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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 1994.

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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Stepmother: AJ Had Emotional Problems (8/31/94)
Daughter Denies Schwarz Abused AJ (8/31/94)
Stepmother at Trial Denies Abusing AJ: Woman Grilled by Attorneys for Second Day (9/1/94)
AJ's Stepmom: I'm Strict, Not Abusive (9/1/94)
Jury Convicts Stepmom: Jessica Schwarz Faces 70 Years for Abusing AJ (9/2/94)
Schwarz Guilty of Abuse (9/2/94)
AJ Saga Still Has Way To Go: Criticism of HRS Likely To Increase (9/3/94)
Ramifications From AJ Case to be Seen in Weeks to Come (9/3/94)
Stepmom Was Sly Manipulator: Jessica Schwarz Successfully Concealed AJ's Abuse From HRS (9/4/94)
Brief Life of AJ Schwarz Filled With Violence, Custody Problems (9/4/94)
AJ's Birth Mother Has Many Regrets (9/4/94)

STEPMOTHER: A.J. HAD EMOTIONAL PROBLEMS
Sun-Sentinel
August 31, 1994
MIKE FOLKS Staff Writer

On the witness stand on Tuesday, Jessica Schwarz did not resemble the monstrous stepmother who prosecutors say emotionally and physically abused her stepson until his nude, lifeless body was found in a backyard swimming pool in May 1993.
When she talked of her 10-year-old stepson, Andrew "A.J."Schwarz, the former truck driver referred to him as "my son" and "Andrew."
Jessica Schwarz began her testimony late Tuesday. She will testify again today when her trial on seven counts of child abuse continues. Her trial for second-degree murder in A.J.'s death will be held later.
Guided by her defense attorney, Rendell Brown, Jessica Schwarz, 39, talked about her upbringing in Long Island, N.Y., her childhood dream of becoming a truck driver and how she and her current husband, David "Bear" Schwarz, gained custody of A.J. and his half-sister in November 1990.
Jessica Schwarz said state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services officials placed the children in their home west of Lantana after their biological mother's boyfriend was accused of abusing A.J.'s half-sister. What HRS officials didn't tell them was the extent of A.J.'s emotional problems and his need for counseling, she told the jury.
A.J. soon started exhibiting behavioral problems in school and at home, she said.
"I believed he needed more help than I could give him," Jessica Schwarz said, explaining she called school and HRS officials who did nothing.
During a dependency hearing in Broward County for the children, Jessica Schwarz said she learned of A.J.'s emotional problems. "I told the court, I told everyone, that this child needed therapy."
When Jessica Schwarz got no action, she began helping him with his school work and disciplining A.J. when he got out of line. "I was just running with common sense," she testified.
During an open house at A.J.'s school in the fall of 1992, Jessica Schwarz said she warned her stepson's teacher of his behavior problems, but denied she belittled A.J. in front of the boy during the discussion.
A.J. played outside while she talked with his teacher, Mary Idrissi, she said.
Idrissi testified last week that she was shocked when A.J's stepmother, in the boy's presence, called him a "liar" and a bad boy who plays "head games."In speaking of the embarrassed A.J., Idrissi told the jury, "His little eyes never left the floor."
Jessica Schwarz told the jury a different version.
"I told [Idrissi) she had to be on her toes, that he was a liar ... and that she had to keep her eyes open," she testified. "I knew Andrew had problems and I needed help because she was going to be with him most of the day. When I speak, I speak pretty blunt. I expected her to pay attention to what I was saying."
Jessica Schwarz also denied telling Idrissi not to give A.J. books because he would lose or destroy them.
"How can I stop the school from giving a child a textbook? I don't have that power," she told the jury.
Before taking the stand, Jessica Schwarz listened as her daughter from her first marriage, Lauren Cross, 11, and her mother, Helen Woods of Palm Bay, testified in her defense.
Both denied A.J. was ever abused.
Lauren, who now lives with her grandmother, denied she had talked with her mother about the case. But the girl said she had talked to her mother once after prosecutor Scott Cupp pressed her on the issue.
Cupp then questioned her about a videotaped conversation that police have between Lauren, her half-sister Jackie Schwarz and their mother. The conversation was captured by a camera at Palm Beach County Sheriff's headquarters the day A.J.'s body, with more than two dozen scrapes, cuts and bruises, was found in the family's above-ground pool by David Schwarz.
"Your mom told Jackie and you, while you were standing right in that room, she said, `Don't tell them anything because Mommy could go to jail,' didn't she?" Cupp asked Lauren.
"Yes, because my sister [Jackie) makes up stories," Lauren said, weeping as she testified.
"She told Jackie she had a big mouth and told Jackie to say, `I don't know, I don't know,' didn't she?" Cupp asked.
"I don't remember," Lauren said.
"Then you told your mommy, `I told them [investigators) lies,' didn't you?" Cupp asked.
"No, I don't remember that part too well," Lauren said, wiping away tears with a tissue handed to her by a guardian ad litem seated at her side.
Jessica Schwarz has also been charged with two counts of witness tampering based on the video, which Cupp said he may introduce as part of the state's rebuttal case in the abuse trial. A trial on witness tampering charges has yet to be scheduled.
In her testimony, Woods was adamant that her daughter was a good mother who loved A.J. like her own child.
As she left the witness stand, Woods passed her daughter, mouthing the words, "I love you."

