Friday October 5, 2007, 4:47 am
The mentally-ill single mother whose days were often filled with hallucinations, mood swings and paranoia looked to her son as the reason not to kill herself. She kept Jerry's photo on the wall by her bed as a reminder.
She met Jerry's mother at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. He had been abused and he was forsaken by his godparents. Hulsey, inspired by an ad on TV, adopted Jerry in the late 1990s.
A review of court records, including two psychiatric evaluations, Hulsey's letter seeking disability benefits from the VA, and letters from friends and family to the court, provide insight into Hulsey's life and the events leading to Jerry's death at their home near Baseline and Sossaman roads in Mesa.

Hulsey fought her entire life to overcome physical and emotional trauma, substance abuse and disabling mental illness. She had no criminal record.
In her 30s, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, hypothyroidism and post-traumatic stress disorder.

My question: What court granted this adoption to an obviously mentally ill, and unstable person????????

Friday October 5, 2007, 4:53 am
In early 2005, state Child Protective Services investigated a low-risk, physical-abuse claim involving Hulsey and her son. The allegations were unsubstantiated because of a lack of visible injuries. Hazel Hulsey, Vicki Lynn's mother, continued to call CPS, saying her daughter and grandson were in crisis, but was never contacted, she wrote to the court.

Once again CPS fails to follow up on a potentially volatile situation, that could have saved this child's life and gotten the mother the help she obviously needed!!!

Hulsey felt betrayed by her son after the CPS probe, which was launched after he told officials at his school that his mother struck him.

Friday October 5, 2007, 5:06 am
What a horrorshow...our social systems do not work. How unnecessary and deeply troubling this whol thing is.

Friday October 5, 2007, 5:27 am
How deeply troubling and so, so, SO sad! What a screwed up world we live in.

Friday October 5, 2007, 5:29 am
Its a pity to see the the system ignores ill people this way.... and then imprison them for a crime they have committed because there was no way to get help.

Friday October 5, 2007, 5:30 am
Once again the system fails! Noted!!

Friday October 5, 2007, 5:42 am
What a shame.... somehow this happens all over the world.... the rich just enjoy and lay back, though some handful of them tend to do something..... the majority of them just waste on lavish parties

Friday October 5, 2007, 5:48 am
how disturbing....thanks for posting

Friday October 5, 2007, 7:30 am
This child would be alive if CPS did their job. They only seem to harass the ones who don't need it. I am glad she is locked up and can't hurt anyone else. Sadly noted. Thanks Charles.

Friday October 5, 2007, 7:58 am
Noted. Thank you, Charles. Now I must say that there are man, many child abuse petitions and at least one at the Care 2 site that have been around since last July and are lacking thousands of signatures! I do not understand if we are in the handful of a few hundred who managed to find them but the petitions to address these "disturbing" events ARE OUT THERE AND NEEDING SIGNING. If you feel strongly about this, please go to C2 or Barb P's petition site and check it out! I am disgusted. Seems like this is something people decry but then don't directly address. Please take the time to seek these out, especially those that deal with changes in CPS and sign them. If you have already, then I salute and thank you!

Friday October 5, 2007, 7:59 am
Thanks, Charles! It’s a failure of the social and government systems. Many of these people have got stable positions and pay checks, and just don’t care what they are doing. It's a tragedy. We can't blame a mentally ill person.

Friday October 5, 2007, 8:02 am
Sadly noted. Clearly our social systems do not work properly, this is tragic.

Friday October 5, 2007, 8:40 am
Noted. Thanks for the info. This just makes me sick.

Friday October 5, 2007, 9:15 am
I've commented on so many stories like this. All I can write it is so very sad for this child..................

So damned sad....................PLANT A TREE................

Friday October 5, 2007, 11:17 am
The systems continue to fail and children fall through the cracks. How in the world did this one ever begin??

