always in trouble with his stepmother. Yet his two younger stepsisters were coddled, they said.

`He was always in trouble'

"A.J. seemed to be her main center of aggression,'' said neighbor Beth Walton. ``He was always in trouble.''
His punishments became noticeably severe, neighbors said. Beth Walton's daughters, who played with Jessica Schwarz's daughters, said Jessica beat the boy. At the dinner table, she put tape over his mouth while the others ate, Deischer said.
Another neighbor saw A.J. up before dawn collecting cans for his stepmother.
Jessica Schwarz also is accused of dressing her stepson in a T-shirt on which she had scribbled a sentence in black magic marker degrading the boy with vulgar words.
In interviews after A.J.'s death, Jessica Schwarz described her stepson as troubled and hyperactive. But school officials said he did well and tested average or above in intelligence, reports show.
In therapy, A.J. was prescribed Imipramine, an antidepressant, records show. But he stopped taking the medication, Jessica Schwarz told authorities, after she lost the Medicaid payments for the drug.
The day A.J. died, the family left him alone while they attended SunFest in downtown West Palm Beach, reports say.
From across the street, neighbor Laura DeSoto said she saw A.J. peering over his backyard fence and knew he was in trouble again. They returned that night about 9 p.m., and Jessica Schwarz later told police she turned in early, at 9:30 p.m., reports show.
A.J.'s father told police he stayed up until about midnight and checked on the three children before heading for bed.
But about 6 a.m., Jessica Schwarz, who normally slept until 10 or 11 a.m., told police she woke up, noticed that A.J. was missing and woke her husband to look for him, reports said. Bear Schwarz went outside and found his son face down in the 4-foot deep pool.
At the start of their investigation, detectives became more and more rattled by the volume of stories about A.J.'s abuses.

Help from Georgia

Palm Beach County Medical Examiner Dr. James Benz concluded A.J.'s death was caused by drowning, but he could not determine the manner. Assistant State Attorney Scott Cupp asked Dr. Joseph Burton, a medical examiner in De Kalb County, Ga., who specializes in pediatric pathology, to review the case. On May 7, five days after the boy's death, a detective boarded a plane with A.J.'s body and flew to Atlanta. After his examination, Burton said A.J. was murdered and the case should go to a grand jury.
``The injuries to the scalp are sufficient in and of themselves to have caused the death of a child,'' wrote Burton, who said A.J.'s case was the most complex he had worked on. The ``pattern of injuries are consistent with someone having held Andrew's head with the hand placed behind the head and possibly another hand across the nose and mouth and submerging him.''
Fueled by the evidence Burton found, investigators canvassed the neighborhood, collecting statements from neighbors and visiting A.J.'s school. His third-grade teacher at Indian Pines Elementary School ``thought something was wrong, but she couldn't pinpoint it,'' Deischer said. ``This particular boy liked attention. It was almost like he didn't get it at home. . . . She would just hold him in her arms.''
Sources say HRS records detail the abuses in the Schwarz home, but say the children remained in the home. Schwarz's two daughters were removed after A.J.'s death. HRS officials have refused to release the records because of confidentiality laws designed to protect children in the state's care.

Mom sought hearing

The month before A.J. died, Ilene Schwarz and her mother, Gladys Soini, said they tried to have an emergency hearing to regain custody. They had heard the boy's nose had been broken. However, a caseworker said they did not have sufficient grounds for a hearing, they said. The next time the caseworker called, it was about A.J.'s death, Soini said.
``She told me, `You don't know, do you?''' Soini said. ``She informed me that my grandson was dead and I said, `Jessica finally killed him.' I'll never forget it.''
In a big family scattered and broken, Soini has followed the case as relentlessly as detectives. When it seemed to stall two months ago, the grandmother of 15 threatened to file her own lawsuit against HRS.
``I have 15 more grandchildren and I'm still not going to have A.J.,'' she said. ``No matter how many you have, they're all special.''
like the detectives - she is not finished with the case.
``I'm going after all of them,'' she said. ``I want Bear. I want Jessica. I want HRS and I want to make sure they can never do this to another little kid again.''