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DAUGHTER DENIES SCHWARZ ABUSED A.J.
The Palm Beach Post
August 31, 1994
VAL ELLICOTT

Jessica Schwarz's daughter emphatically rejected the abuse allegations against Schwarz Tuesday and offered a convincing and strikingly sympathetic portrait of the woman accused of cruelly mistreating her stepson.
The testimony from Lauren Cross, 11, delivered the first potentially damaging blow to prosecution claims - backed by numerous witnesses - that Schwarz made her stepson's life a daily hell of endless chores and humiliating emotional abuse.
Andrew ``A.J.'' Schwarz, who was 10 when his body was found in his family's backyard pool in May 1993, enjoyed an essentially normal life at the Schwarz's Lake Worth home, where he shared housekeeping duties with other family members and received presents and a party on his birthday, Cross said.
She delivered a loud ``No'' each time defense attorney Rendell Brown asked whether Schwarz had committed one of the allegations listed in charging documents, including charges that she made her stepson eat on the floor next to a litter box, put tape on his mouth, hit him, or subjected him to other sadistic punishments.
``She'd never do that, she never did,'' Cross said, responding to a claim that Schwarz once punished her stepson by making him walk naked inside the house.
Schwarz, 39, a former truck driver who grew up in Long Island as the daughter of a shipping company executive, began testifying in her own defense Tuesday. She said she realized soon after taking custody of A.J. - the son of her second husband, David ``Bear'' Schwarz - that he had serious behavior problems and badly needed counseling.
But state health officials and teachers at A.J.'s school ignored her persistent demands that her stepson receive special therapy, she told jurors. ``All I wanted to do was help my son and they more or less turned their backs on me,'' Schwarz said.
Before Tuesday's developments, which included testimony from Schwarz's mother, jurors had heard little to refute the state's claims that Schwarz is guilty of seven counts of child abuse. Schwarz also is charged with second-degree murder in A.J,'s death, but she will be tried separately on that charge.
Cross broke down in tears Tuesday when prosecutor Scott Cupp pressed her on whether she had lied to a police investigator who questioned her about A.J.'s home life while looking into the boy's death.
``I didn't lie to him, I promise you, I didn't,'' Cross sobbed.
But a video camera at the police station caught Cross telling her mother she had lied to the investigator, Cupp says. He plans to show jurors the tape later in the trial to prove Cross would willingly lie to protect her mother.
The same videotape shows Schwarz ordering her other daughter, Jackie, not to talk to investigators. Schwarz is charged with witness tampering in connection with those statements. That charge will be decided by the jury that hears the murder case against her.

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STEPMOTHER AT TRIAL DENIES ABUSING A.J.
WOMAN GRILLED BY ATTORNEYS FOR SECOND DAY
BY MIKE FOLKS
STAFF WRITER
Sun-Sentinel
September 1, 1994

Jessica Schwarz repeatedly told a jury on Wednesday that she never emotionally or physically abused her 10-year-old stepson, declaring she loved him "as if he was my own son."
Schwarz, 39, wearing a green print dress and white cardigan sweater, spent her second day on the witness stand fielding questions from her defense attorney and a prosecutor.
For the most part, Schwarz was calm while delivering her testimony, shedding no tears for her dead stepson, Andrew "A.J."Schwarz.
Jessica Schwarz, on trial for seven counts of child abuse, also faces a trial for second-degree murder in A.J's drowning and tampering with a witness. That trial has yet to be scheduled.
On Wednesday, Jessica Schwarz glided through her direct testimony conducted by defense attorney Rendell Brown, denying she ever abused A.J.
Jessica Schwarz testified the boy had severe emotional problems when he and his half-sister were placed in the Schwarz home west of Lantana. State Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services officials had removed the children from their biological mother's home in November 1990 after the half-sister was abused by their mother's boyfriend.
A.J. needed hospitalization, not once-a-week counseling, she told the jury.
"I wanted for [A.J.) to be happy at the house with us and grow up there," Jessica Schwarz testified.
When cross-examined by Prosecutor Scott Cupp, Jessica Schwarz appeared unnerved by some questions, snapping back several times with curt answers.
Cupp hammered away at the 200-pound former truck driver, attempting to pick holes in her denials that she was a monstrous stepmother who tortured her 60-pound stepson until his nude, lifeless body was pulled from the family's backyard pool on May 2, 1993.
Her denials were lies to cover up the horrific abuse she forced the affection-starved boy to endure during his brief life, Cupp maintained.
That abuse ranged from forcing him to edge the lawn with scissors and running nude through his neighborhood to wearing a T-shirt that read, "Don't talk to me, I'm a worthless piece of s---," and forcing the boy to eat a cockroach, Cupp said.
Citing the testimony of one of A.J's teachers, 17 neighbors and Jessica Schwarz's stepdaughter, all of whom said they saw Jessica Schwarz abuse the boy, Cupp asked her why they would lie.
"It's a big conspiracy, isn't it?" the prosecutor asked.
"I don't know what this is," Jessica Schwarz said.
When Cupp pressed her on her stepdaughter's assertions that she rubbed A.J.'s face in urine-soiled sheets, Jessica Schwarz bristled.
"I didn't even do that to my dog. I never did that to my child," she testified.
"Just to Andrew?" Cupp asked.
"No," Jessica Schwarz said.
"Isn't it true the pets got treated better in your house than Andrew?" Cupp asked.
"No," she testified.
Cupp then questioned Jessica Schwarz about the testimony of two neighbors, who called HRS officials after seeing A.J. with two blackened eyes and a possible broken nose. One of those witnesses said Jessica Schwarz "laughed hysterically" at A.J.'s face when the neighbor asked him how he had been injured.
Jessica Schwarz denied she laughed at A.J. in the presence of the neighbor, but said she laughed when he came into the house and explained how he had injured himself. She said the boy told her he was riding his little half-sister's tricycle when his shoelace became entangled in the spokes, causing him to smack the bridge of his nose on the handle bars.
"I just thought it was funny," Jessica Schwarz said, noting A.J. was not bleeding, his eyes had not turned black, but his nose "was growing" due to swelling.
Cupp maintained the stepmother used a clenched fist to punch A.J. in the face, causing the injury.
"He fell. No one struck him in any way, shape or form," Jessica Schwarz said.
When Cupp said she had fooled police, HRS caseworkers and A.J.'s guardian into thinking she hadn't struck the boy, Jessica Schwarz scoffed at the notion. "That would have kept me real busy. I didn't fool anyone," she said.
The prosecutor then said Jessica Schwarz wanted A.J. to leave her home, calling an HRS worker once and telling the worker, "get [A.J.) the f--out of my house."
Jessica Schwarz denied ever saying that to an HRS worker.
Cupp dismissed Jessica Schwarz's testimony that she loved A.J. "as if he was my own son," comparing the sparse bedroom the boy slept in with his sisters' bedrooms, one of which contained a television and water bed and the other had a Nintendo game and numerous other toys.
"You're trying to imply that I kept things from Andrew and I didn't do that," Jessica Schwarz testified.
Cupp asked why she had no pictures of A.J. in their home, but numerous photos of her daughters and stepdaughters. Jessica Schwarz said she had three of A.J. on the walls of her home, and the photos of her daughters were given to her by her father, who had compiled a collage for her.
After completing her testimony, the defense rested, but Cupp presented one rebuttal witness, Palm Beach County Sheriff's Deputy Barbara Hopper-Kanych.
Hopper-Kanych testified she was inside the home on May 2, 1993 after A.J.'s body was found and no pictures or photos of the boy were in sight.
A.J.'s room was furnished with a single bed and a dresser. The only toy she saw was a plastic police car. "It was depressing," Hopper-Kanych told the jury.
When she looked into A.J.'s sisters' rooms, she was shocked to see the disparity. "It was like two opposite ends of the world," Hopper-Kanych said.
Closing arguments are scheduled to begin today and will be followed by jury deliberations.