Friday October 5, 2007, 11:24 am
Since she was a vet -- why didn't the VA have counseling for her??? Especially since she was having trouble with depression and substance abuse during her enlistment in the Navy? Too many vets have flash backs & end in suicide &/or murder.
So many things wrong with this -- it didn't have to happen -- there were so many red flags if someone had just responded to this crisis!
And I agree with Charles -- why was she allowed to adopt???

Friday October 5, 2007, 11:28 am
Noted with sadness!!

Friday October 5, 2007, 11:32 am
With her medical history I just don't understand her being allowed to adopt a child! My heart aches for the child.
My heart aches for her too. She is dreadfully ill. I blame the system. This happens over and over because the system just doesn't work. It needs revamped.

Friday October 5, 2007, 12:03 pm
To echo everyone else's comments here,
the ONLY criminal in this case is The
Sate of Arizona. They put a lit match
next to a jug of gasoline, and now they
seem surprised when something went boom.
I do hope this women is in an institution,
because it's beyond obvious that she does
NOT belong in a criminal prison. She is
in desparate need of help to banish the
demons from her soul. God bless this poor
woman. What an unspeakable tragedy.
noted.

Friday October 5, 2007, 1:11 pm
Although she shouldn't have adopted the boy, he still would have been alive today had her pleas for help from the mental health community not gone unheard. What a senseless tradgedy!

Friday October 5, 2007, 1:15 pm
Yes Tim, there were 2 victims here and a many systems that failed them both!!
This is one, if not the only case involving the death of a child that I also feel sorry for the perpetrator due to her illness.
Like Mary H. said, she was a vet and also suffered with PTSD, why was she not given the treatment she needed? We seem to be hearing more and more of this failure to treat our vets.

As far as CPS, I am never surprised by their incompetency!!!

Friday October 5, 2007, 1:44 pm
Oh, how tragic, Charles. I agree with Tim. She needs to be in a mental institution not prison! I will certainly ask God to please have mercy on her soul. It's so, so, so,SAD...ty Charles, noted. Is there any hope
of starting a "mental institution not prison" petition for her?

Friday October 5, 2007, 2:26 pm
Barb - I agree with both Tim and yourself that she should be in a mental institution, not a jail. The system failed to help her whole life, some things do not change. I can only hope and pray that some caring person in an a position of authority, will recognize that she needs help, not jail. She should also be put on a constant suicide watch, as she is surely suicidal!!
My prayers for the innocent child lost and the mentally ill mother.

Friday October 5, 2007, 3:00 pm
Noted, thank you Charles~~With love, everything is possible~~

Friday October 5, 2007, 5:37 pm
With tears streaming down my cheeks, I cannot even finish the enitre article. Shaking my head, too, in disbelief that this woman, who obviously needed help, was given custody of this beautiful child. May our
social institutions get their act together NOW!

Friday October 5, 2007, 5:54 pm
CPS is full of BS. I had my first child taken away from me but not the other son he is with me. I gave up my child and he was never abuse by me. This woman beat her son and CPS go at the kids that are not in danger instead of going after parents or foster parents who is a threat to these kids. Only thing they look at is a doggone check not the child of his or her needs like nurture of love. This woman was a sick and sane bitch and they knew it so they should have a law suit against them by not looking at the history of anybody doggone record or case. I can't stand those bitches CPS. I am pissed off. I know some people now and does not need their child with them missed school many days homeless, etc. You can report it they are not going to answer you until something happens.That is just the way people are. The world is a beautiful place but it is the people that makes the world go round it is going upside down left and right.