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HRS TO RE-EXAMINE ITS FAMILIES IN WAKE OF LANTANA BOY'S DEATH
The Palm Beach Post
October 15, 1993
JENNY STALETOVICH
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

In a move that involves thousands of cases, the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services will ask outside volunteers to re-examine Palm Beach County families who are under the state's care.
Plans for the review were revealed days after a grand jury indicted a Lantana woman, charging her with murdering her 10-year-old stepson while under HRS supervision.
District administrator Suzanne Turner, who took over the agency in August, said this week that she proposed the review to insure the agency is doing its job properly - and because she has heard mounting complaints about the state's handling of cases.
Turner declined to discuss the Lantana case, citing confidentiality laws.
``It's a mammoth undertaking, but I think it's necessary,'' she said. ``I just want to assure the taxpayers we're doing the best job we can.''
Last Friday, a grand jury indicted Jessica Schwarz on second-degree murder charges. She is accused of killing her stepson, Andrew ``A.J.'' Schwarz, in May after physically and mentally abusing him. Schwarz remained in the county stockade Wednesday without bond.
Sources have said HRS records document abuse in the household. Turner said no one has notified her of any misconduct on the part of agency workers.
``If we're made aware and, depending on our involvement in the case . . . if we have some concern over the function of staff, we will review that and take appropriate action,'' she said.
Under Turner's plan, teams of volunteers would provide another check in an agency where workers are already swamped with up to 50 active cases each and checks and balances stretched to their limit.
``Suzanne would have developed these teams whether there was an A.J. Schwarz or not,'' said HRS spokeswoman Nancy Lambrecht. ``Do I believe it might help us prevent something in the future? I sure hope so. Nobody wants another A.J. Schwarz.''
Turner's staff is still working out how workers will record and report their evaluations. Because of confidentiality laws, all volunteers will have to sign an agreement prohibiting them from disclosing information, she said.

HRS DRAWING UP LIST

HRS workers have started compiling a master list of families under state care, cross-checking adults and children in the state's various programs.
``It's likely we have a mother in mental health, a father in substance abuse, and children in custody outside the home or with a relative, so we want to make sure we're not duplicating efforts,'' Turner said.
The list will include more than 2,100 children in protective services, 500 children in foster or residential care, 150 developmentally disabled adults, and thousands of mentally ill, she said.
Once the list is compiled, staff members will develop a plan for visiting the families and evaluating the care they receive, she said.
Turner is trying to enlist community volunteers - doctors, nurses, teachers, social workers. Teams of volunteers will be trained to evaluate care and personally meet with each family: A health care worker would make sure the family is receiving proper medical treatment. A teacher would ensure children are attending school and a carpenter would look at the home's safety.

JUDGE BACKS PROGRAM

Although the program remains in its planning stages, it seems like a good idea to Palm Beach County Circuit Court Judge Howard Berman, who handles cases involving children.
``Anything that can help and assist families or children. . . I imagine would be advantageous,'' he said. ``HRS, they don't want to be parents.''
Turner hopes to have the teams in action by the end of the year.
``I've got to have the help of the community because while this is going on, our own staff has to continue with the cases they're working,'' she said.

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NOT GUILTY PLEA ENTERED IN BOY'S DEATH
The Palm Beach Post
October 16, 1993

A 38-year-old woman charged with murdering her 10-year-old stepson waived a hearing Friday and entered a plea of not guilty through her attorney, officials said.
Jessica Schwarz was indicted by a grand jury last week and charged with second-degree murder and child abuse in the May death of her stepson Andrew ``A.J.'' Schwarz, whose naked and bruised body was found floating in his backyard pool before dawn.