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A.J.'S STEPMOM: I'M STRICT, NOT ABUSIVE
The Palm Beach Post
September 1, 1994
VAL ELLICOTT
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Jessica Schwarz described herself Wednesday as an unaffectionate but caring parent victimized by ``four years of gossip'' among neighbors who say she subjected her stepson to sadistic emotional abuse.
Schwarz, dressed in a floral print dress and a white cardigan, spoke articulately in a soft, even voice, but the bluntness of her responses projected an image of uncompromising toughness.
``Do you have a bad temper?'' Scott Cupp asked Schwarz during more than an hour of cross-examination.
``I have a temper,'' Schwarz responded.
``And you're loud.''
``Yeah.''
``And you're crude.''
``I can be.''
Schwarz, 39, conceded she was ``a strict disciplinarian'' with Andrew, the stepson she is accused of abusing, as well as with his half-sister and two stepsisters.
But she flatly rejected each of the seven counts of aggravated and felony child abuse against her, ascribing some to misinterpretation of real events and others to outright lies by her accusers.
``This is a big conspiracy, isn't it?'' Cupp challenged her, after listing the witnesses - including other residents of Schwarz's Lake Worth neighborhood, Andrew's third-grade teacher and his court-appointed guardian - who backed the abuse allegations.
``I don't know what this is,'' Schwarz answered.
In composed, largely emotionless testimony, Schwarz maintained that she loved her stepson as much as she loved her two natural daughters and ``wanted him to be happy and stay at the house and just grow up there with us.''
She answered with a simple ``No,'' when Cupp asked her, ``Is it true that pets got treated better in your house than Andrew?''
Cupp and defense attorney Rendell Brown will make their closing arguments today.
Andrew, also known as ``A.J.'' was found dead in his family's backyard pool in May 1993, shortly after his 10th birthday.
Schwarz faces a separate trial on a second-degree murder charge.
Jurors hearing the abuse case against her must decide whether Schwarz rubbed her stepson's face in his own urine-soaked sheets, demeaned him with obscenities and subjected him to bizarre punishments, such as keeping him home from school to do chores and forcing him to eat from a plate next to the cat's litter box.
Final testimony in the case came from a sheriff's deputy who described A.J.'s room the day he was found dead as barren and ``very depressing.''
His room and the rooms where his stepsisters lived ``were like two opposite ends of the world,'' deputy Barbara Hopper Ka-myuch said.

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JURY CONVICTS STEPMOM
JESSICA SCHWARZ FACES 70 YEARS FOR ABUSING A.J.
Sun-Sentinel
September 2, 1994
MIKE FOLKS Staff Writer
Staff Writer Stephanie Smith contributed to this report.