Friday October 5, 2007, 6:24 pm
No, CPS doesn't do its job and if only it were that simple. The TRUTH: funding has been cut in every state and on the FEDERAL LEVEL (I wonder why? sort of like the childrens' medical program Bush just vetoed-he doesn't care about children or the elderly and certainly not about abandoned homeless children!!!!!!). What happens when funding is cut? CPS loses workers and caseloads rise to cover the cases - do you even know what the PRIORITIES ARE For CHILD ABUSE NOW? It's worth knowing. A child has to be near death to be investigated right away in most states because of 60 or more cases in a caseload-that is TOO MANY for any human being to handle-these are highly EMOTIONAL cases- these workers go into the job with MSWs and eager to HELP children-they leave BURNED OUT, DISILLUSIONED from returning children to homes only to be beaten again or abused and NOT BECAUSE they wanted to but because of the SYSTEM ITSELF and the LACK OF FUNDING. Please don't judge so quickly the people who have to do this job-work just one day in a CPS worker's shoes -you would be horrified by the abuse: the ways people treat their children - worse than animals-the way the system works against you-and I mean the JUSTICE system and how heart broken many of the CPS workers are when they can't help or SAVE a baby or child. Many just give up and have to leave. Not everyone can handle the ridiculous stress....No CPS worker should have over 30 cases to do a DECENT job much less handle 60 or more, document, fill out forms, meet state/fed standard requirements/regulations, walk the thin line between being accused of doing something wrong-make the decision to remove or to try to - often against too much pressure from ANGRY parents-their LAWYERS, the justice system and even the administration...it's no job I'd EVER WISH ON ANYONE. And the last thing they need is everyone blaming them. Blame the legislators in your state, and the Congress members who CUT funding to a point that no system for children or the elderly can function much less be exemplarary which these SHOULD BE. Noted.

Friday October 5, 2007, 6:36 pm
Jennie B.........You are so right.

I was going to become a social worker many years ago but due to a major crisis in my life I was not able to make it. But, had I made it I'm sure I would have been in the funny farm from all I would have encountered. I read enough on here that tells me what I might have faced...........I'm glad now that I never had to face it.

People should be liscensed to have children.......Really! We need one to have a dog.
The human race really does sicken me so much.............I'd be better off being an animal for surely I'd have far more common sense!!!!!!!!!

Plant life..........Plant trees......................

Friday October 5, 2007, 7:50 pm
How on earth could this woman adopt a child??? Don't they check backgrounds of individuals who want to adopt? Unbelievable....

Friday October 5, 2007, 7:52 pm
Why did the boy stay with her although he was getting beaten? It shows an incredible amount of loyalty or maybe he felt guilty and deserved of the punishment because she said wanted the truth about what he told the neighbours. I feel that all children should be taught at school that if a parent hits them for any reason, they should immediately go to a safe house. This woman was dangerous, that's obvious, but there must be a way to get the children to protect themselves. There are so many stories of child abuse by mentally deranged parents who don't deserve the unconditional love of children, we must try and get through to them by special school programmes where the police visit the schools and teach the kids that violence of any kind is not to be tolerated, and to get the kids to know who they can run to for a safe house in situations like this, then hopefully the kids can protect themselves. They owe no loyalty to those who make their life miserable or threaten their lives. No kid deserves to live in an environment of hate and malice.

Friday October 5, 2007, 8:26 pm
There are "many" problems involved with the system and having worked "with/in" it for so many years, I can't point my finger at one particular problem more than another. I would say that the lack of funding lies at top of many of the systemic problems but there has also been a loss of good leadership at "many" levels, social and cultural values/principals have been lowering for many years, our moral and ethical acuity has fallen, our academic field training has been undercut, etc. etc. Our food quality and healthy living style has reached extremely low levels leaving a lower grad of work energy and enthusiasm/motivation/ambition. Even though we're living longer, we're not living healthier...just longer. When the system becomes so intolerable that there's a constant turnover of staff because of coercion, documenting fake "progress" notes because your caseload is impossible for 3 people, no less one, pressure from the uppity-ups, then the ones with the "true" call to their profession leave, and the poor quality ones stay, and that is the creation of an extremely bad system. You end up with the ones that are willing to lie to keep their jobs, lie for others or are coercible, and all at the extreme cost of the very people they purport to be helping. I see much of many of the "Human Services" systems as not people that are there to help you, but rather people that are there to defend the states money and find ways to drive you out of the system, send you down dead end roads, skirt helping you in every way humanly possible, because they have been "instructed" by their superiors to do so, because is saves the state "MONEY", when in actuality, it "DOESN'T". It saves the state workers time, effort, relieves their case load, and "supposedly" saves the state money, BUT only temporarily. Its costs the tax payers much more in the long run because a quick fix turns into a long and expensive one. I have witnessed this over and over in the past 35 years and its getting worse instead of better. There are countless studies on the "spend down" "CONSERVATIVE" point of view and it has nor will it ever work. The thought of telling "children, elderly, or disabled" to make it on your own, is just INSANE. I feel empathy for the state workers that are spread FAR too thin to do their jobs properly, but also the tens of thousands of Innocent citizens who need their help and seldom get it. You truly don't know what the system is like until your "IN IT" on "EITHER" side. Thanks for this article my friend Charles, and thank you all for your great comments.