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ASK THE HARD QUESTIONS BEFORE NEXT CHILD DIES
The Palm Beach Post
October 17, 1993

Twenty-four weeks ago today, the naked, bruised body of 10-year-old Andrew ``A.J.'' Schwarz was found floating face-down in his backyard pool. Last week, finally, there was action. Jessica Schwarz was arrested and charged with killing her stepson. Suzanne Turner, new administrator of the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services in Palm Beach County, vowed to strengthen the child protection system by having volunteers review all families under HRS supervision.
Law enforcement officials were right to press on with a complex investigation. Ms. Turner, on the job just two months, is right to ask hard questions about her agency. Any child's death is a tragedy. And since the Schwarz family was under state supervision and an abuse report had been made, the question is naturally Why? Why was this death not prevented? What could have been - should have been - done? We hear now - new information reportedly has emerged since A.J's death - that he had suffered a painful litany of physical and mental abuse. Where were the adults in his life? Not just social workers but teachers, neighbors, the therapists who provided mental health counseling? Any one of them could have dialed the state's toll-free abuse registry and made an anonymous report.
The Schwarzes' squalid story will play out in a Palm Beach County courtroom and feature the report of a Georgia medical examiner who specializes in pediatric pathology. ``The pattern of injuries,'' it says, ``is consistent with someone having held Andrew's head, the hand placed behind the head and possibly another hand across the nose and mouth, and submerging him.''
HRS' action must be quicker. It's the first test for Ms. Turner, who says she would have ordered the review of thousands of HRS cases anyway after complaints she's heard. Her plan to stretch HRS' resources with volunteers is innovative but not unique. Foster Care Citizen Review panels are already speeding foster care cases.
``We've got to find a way to identify and work with families to protect children and vulnerable adults,'' she says. True, but tough. Some families are very sick - with alcoholism, drug abuse, mental problems and violence. And social workers have large caseloads. The only clear answer is that the rest of us must help - must not hesitate to report suspected abuse. The number - listed on the telephone book's inside cover - is (800) 962-2873.

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PAPER TRAIL PRECEDES 10-YEAR-OLD'S DEATH
Palm Beach Post, The (FL)
October 17, 1993
JENNY STALETOVICH
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

In the months before he died, Andrew ``A.J.'' Schwarz grew more troubled, his stepmother more irritable and state health workers and psychologists more and more concerned about his welfare, according to records obtained by The Palm Beach Post.
One worker wrote in her log: ``Keep your eyes and ears open for warning signs.''
The state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services paper trail of A.J.'s life portrays a disturbed 10-year-old boy, caught between warring parents and betrayed by a system designed to protect him. The records were released Friday after The Post filed a lawsuit against HRS to obtain the child's case file and a judge ruled in the newspaper's favor.
The slight third-grader, who once said his biggest wish was to be a truck driver like his father, was found dead in the family's swimming pool May 2. His stepmother, Jessica Schwarz, 38, has been charged in his death.
Twice in the three months before he died, therapists working with HRS warned that A.J. may have been emotionally abused and asked the state to reconsider whether he should live with his father and stepmother. Unable to prove the abuse, HRS left him at 5881 Triphammer Road.
Although A.J.'s father, Bear Schwarz - a truck driver who was rarely home - was awarded custody, his stepmother bore most of the responsibility for his care, records show. Investigators say she inflicted shocking punishments: Eat from a dog bowl, trim the lawn with scissors and sit outside naked.
Last week, a grand jury indicted Jessica Schwarz, charging her with second-degree murder, four counts of aggravated child abuse, two counts of felony child abuse and one count of witness tampering. Schwarz, a former day care worker, faces up to 22 years in prison and remained Saturday in the county stockade without bond.