After nine days of hearing in Palm Beach County Circuit Court how she intimidated and berated her 10-year-old stepson, Jessica Schwarz on Thursday was convicted of six of seven counts of child abuse.
A three-woman, three-man jury deliberated for 5 1/2 hours before finding the former truck driver guilty of four counts of aggravated child abuse and two counts of felony child abuse.
Schwarz, whose sentencing hearing has not been scheduled, faces a maximum 70 years in prison. She also must still stand trial on charges of second-degree murder in the May 2, 1993, drowning of her stepson, Andrew "A.J."Schwarz, and witness tampering.
Flanked by her two defense attorneys, Schwarz, 39, sat stoically as she heard the first verdict, which declared her not guilty of forcing her stepson to eat from a paper plate placed on the floor next to a cat litter box.
Schwarz remained stone-faced as the remaining six verdicts - all guilty - were announced. She declined comment as she was taken from the courtroom by deputies.
A.J.'s biological mother, Ilene Soini-Schwarz of Fort Lauderale, periodically kissed a gold crucifix she wore around her neck while waiting for the jury to return. She said Jessica Schwarz deserves more than prison time.
"She should get the same treatment she gave my son: beating, belittling, humiliating, degrading for the rest of her life," Soini-Schwarz said.
Soini-Schwarz also criticized the defense for calling A.J. brain damaged and a "crack baby" during the trial. "That was a total fabrication. I don't know where that came from," she said.
Noticably missing during the trial was A.J.'s father, David "Bear" Schwarz.
Soini-Schwarz, David Schwarz's ex-wife, said on Thursday she learned this week that David Schwarz moved two weeks ago from the home he and Jessica Schwarz shared west of Lantana. "I don't know where he is," she said.
For jurors in the case, the abuse that Jessica Schwarz put A.J. through in his brief life was unsettling.
"It was a difficult case," said juror Diane K. Melvin of Palm Beach Gardens. "That child was going through a living hell. No one should be treated that way."
Melvin said jurors had asked to have testimony read back to them concerning the criminal count that accused Jessica Schwarz of forcing A.J. to eat from a plate near a cat litter box. The timing of the alleged act, she said, was not proven, resulting in the not guilty verdict on that count.
Juror Stanley B. Misroch of Boynton Beach said he knew nothing about the case before the trial because he avoids reading such stories in the newspaper, preferring to turn to sports or world affairs.
"It came out [during the trial) the poor child is dead, I know now. Here's a child, 10 years on this earth, and it doesn't sound like he ever had a good day," Misroch said.
"I don't think any person, especially a parent, can stand such stories," Misroch said. "It certainly was difficult and unpleasant but it was necessary."
Before beginning their deliberations, the jury heard closing arguments presented by Jessica Schwarz's defense attorney, Rendell Brown, and prosecutors.
Brown warned the jurors to not fall victim to the state's attempt to play on their sympathy because the crimes involve a child. "There's an effort here to paint a picture that doesn't exist," he said.
The defense attorney argued that the horrific tales of abuse that witnesses testified to seeing were rumors or tales concocted by those who did not like Jessica Schwarz.
Brown argued that caseworkers from the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, who visited the Schwarz home numerous times, never saw any evidence of abuse.
HRS workers also failed to inform Jessica Schwarz that A.J. was brain-damaged and was born a "crack baby" and refused to heed her requests to get the boy help, Brown said.
Discipline tactics Jessica Schwarz used on A.J. were those she learned in a 12-week parenting class she completed after gaining custody of A.J. in November 1990. The boy and his half-sister were placed in the Schwarz home after Soini-Schwarz's husband was accused of abusing the girl, Brown said.
The defense attorney said there is no proof that his client ever abused her stepson. "She didn't do anything to hurt this child. She loved him."
In his closing, Prosecutor Joe Marx called A.J.' "a boy starved for love."
Marx methodically covered each count of abuse that Jessica Schwarz faced, comparing it to the testimony of 17 neighbors and A.J.'s teacher. Each said they had witnessed the stepmother's wrath against the boy.
The prosecutor said that Jessica Schwarz was "cloaked in a veil of innocence" when the trial began. "We slowly removed that veil, and what did we find? A monster, a bully, an intimidator and a liar."
Marx cited how Jessica Schwarz forced A.J. to eat a cockroach, run naked through his neighborhood when he got home late from school and edge the lawn with a pair of scissors. He also said she belittled and cursed him in public, rubbed his face in urine-soiled sheets and kept him home from school to do endless chores.
"[Jessica Schwarz) had a built-in slave, a little butler," Marx said.
HRS failed to help A.J. when he needed it most, Marx said. "They bungled this case, right from the start. [Jessica Schwarz) did these things and they didn't catch her."
The litany of abuse resulted in A.J.'s admission to a Vero Beach psychiatric hospital two years after moving in with his stepmother, Marx said. He pointed to A.J.'s hospital discharge report, saying it "reads like a combat victim" because he was diagnosed as having post traumatic stress syndrome.
In ending the final argument for the state, Proscutor Scott Cupp described the case as "sickening."
"She was no mother," Cupp said, pointing at Jessica Schwarz. "[A.J.'s) psyche had been battered, bruised, ripped and shredded."
Cupp then reminded the jury that he had called the Schwarz home "an asylum" when the trial began. He was wrong, he said.
"In an asylum, there's hope," Cupp told the jury. "This was a concentration camp. In a concentration camp, there is no hope."