Friday October 5, 2007, 8:30 pm
Jennie B
You hit the nail right on the head. The casew orkers have too many clients to be able to function properly.

Friday October 5, 2007, 8:52 pm
Jenny, I do agree with you on the funding issue for CPS and many other of our systems being a top contributor to the problems.
I also believe that there were a lot of caseworkers that really cared about what they were doing, but I agree with Ron as well, that the most of the good ones left and we are left with many that just care about the paycheck, and will do whatever it takes to keep them coming or what they are told to do.
Thank all for your comments.

Friday October 5, 2007, 9:06 pm
This complete tragedy is the reality of a woman who like so many others, 'slipped through the cracks' - or maybe was pushed aside, abandoned by a system that should have helped raise her up or at least afforded appropriate ongoing care! and what of the child she beat to death? it pains me too much to say anything except that her innocence deserved so much more and i pray for all "our" children. Dohiyi ~ Peace

Friday October 5, 2007, 10:08 pm
This is the saddest child abuse case I've ever heard of. Yes there are two victims here and my heart is sad for them both.

Friday October 5, 2007, 10:45 pm
Sad and disturbing! We really need to find a way to protect innocent children. Wish I had an answer!

Saturday October 6, 2007, 9:51 am
So now we'll lock her up in prison, throw here away, rather than placing her in a psychiatric facility where she could receive care. This country has no compassion, no morals, no ethics. She will receive no psychiatric help while incarcerated. That's a sad but true fact in this country. I am ashamed to be called an American these days. We have no social conscience whatsoever.

Saturday October 6, 2007, 12:08 pm
Noted! There are most certainly 2 victims in this story. I too hope that this woman is institutionized rather than put in a prison. I hope the people who refused her treatment are aware of this and that they come to their senses before someone else meets the same fate. I find this whole thing inexcusable. Is there no one out there who cares anymore? Care2 people excluded of course. I read more and more of children dying at the hands of their parents because CPS did nothing to help. Now, that disgusts me.

Saturday October 6, 2007, 2:56 pm
noted :-(

Saturday October 6, 2007, 5:18 pm
Any sentence imposed woould never be enough! It will never bring this angel back. Rest in peace little one. Something has to be done to stopall these tragedies of beating, murders and killings of so many people! Whis happens everywhere everyday as if it's a way of life! This it surely isn't! IT"S WRONG!

Saturday October 6, 2007, 5:36 pm
June..........Yes, this is it because man has the intelligence he has man is a bit of a lunatic because of it.
Mandate, laws, passage, bills, legislation all man had drummed up to stop these killings to no avail.

There just doesn't seem to be anything to stop it except for one thing..............Parenting classes starting in kindergardten......And, I'm not so sure that will work. But it will at leasr illiminate many from being conceived in a brainless hot moment and later murdered because a parent or boyfriend lost it!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can tell you this crazy behavior will stop one day after there are way too many of us........And this stuff really upsets me and pisses me off big time!!

Dammit.......Go plant some trees........For your life................