OTHER ARRESTS POSSIBLE

Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office detectives, who conducted a five-month investigation and enlisted the help of a Georgia pediatric pathologist, are continuing to look into the death and say they may make other arrests. Reached at his house this week, Bear Schwarz, 37, declined to talk about the case.
Almost from the beginning, A.J. was a disturbed child, documents show. Removed from his biological mother's home after he allegedly witnessed his stepfather sexually molest his half-sister, A.J. went to live with his father, Jessica Schwarz, two half-sisters and stepsister in 1991. As early as March 1991, doctors knew something was wrong with the little boy who sometimes sucked his thumb.
``Andrew seems to be `struggling' between wanting to be a good boy who can be loved and respected and dealing with his low self-esteem,'' a Boynton Beach therapist wrote after a court-ordered exam. ``He may also be struggling with seeing the `ugly' side of adults while at the same time hoping to find some comfort, in an enjoyable environment, for his vulnerable needs.''

ERRATIC BEHAVIOR

Less than a year later, after he allegedly tried to drown his younger sister, A.J. was admitted to Indian River Memorial Hospital for depression.
Medicine muted A.J.'s erratic behavior and counseling helped his esteem, doctors reported. After six weeks, they released him and recommended continued therapy. But Jessica Schwarz repeatedly missed appointments and stopped his medication when A.J.'s Medicaid was abruptly canceled, records show.
In hand-scribbled diary entries, caseworkers and psychologists recorded their frustration with the family before he died.
``Home environment has changed. Stepmother had a very low self-esteem . . . Her whole attitude has changed tremendously,'' a case worker wrote seven months after A.J. moved in.
In February 1992, A.J.'s half-sister - his mother's daughter by another marriage - complained that Schwarz hit her and was removed from the home. A.J. stayed, although a case worker observed ``child/parent problems.''
Three months later, a case worker spoke to Schwarz on the telephone, but she ``was not making any sense.'' An investigator looking into anonymous complaints that Schwarz beat A.J. with her keys told the case worker she could not prove the abuse, but ``Jessica seems very incoherent with slurred speech.''

BLACK EYES, SWOLLEN NOSE

In February 1993, when A.J. arrived at a therapy session with black eyes and a swollen nose, officials called for a staff review of the case. Schwarz said he fell off his bicycle. A.J. said the same thing.
An investigation conducted by the Center For Children in Crisis concluded:
``Story may be consistent with injury, however, the other parts of history recorded definitely indicate rather severe and continuing emotional abuse which should certainly be investigated.''
Schwarz told a therapist she did not want to hug A.J. because he had masturbated in front of her, and ``She is afraid he will sexually act out on her.'' The agency also reported the family is ``avoiding confrontation with HRS and is holding secrets,'' a case worker wrote.

PULLED OUT OF SCHOOL

Later that month, Schwarz pulled A.J. out of school to punish him for not taking out the trash, records show. On March 26, A.J. had missed 19 out of 44 days at school, the records show.
``Teacher stated that he is starved for attention,'' HRS reported.
Schwarz became more combative with workers, records show. On March 30, she angrily hung up the phone on A.J.'s therapist at the South County Mental Health Center.
Then, on April 23, the South County Mental Health Center therapist met with Schwarz.
A.J. ``has not taken any medication (for) two months,'' he reported. Schwarz ``seems to be somewhat irresponsible.''
Three days later, on his birthday, A.J.'s therapist visited him. It was the last time any of his counselors or case workers would see him alive.
When detectives arrived at the home to investigate the death, they were shocked by what they found. Bruises covered the inside of A.J.'s legs, he had scratches inside his mouth and severe head injuries, records show.
``Detectives pointed out that (A.J.'s) room was sparse, no decor to speak of. . . . No pictures of him on the home's walls,'' a case worker wrote. ``This is in complete contrast to the girls' bedroom, which were (sic) well decorated, had Nintendo games, lots of toys, closets and dressers full of clothes.
``And family pictures on walls included the girls.''