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SCHWARZ GUILTY OF ABUSE
Palm Beach Post, The (FL)
September 2, 1994
VAL ELLICOTT, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Jessica Schwarz was convicted Thursday of six of seven counts of subjecting her stepson to vicious and demeaning emotional abuse, ending a week of testimony so disturbing at times that it moved witnesses and spectators to tears.
Jurors expressed relief their ordeal was over.
``I'm almost trying to forget the thing, it was so unpleasant,'' Stanley Misroch of Boynton Beach said.
The state's case detailed specific instances of child abuse that claimed Schwarz rubbed her young stepson's face in his urine-soaked bedsheets, forced him to wear a T-shirt on which she had written a humiliating obscenity and tortured him with other punishments that, according to testimony, crushed the boy's spirit and left him in a near-constant state of anxiety and fear.
``She came here cloaked in a veil of innocence,'' prosecutor Joseph Marx said of Schwarz in his closing arguments. ``We slowly removed that veil, and what did we find? A monster, a person who's a bully, a manipulator and a liar.''
Misroch agreed Schwarz is a ``rough, tough, crude individual.''
``But that didn't make her guilty,'' he added. ``We were not dictated by gut reactions. We had a long discussion on each count.''
He and the other five jurors, who deliberated 5 1/2 hours, acquitted Schwarz of an allegation that she once forced Andrew, or ``A.J.,'' to eat from a paper plate on the floor next to a pet's litter box.
That charge was based solely on testimony from one of Schwarz's neighbors, Gail Ragatz, who admitted disliking Schwarz.
``We felt there was a motive there,'' Misroch said. ``We felt it (Ragatz's testimony) wasn't as much in the interest of Andrew as it was against Jessica.''
The other counts were less problematic, jurors said, because they were backed by credible testimony from two or more witnesses.
``There were so many other things that clicked together,'' juror Diane Melvin said. ``There was just no doubt.''
Schwarz's lack of feeling for her stepson - Marx described her in closing arguments as ``a stone'' - was unmistakable during hours of testimony in which she insisted she loved A.J. as much as she loved her two daughters, Melvin said.
``She never once got emotional talking about A.J.,'' she said. ``There was nothing there.''
Schwarz, 39, glanced at her attorney, Rendell Brown, and shook her head as the guilty verdicts were read. It was the same reaction she showed during testimony from neighbors, teachers and others who encountered A.J. during his brief life.
Brown said he will appeal.
``I don't think the evidence was strong,'' he said. ``I felt it was far too weak for a conviction in this case.''
Schwarz, a former truck driver and antiques dealer, had claimed A.J. was a serious behavior problem. She testified she badgered indifferent state officials and others to provide him long-term counseling. She attributed much of the state's case to mean-spirited gossip among her neighbors, some of whom said they were terrified of her.
Schwarz did not comment as sheriff's deputies led her from the courtroom. Her mother, Helen Woods, also declined to comment.
Schwarz still faces trial for second-degree murder in A.J.'s death. The 10-year-old's bruised body was found floating in his family's backyard pool May 2, 1993. Autopsy reports showed head injuries so severe that had he not drowned, he would have died from the blows.
The case of A.J. - an intelligent boy described by teachers, neighbors and his court-appointed guardian as starved for love and pathetically eager to please - stirred tremendous anger and sadness in those who knew him and had experienced his stepmother's violent, bullying nature.
``They should make her cut the grounds with scissors and wash out the latrines in prison with a toothbrush,'' said Beth Ann Walton, who lives near the Schwarz house on Triphammer Road in Lake Worth. ``There's not enough you can do to this woman. We want to see her tortured. We want to see her on the rack. I was afraid if I looked at her, I would leap across the room and slap her.''
Under state sentencing guidelines, Schwarz faces a nine-year sentence on the six abuse convictions - four counts of aggravated child abuse and two counts of felony child abuse - according to prosecutor Scott Cupp.
Cupp, who described Schwarz's trial as ``the most disgusting thing I've ever had to go through,'' said he will ask Circuit Judge Walter Colbath to depart from state guidelines and add more time to her sentence.
He also said state health officials, one of whom faces charges in connection with her handling of A.J.'s case, deserve much of the blame for A.J.'s hellish life in the ``concentration camp'' he called home.
``Anyone who sat in on this trial can see how abysmally they did their job,'' Cupp said.
Palm Beach County sheriff's Sgt. Mike Waites, who visited the Schwarz house the morning A.J.'s body was found and spent months investigating the case, held his head in his hands as the verdicts were read Thursday. When the first not-guilty verdict was announced, Waites looked up quickly, then dropped his head back into his hands as the court clerk read off the guilty verdicts.
David ``Bear'' Schwarz, Schwarz's husband and A.J.'s natural father, did not attend the trial. The family of Ilene Soini, A.J.'s natural mother and David Schwarz's first wife, said they heard he left the Lake Worth house two weeks ago and has not been seen since.
David Schwarz called a Palm Beach Post reporter late Wednesday and left a message saying he did not testify for his wife because prosecutors would accuse him of being afraid of Jessica and would misrepresent his true feelings.
Soini, whose own reportedly cruel and neglectful treatment of A.J. was a key element of Schwarz's defense, also did not attend most of the trial. She was barred from the courtroom as a potential defense witness, but she did listen to closing arguments.
``She deserves the same treatment she gave my son,'' Soini said of Schwarz, ``by being belittled and degraded for the rest of her life.''
Staff writer Jenny Staletovich contributed to this report.

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A.J. SAGA STILL HAS WAY TO GO
CRITICISM OF HRS LIKELY TO INCREASE
Sun-Sentinel
September 3, 1994
MIKE FOLKS Staff Writer

Sixteen months after his lifeless, battered body was found in his family's backyard pool, 10-year-old Andrew "A.J."Schwarz is still affecting a number of lives.
The boy's stepmother, Jessica Schwarz, 39, sits in the Palm Beach County Jail without bail after her Thursday conviction on six counts of child abuse against her stepson.
Prosecutors are preparing for Schwarz's trial on a second-degree murder charge in A.J.'s May 2, 1993, death and a witness tampering charge.
Barbara Black, a Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services abuse investigator, is awaiting her October trial on a charge of extortion by threat. Prosecutors have accused Black of threatening to remove children from the home of one of Schwarz's neighbors, who called HRS to complain of suspected abuse against A.J.
On Friday, Schwarz's attorney, Rendell Brown, said he is planning to appeal her conviction and is confident he will gain an acquittal in her upcoming trial.
Her conviction, Brown said, "reinforces our earlier argument that we cannot get a fair trial in Palm Beach County."
"It's a shock to her," Brown said, describing Schwarz's reaction to her conviction. "We are absolutely convinced we will be successful in winning this appeal and vindicate her ... We absolutely believe she is innocent of these charges."
Schwarz was convicted on Thursday of being a monstrous stepmother who emotionally abused her stepson from November 1990 until his body was found in the family's above-ground pool.
The stepmother was convicted of forcing A.J. to stay home from school to do chores, wear a T-shirt that read, "I'm a worthless piece of s---, don't talk to me," edge the lawn with scissors and making him run down the street naked. She also was found guilty of rubbing the boy's face in urine-soiled sheets and berating him in public.
Schwarz's two daughters, Lauren, 11, and Jackie, 6, were removed from the family's home by HRS shortly after A.J.'s death. The daughters now live with Schwarz's mother, Helen Woods of Palm Bay, Brown said.
Brown would not confirm reports that Schwarz's husband, David "Bear" Schwarz, has moved from the couple's home. Brown did say that trial strategy was the deciding factor for not calling David Schwarz, A.J.'s father, to testify for the defense.
For prosecutors, the Jessica Schwarz abuse trial was a victory, but a difficult one to handle.
"This has been the most disgusting thing I've had had to go through," Prosecutor Scott Cupp said after the jury reached its verdict.
Cupp also lashed out at the role the HRS played in the case. "Anyone who sat in on this trial can see how abysmally they did their job," he said.
Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer said on Friday that when Black goes on trial, the actions of HRS in the case will be under scrutiny.
"When you listened to Mrs. Schwarz's testimony that the number of agencies that marched through her home ... it just makes it difficult for me to understand how [the abuse) could have gone on for so long," Krischer said.
Krischer criticized HRS for going on the defensive once the details of A.J.'s case were made public, resulting in a grand jury indicting Black. That same grand jury issued a scathing report, slamming the HRS system and its handling of A.J's case.
"[HRS) has taken a put-the-wagons-in-a-circle-mentality instead of looking at these problems and making changes to set it right," Krischer said. "Had it not been for this boy's death, no one would ever have known [the abuse) was going on there."
"She's entered a plea of not guilty. We're going to trial and we're continuing to investigate the case," Duncan said.
In the Schwarz neighborhood in the former Concept Homes development west of Lantana, neighbors said the conviction was good news. It has brought a sense of relief, said Beth Walton, who testified during the trial that she once saw A.J.'s stepmother "shake him like a rag doll."
"I think everyone in the neighborhood is really pleased. Hopefully, she won't get out on appeal," Walton said.
The children in the neighborhood "seem more relaxed," Walton said. "This has really affected them. Jessica has joined the ranks of the neighborhood bogeyman."
Neighbor Ida Falk, who told jurors she suspected abuse but feared retaliation by Schwarz if she called HRS, had little to say about the outcome of the trial. "I'm just glad justice was done," she said.

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RAMIFICATIONS FROM A.J. CASE TO BE SEEN IN WEEKS TO COME
Sun-Sentinel
September 3, 1994
MIKE FOLKS Staff Writer

Sixteen months after his lifeless, battered body was found in his family's backyard pool, 10-year-old Andrew "A.J."Schwarz is still affecting a number of lives.
The boy's stepmother, Jessica Schwarz, 39, sits in the Palm Beach County Jail without bail after her Thursday conviction on six counts of child abuse against her stepson.
Prosecutors are preparing for Schwarz's trial on a second-degree murder charge in A.J.'s May 2, 1993, death and a witness tampering charge.
Barbara Black, a Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services abuse investigator, is awaiting her October trial on a charge of extortion by threat. Prosecutors have accused Black of threatening to remove children from the home of one of Schwarz's neighbors, who called HRS to complain of suspected abuse against A.J.
On Friday, Schwarz's attorney, Rendell Brown, said he is planning to appeal her conviction and is confident he will gain an acquittal in her upcoming trial.
Her conviction, Brown said, "reinforces our earlier argument that we cannot get a fair trial in Palm Beach County."
"It's a shock to her," Brown said, describing Schwarz's reaction to her conviction. "We are absolutely convinced we will be successful in winning this appeal and vindicate her ... We absolutely believe she is innocent of these charges."
Schwarz was convicted on Thursday of being a monstrous stepmother who emotionally abused her stepson from November 1990 until his body was found in the family's above-ground pool.
The stepmother was convicted of forcing A.J. to stay home from school to do chores, wear a T-shirt that read, "I'm a worthless piece of s---, don't talk to me," edge the lawn with scissors and making him run down the street naked. Schwarz's two daughters, Lauren, 11, and Jackie, 6, were removed from the family's home by HRS shortly after A.J.'s death. The daughters now live with Schwarz's mother, Helen Woods of Palm Bay, Brown said.
Brown would not confirm reports that Schwarz's husband, David "Bear" Schwarz, has moved from the couple's home. Brown did say that trial strategy was the deciding factor for not calling David Schwarz, A.J.'s father, to testify for the defense.
For prosecutors, the Jessica Schwarz abuse trial was a victory, but a difficult one to handle.
"This has been the most disgusting thing I've had had to go through," Prosecutor Scott Cupp said after the jury reached its verdict.
Cupp also lashed out at the role the HRS played in the case. "Anyone who sat in on this trial can see how abysmally they did their job," he said.
Palm Beach County State Attorney Barry Krischer said on Friday that when Black goes on trial, the actions of HRS in the case will be under scrutiny.
"When you listened to Mrs. Schwarz's testimony that the number of agencies that marched through her home ... it just makes it difficult for me to understand how [the abuse) could have gone on for so long," Krischer said.
Krischer criticized HRS for going on the defensive once the details of A.J.'s case were made public, resulting in a grand jury indicting Black. That same grand jury issued a scathing report, slamming the HRS system and its handling of A.J's case.
"[HRS) has taken a put-the-wagons-in-a-circle-mentality instead of looking at these problems and making changes to set it right," Krischer said. "Had it not been for this boy's death, no one would ever have known [the abuse) was going on there."
"She's entered a plea of not guilty. We're going to trial and we're continuing to investigate the case," Duncan said.
Neighbor Ida Falk, who told jurors she suspected abuse but feared retaliation by Schwarz if she called HRS, had little to say about the outcome of the trial. "I'm just glad justice was done," she said.

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STEPMOM WAS SLY MANIPULATOR
JESSICA SCHWARZ SUCCESSFULLY CONCEALED A.J.'S ABUSE FROM HRS
Sun-Sentinel
September 4, 1994
DEBBIE CENZIPER Staff Writer
Staff Writer Mike Folks contributed to this report.