UNPUBLISHED CORRECTION: Some of the stories about Andrew "A.J." Schwarz contain references to his half-sister being sexually molested. Although the sister is not named, it is the Post's policy not to identify the victims of sex crimes without their consent. Schwarz' half-sister has not consented to being identified. Please do not state that the sister has been sexually molested in future stories.
UNPUBLISHED CORRECTION: The correct spelling of the last name is Schwarz.

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STEPMOM HELD IN BOY'S DEATH FREED
Sun-Sentinel
October 26, 1993
Author: By JIM Di PAOLA Staff Writer

In the indictment, the grand jury said Jessica Schwarz had physically and mentally abused her 10-year-old stepson for weeks before his drowning death. Schwarz has pleaded not guilty.
A woman charged with killing her stepson was released from jail on Monday after posting a $150,000 bond, Palm Beach County Stockade officials said.
Jessica Schwarz, 38, was freed from the stockade about four hours after a judge ruled her bond should be set at $150,000. Suspects must pay 10 percent of their bond to be released from jail.
Schwarz's release infuriated Ilene Schwarz, the dead boy's biological mother.
"She should not be allowed out of jail," Ilene Schwarz said. "She murdered my son. As far as I'm concerned, she did it."
On May 2, the body of A.J. Schwarz, 10, was discovered by his father in the backyard pool at the family's home in the 5800 block of Triphammer Road, west of Lantana.
On Oct. 9, Jessica Schwarz was indicted by a grand jury on charges of second-degree murder and four counts of aggravated child abuse in relation to A.J. She was also indicted on a charge of witness tampering and one count of felony child abuse for allegedly trying to influence the testimony of her 3-year-old daughter about the circumstances of A.J.'s death.
In the indictment, the grand jury said Schwarz had physically and mentally abused her stepson for weeks before his drowning death.
Schwarz has pleaded not guilty.
During a tearful, 90-minute court hearing on Monday, Jessica Schwarz heard a neighbor say she was a danger to the community, heard her husband testify that he couldn't remember the date of his son's death, and watched a videotape from the Sheriff's Office in which she told her two daughters they should not answer questions about their stepbrother's death.
At the hearing, Schwarz asked Circuit Court Judge Walter Colbath for a $30,000 bond. But Prosecutor Scott Cupp asked that Colbath set the bond at $420,000.
In hopes of keeping a high bail, prosecutors showed Colbath the videotape of Schwarz with her two daughters. Hours after A.J.'s body was discovered, Schwarz and her two daughters, ages 3 and 10, were brought to the Sheriff's Office for questioning. After their interviews, Schwarz and her daughters were allowed to be together in an interview room.
"The interview room had a camera in it," Cupp said. "[A detective) happened to be listening and he couldn't believe what he was hearing so he slapped a tape in."
What the detective captured on videotape, Cupp said, was Schwarz directing her 3-year-old daughter not to talk to detectives about A.J.'s death. The girl's name is being withheld to protect her identity.
The tape begins with Schwarz's 3-year-old daughter pacing the room and crying. Schwarz is sitting on a small chair with her arms folded across her chest. The older daughter is out of the camera's view.
Schwarz asks her younger daughter what she told detectives.
"I got smacked," the daughter said.
"Who smacked you?" Schwarz asked.
"You did, when daddy was working."
"I never smacked you," Schwarz said. "Don't tell these people anything. Just say I don't know."

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MOTHER TELLS DAUGHTER: `DON'T TALK TO NOBODY'
The Palm Beach Post
October 26, 1993
Author: JENNY STALETOVICH

A videotape of a woman ordering her tearful daughter not to talk to investigators hours after her stepson's death led a judge to confine her to her house and forbid her from seeing her daughter as he released her on bond Monday.
Unaware of a camera in a police interview room, Jessica Schwarz told her daughter: ``They could send me to jail. Do you want me to go to jail?''
``I didn't want A.J. to die,'' the little girl sniffled.
``Well, he did,'' answered Schwarz, who later warned, ``You don't talk to nobody no more. You just say, `I don't know.'''
Schwarz, 38, was indicted by a grand jury this month on charges of second-degree murder, witness tampering and six counts of child abuse in the death of her 10-year-old stepson, Andrew ``A.J.'' Schwarz. A.J., an anxious boy who once told a therapist he felt closer to the family dog than his father, stepmother or sisters, was found floating naked in his pool May 2.
Investigators say Schwarz physically - and emotionally abused him, forcing him to wear a T-shirt she scribbled obscenities across and to sit naked outside their house at 5881 Triphammer Road.
Palm Beach County Judge Walter Colbath set bail at $150,000 and told Schwarz, who bonded out of the stockade late Monday afternoon, not to leave her home except to attend court proceedings, talk to her daughters or have money or car keys.
``Under the circumstances, it's reasonable,'' said her father, Edward Woods, who paid the bond and will cover Schwarz' legal fees.
During a two-hour hearing, interrupted once by A.J.'s mother, Ilene Schwarz, attorney Rendell Brown carefully painted his client as a responsible woman unfairly dogged by her accusers.
Even after sheriff's detectives vowed to arrest Schwarz and neighbors flooded her home with a garden hose while she was away, she stayed to face the charges against her, he said.
When neighbor Gail Raratz said Schwarz slammed her against a wall and smashed a brick through a car window, Brown hammered:
``You dislike her so much you'd say anything to keep her in jail.''
But Assistant State Attorney Scott Cupp depicted a malevolent Schwarz who slugged her husband and threatened neighborhood children. One neighbor is so frightened of Schwarz she said Monday she called deputies to ask for additional patrols after she learned of her release.
When Brown countered Cupp, saying A.J. was placed in the Schwarz' care after Ilene Schwarz hit him in the head with a frying pan, Ilene Schwarz snapped.
``You son of a . . . No! That is not . . . '' she cried, struggling to stand while her father held her down and slapped his hand over her mouth to quiet her.
One row behind her, A.J.'s father, called ``The Bear'' by his children, sat mute. And when he did speak, he spoke softly. From behind dark sunglasses, David Schwarz told Cupp he did not attend his son's funeral.
``You don't even know the day he died,'' Cupp said.
``It was May 8,'' Schwarz mumbled.
It was May 2.

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WOMAN'S PLACE? ON POLICE BLOTTER
Sun-Sentinel
October 29, 1993

Out there among the quiet masses of good-hearted, kind people who populate this bizarre place we call South Florida are some real choice specimens.
I'm talking about the creeps and cretins who give our home its reputation for boorishness and violence. People like the guy I wrote about a few months ago who struck a bicyclist then yelled at him for bleeding all over his new sports car.
Men get most of the bad press but they are by no means the only offenders. Who could forget our own Maria DeSillers, the Miami woman who tearfully pleaded for help paying for her son's liver transplants, then blew at least $150,000 of the donations on such necessities as jewelry and a BMW?
And what about Lee Goldsmith, 72, the Lauderhill grandmother who put out a death contract on her Boynton Beach son-in-law because she didn't think he was good enough for her daughter?
Nice ladies, huh?
In that rich tradition and with the number of recent candidates soaring, I thought it only appropriate to honor these wicked witches of weirdland as Devil's Night approaches.
Welcome to the first-ever Women We Love To Hate Awards in recognition of South Florida's most despicable females.