She has been called a master manipulator, street smart and sly, a rough-and-tumble former truck driver capable of intimidating neighbors, family and social workers.
Jessica Schwarz appeared in Palm Beach County Circuit Court last week wearing sundresses and lipstick, calling herself a victim of conspiracy among spiteful neighbors, a mother who loves her children but believes in strict discipline. Her testimony, though, wasn't enough to win over jurors, who on Thursday convicted Schwarz on six of seven counts of child abuse against her dead stepson, Andrew "A.J."Schwarz.
Prosecutors in the nine-day trial called in a parade of neighbors to recount horrific stories of Schwarz's physical and emotional abuse against the 10-year-old, 60-pound boy who loved Ninja Turtles and Steven Seagal movies. His nude body, pulled from the family's pool west of Lantana in 1993, and had more than 24 bruises, cuts and scrapes. How did Schwarz get away with the abuse for so long?
There are no easy answers, psychologists and social service workers say. No one person or agency is to blame.
"There are a whole group of people who make decisions in this system," said Nancy McBride, executive director of the Adam Walsh Center/Florida. "You've got attorneys, judges, doctors, HRS."
One thing is certain. Like many child abusers, Schwarz, 39, seemed to thrive on controlling and intimidating everyone around her, experts say; enough perhaps, to thwart the system.
There was intimidation among neighbors: "I was afraid of what she might do if we tried to do anything," said Ida Falk, who told jurors she always saw A.J. doing chores and once saw him working in the yard with masking tape over his mouth.
Beth Walton said Schwarz managed to unnerve the entire neighborhood.
"The neighborhood seems to be pleased [with the conviction), and the kids seem to be more relaxed," Walton said on Friday.
There was intimidation among family members: "Don't tell these people anything," Schwarz was videotaped saying to her youngest daughter in a police interrogation room after A.J.'s death. "Just say, `I don't know.'" There was intimidation, some say, among social workers.
Several neighbors reported the abuse to the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, but the state never saw fit to take A.J. away. One HRS caseworker is awaiting trial on a charge of threatening to take away the children of one of the women who reported Schwarz abusing A.J.
"She [Schwarz) refused to cooperate with HRS," Ilene Soini-Schwarz, A.J.'s biological mother, said on Friday. "She would go into meetings all angry, and then she would turn herself into this polite, quiet woman, all agreeable, like this split personality. She threw everybody off. Everybody was terrified of her."
While the need to intimidate people can be found among some child abusers, Schwarz took that trait to an extreme, said Sandy Owen, an HRS program administrator.
"I've read our records 1,000 times and she comes across as very domineering," Owen said. "Her attorneys have done an excellent job fixing her up for court because when we [HRS workers) saw her, she tended to wear T-shirts that read, `Cops are pigs.'" Her husband, David, once had Schwarz arrested on domestic assault charges after the pair had too much to drink, according to Sheriff's Office reports. She now faces charges of witness tampering for telling her daughter not to talk to the police about A.J.'s death.
Schwarz still must stand trial on charges of second-degree murder in A.J.'s drowning.
"Some child abusers thrive on mind control," said Barbara Ullman, with the Center for Children in Crisis in West Palm Beach. "The person makes everyone around them afraid, afraid of what they'll do, the violence. Neighbors may not want to get involved because they don't want to harm themselves. There are parents, like Jessica Schwarz, who are very violent and angry at everyone. Another kind of parent can be very quiet and kind of insidious in manner."
People who want to control others generally felt extremely vulnerable at one point in their lives, said Felicia Romeo, a professor and clinical psychologist at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.
Most don't trust anybody, and the only way they feel safe is to have the upper hand on those around them, she said.
"Often, people who manipulate and control don't have the capacity to empathize with other people, to feel their injury and pain, the hurt they're doing to another person," Romeo said.
While some experts did not want to talk specifically about Schwarz because they don't know details of the case, all agreed on general traits among child abusers: lacking effective social skills, little empathy for children and spouses, overly critical of children, often coming from abusive homes themselves, believing in the necessity of harsh punishment, and complaining that life is always a crisis.
Experts said they do not know of any specific studies on whether stepchildren are a more likely target of abuse than natural children, but they say blended families in general present a whole new set of problems.
Some parents simply find they don't like one particular child, biologically related or not.
"Abusers tend to find children aversive and they don't feel they have any control over anything," said Leslie Terry, a child abuse researcher at the FAU Davie campus. "They are more emotionally reactive to misconduct. If a child just broke a cookie jar, a normal mother would say, `I wish you wouldn't do that.' The abusive mother would fly off the handle. They overreact."
Through the trial, Schwarz maintained that she loved A.J., but said he was a hard child to handle.
He would wander on his way to and from school and accept rides from strangers, she said.
Schwarz said she would discipline him, but that didn't make her a bad mother.
"At night, he always got hugs and kisses and, `Sweet dreams. Sleep with the angels.'"

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BRIEF LIFE OF A.J. SCHWARZ FILLED WITH VIOLENCE, CUSTODY PROBLEMS
Sun-Sentinel
September 4, 1994

Court documents and testimony trace the life of Andrew "A.J." Schwarz: A.J. was born on April 24, 1983, to David and Ilene Schwarz of Fort Lauderdale.
The couple divorced in 1985 and A.J.'s mother, Ilene Schwarz, received custody of A.J. and her 5-year-old daughter from a previous relationship.
His mother remarried in 1989 to Thomas Luke, who beat her and was sentenced to jail for sexually molesting A.J.'s half-sister _ at least once in front of A.J.
HRS deemed Ilene Schwarz an unfit mother for failing to protect her children.
The children first went to foster care after living with their aunt. The foster mother reported they arrived with lice and were wearing outgrown and dirty clothes. They were placed with A.J.'s father and stepmother, David and Jessica Schwarz, west of Lantana, in November 1990.
The couple had met on the road as truckers and were married in 1989. David "Bear" Schwarz continued to spend a lot of time on the road, leaving child-rearing to Jessica, who was a day-care worker at the time.
Besides A.J. and his half-sister, then 7 and 11, the family included Jessica Schwarz's 8-year-old daughter from a previous marriage and the couple's own daughter, who was 2.
In September 1991, a Broward County Circuit judge was reviewing the case to decide whether A.J. and his half-sister should be returned to their biological mother. He heard conflicting reports.
The children "are reported to be thriving in their current placement, where David and Jessica Schwarz are providing a loving, nurturing and stable home," an HRS worker wrote.
But a counselor from the Center for Children in Crisis painted another picture: "I cannot recommend this placement without reservations," the counselor wrote. "I have serious concerns because of allegations made by [A.J.'s half-sister) concerning physical abuse by Mr. Schwarz. She also disclosed what appeared to be excessive and inappropriate punishment."
A.J. also had told a psychiatrist, "My family treats me like ... I'm a little Dumbo."
Despite the reports, the judge decided to keep the two children with A.J.'s father and stepmother.
Family life rapidly deteriorated after the judge's ruling.
Near Christmas 1991, stepmother Jessica Schwarz left a screaming message on an HRS counselor's home answering machine, saying she wanted the two children out of the house, but David Schwarz called back and said it was a misunderstanding.
In January 1992, A.J. was hospitalized for six weeks at the Psychiatric Institute of Vero Beach. The family said A.J. had been riding his bike into traffic, jumping off ladders and trying to drown his younger half-sister.
While A.J. was at the hospital, his older half-sister was removed from the home after David and Jessica Schwarz complained they could no longer handle her.
Just weeks after leaving David and Jessica Schwarz's home, the half-sister told her mother "her stepmother had slapped her and given her a bloody nose," the mother told HRS workers.
A.J. by this time was an 8-year-old functioning more like a 5-year-old, evaluators found. He sucked his thumb, hid his face and suffered from "post-traumatic stress disorder," his psychiatric evaluation said.
A.J. was released from the hospital in March 1992.
In May, a neighbor said, Jessica Schwarz hit A.J. with a keychain. HRS found no marks on him, but reports cautioned, "There is something very suspicious about this incident. ... Whoever receives this case, keep your eyes and ears open."
More abuse reports surfaced, including at least eight that HRS said were unfounded.
A psychosocial evaluation in February 1993 recommended that HRS consider placing A.J. in a foster home to ensure he was not being emotionally abused.
About the same time, Ilene Schwarz _ A.J.'s mother _ began stepping up efforts to get A.J. back. The mother complained frequently to HRS, alleging abuse at her ex-husband's home. The pressure was getting to stepmother Jessica Schwarz.
"Jessica states this whole mess with A.J.'s custody being in question again has really created a chaos for her," caseworkers reported in April.
A month later, A.J. was dead.

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A.J.'S BIRTH MOTHER HAS MANY REGRETS
Sun-Sentinel
September 4, 1994
GARY STEIN

If she were somehow given a chance to do it over again, Ilene Soini-Schwarz said she would take her kids and run.
Yeah, when the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services and the courts wanted to take her son A.J. and A.J.'s half-sister from her house in 1990, after the girl was molested by one of the men in Soini-Schwarz's life - that would have been the time to run.
When HRS said Soini-Schwarz hadn't done enough to protect her kids, that's when she said she should have fled.
"[But) I obeyed every rule," she said, sitting in her sparse Fort Lauderdale apartment.
"I just feel there's something I could have done. I should have just run with the kids. If I had it to do over again, I would have gotten my kids out of Florida.
"You know," said the 35-year-old Soini-Schwarz, "I've been through a lot of abuse at the hands of men in my life. But nothing compared to what she did to my son."
Abuse was unspeakable
"She" is Jessica Schwarz, found guilty last week on six of seven counts of child abuse.
She faces a possible 70-year sentence for the abuse of her stepson A.J. - and still faces a murder charge in A.J.'s drowning.
In the 13 years I've been writing columns here, I have never heard of a worse case of child humiliation.
According to court records, A.J. was forced to eat a cockroach. He was forced to run through the Lantana neighborhood where Schwarz and A.J.'s father had a home, and wear a T-shirt reading "Don't Talk to Me, I'm a Worthless Piece of S---."
One witness said Schwarz forced A.J. to write, over and over, "I should have never been born."
There were black eyes and a broken nose and so much more.
"Here's a child, 10 years on this earth, and it doesn't sound like he ever had a good day," one juror said.
And it doesn't sound like the agencies who were supposed to be looking out for A.J. had many good days, either.
Ilene Soini-Schwarz eventually got her daughter returned to her home, but she never could get A.J. back.
In fact, she said she was prevented from even talking to her son the past two years.
"He was a happy, loving playful kid," Soini-Schwarz said. "He loved to get held and hugged. He wanted to be a wrestler.
"I think I was a good mother. I made a mistake being with bad people."
Indeed.
Soini-Schwarz has been married three times - and is now engaged. Surely A.J.'s life with her was not perfect.
But nothing could match the unspeakable horrors he was subjected to when he went to live with his father and Jessica Schwarz.
"I didn't think anybody was capable of doing those things to a child," Soini-Schwarz said.
Plenty of hatred
Ilene Soini-Schwarz was in the Palm Beach County Courthouse throughout Schwarz's trial.
"Every time I heard [the atrocious charges), I hated her more and more," she said. "[And) his father didn't protect him like he was supposed to.
"Now is the time for her to pay. Some people say she should fry, but I say no. Then her suffering's over. I hope she goes through a living hell just like A.J. did."
Soini-Schwarz said she will move in with her mother in Fort Lauderdale for a short time, then try to get on with her life.
And she'll continue going to the cemetery in Fort Lauderdale to visit A.J.'s grave.
"I would go to the cemetery each week and tell A.J. I'm sorry," she said.
"Now, I'll tell A.J. that we got her."
If only someone could have gotten to A.J. before these horrors took place.
Local columnist Gary Stein's column appears Sunday, Wednesday and Friday.

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