A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN

Third Place: Laura Steventon, 58,a home-care nurse who was hired to care for a demented 90-year-old patient in his Boca Raton home. She liked him so much she decided to marry him. According to a lawsuit and criminal investigation, Steventon heavily drugged the aged Boca Raton man lest he get cold feet at the ceremony. Then she took him in a wheelchair to the Palm Beach County Courthouse where an alert clerk looked at the nervous nurse and the near-comatose man slumped over in the wheelchair and promptly pronounced them husband and wife. Third Place Winner Steventon - and $15,000 of the old man's money - remain missing.
Second Place: Cheri Nicholson, 22, a professional nanny hired by working mom Karen Johnson to watch her two children during Johnson's night nursing shifts. At 2 a.m. on Oct. 17, Nicholson slipped out of the Greenacres home as the children slept. As if her absence were not criminal enough, the nefarious nanny left a pan of hot grease on the stove. Pretty soon the house was on fire.
The hero of the day was Michael Johnson, 8, who led his 5-year-old sister, Beth, through the smoke and smashed a piggy bank through a window to escape. When the errant sitter finally arrived back at the smoldering home, she told police she had just stepped out for ketchup and did not realize she had left the burner on. She later admitted she was out meeting a friend.

A STEPMOTHER'S LOVE

And the No. 1 Woman We Love To Hate...
First Place: Jessica Schwarz, 38, a woman who makes Cinderella's evil stepsisters look like queens of kindness. Schwarz stands accused of murdering her 10-year-old stepson, A.J., whose nude body was found in the family pool west of Lantana. Police say Schwarz held the boy underwater or abused him so badly he was unable to hold his head above water. She's also captured on videotape intimidating her 3-year-old daughter to not talk to police.
In addition to murder, this sweetheart of a low life is charged with aggravated child abuse for how she treated A.J. in the months before his death. According to a grand jury indictment: she made him sit outside naked and eat his meals from a bowl on the floor by the cat-litter box; she made him edge the yard with a pair of scissors; she made him wear a T-shirt that read, "I'm a worthless piece of s---."
And we wonder why some kids grow up to be sociopaths?
All three winners, by the way, are entitled to an all-expenses-paid stay in the beautiful new Palm Beach County Jail. Who knows, maybe we'll get lucky and someone will throw away the key.

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FAMILY CASES TOP TURNER'S LIST
HRS HEAD HOPES TEAMS WILL PREVENT ANOTHER CHILD'S DEATH
Sun-Sentinel
November 1, 1993
By LARRY BARSZEWSKI Staff Writer

Suzanne Turner did not have to wait long for controversy to come calling.
It was waiting when she arrived as district administrator of the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services in Palm Beach County in August.
A 10-year-old boy, Andrew "A.J."Schwarz, drowned in his backyard pool in May under suspicious circumstances. HRS had taken the boy away from his mother and placed him with his father and stepmother - and had kept him there despite numerous allegations of child abuse.
Sheriff's deputies arrested his stepmother, Jessica Schwarz, this month. A grand jury indicted her on second-degree murder and assorted child abuse charges.
HRS has been criticized for allowing the boy to stay in the home and failing to protect him.
Turner does not want to see another case like A.J.'s arise in the district. One of her first efforts as district administrator has been to form volunteer teams of professionals to look at all families under HRS care, to review the whole family situation and to make recommendations that will help HRS to do a better job.
"What we're trying to do is get the most objective view we can get as to whether it's a safe environment," Turner said. "The child appears safe, but perhaps the mother is a victim of domestic violence and needs assistance. Perhaps the father has some alcohol problem that needs to be addressed."
HRS is looking for volunteers to take part in the review teams. The volunteers will include doctors, nurses, educators, social workers, therapists, investigators and students. They will receive training before being sent out into homes.
The volunteers - about 30 are on board already - will provide a fresh set of eyes and new insights, said Ann Miller, who is coordinating the program. The teams will start by looking at children receiving multiple services from HRS, she said.
Turner hopes to have the teams in action by December and for them to start making recommendations that can be immediately implemented.
"I think we'll start seeing some patterns, when you review 200 or 300 of these types of settings," Turner said. The teams may find home situations that need to be addressed immediately, Turner said, and can get that message to the appropriate supervisors.
For more information or to volunteer to be on one of the teams, contact Ann Miller at HRS, 837-5151.

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