Saturday October 6, 2007, 8:46 pm
Ok, I went back in time a little and got this on her

Police file sheds light on Mesa mom
Accused of abusing, killing 10-year-old son

Senta Scarborough
The Arizona Republic
Apr. 27, 2006 12:00 AM


A Mesa mother accused of killing her 10-year-old son was unstable, suffering from mental illness and was having parenting problems, according to a police report released this week.

Vicki Lynn Hulsey, 45, is accused of killing Jarod "Jerry" Hulsey, who was found April 3 in bed, face down with bruises on his back, side and arms.

The boy's grandmother, Hazel Hulsey, told police her daughter called her and said, "Come quick. Something terrible has happened," police reports show.
"We left our friends and came directly to Vicki's. The door was locked and she let me in. I asked what's wrong. She said Jerry is dead. . . . I went upstairs to his room, he was bruised very bad and cold," Hulsey told police.

Before Jerry's death, Vicki had stopped allowing him to visit his grandmother, police records show. Hazel told police she began to worry about his safety last year after Vicki admitted slapping her son.

Child Protective Services investigated the claim but allegations were unsubstantiated because of a lack of visible injuries, officials said. Hazel also told investigators that Jerry had marks on his neck, and he told her another student had caused them.

Dale Nielson, a friend of Hazel, told police that Vicki had made threats against them and that they reported them to police about five months ago.

Vicki moved to Arizona about two years ago from California to be near her mother, Hazel told police. Vicki became Jerry's foster parent when he was 18 months old and adopted him when he was about 4, in Salinas, Calif.

Vicki medically retired after she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, police reports show. Her mother told police Vicki hasn't been under treatment and stopped taking her medication.

A longtime friend and former co-worker, Beth Morgan of Denver, told police she called CPS in Arizona about her concerns for Jerry's safety. In January 2005, Vicki called her threatening to kill herself and said she had struck Jerry, Morgan said. Morgan told police she begged her friend to go to the hospital but she never did.

A friend walking home from school with Jerry told police she saw his mother slap her son on the back of his head in February.

Jackie Swartz of Monterey, Calif., told police she knew Vicki and Jerry Hulsey when they lived in Seaside, Calif., and described Vicki as "very emotionally unstable and violent," police records show.

Vicki Hulsey also told school staff at Superstition Springs Elementary School where her son attended that she was unsure of her parenting abilities and was having trouble keeping her son, who has attention deficit disorder, focused and on task, the report shows.

Police found a discipline chart for her son on the refrigerator, a serrated spoon and several of Vicki's pill bottles during a search of her home.

Jerry's Superstition Springs teacher, Chris Nasuta told police Vicki called him about five or six times about parenting issues.

Nasuta said he normally gets about one or two calls from a parent in a year.

Hulsey faces one count of first-degree murder and one count of child abuse. Her next appearance is scheduled for May 25 in Maricopa County Superior Court.

And yes, I had the same questions.... if she had a history of this violence and mental problems, why... oh why???? would they grant her the adoption? It just doesn't make any sense to me.

Saturday October 6, 2007, 9:08 pm
The system fails everybody and yet the government has a great deal of money to spend on themselves,, all paid expense trips to "supposedly so called govmt meetings!!!!!" wich turn out to paid vacations and have the nerve to expect citizens to accept those lame excuses? And that is only a fragment of their problems!!!!!!ect..ect....sick!!!!

Sunday October 7, 2007, 5:23 am
noted..I treated a lot of children who were taken from yung mothers who had addiction problems "pot" and these children were placed in homes-,many times of "prominent people" who abused these childen horrid--while the natural parent had to stand and watch and could not do anything--(on visits the child would tell the mother) one mother of one of my yung clients did howver wait outside the daycare & when the foster mom (a politician) who beat the child with bats & locked her in a rooom for a week at a time-came-----the biological nother jumped her--but of course--shes the one who got in trouble for defending her child---the foster "mother" got rid of the girld--and when I got her for counseling--it was a shame....I coulsnt get the records unsealed...even after etailed accounts from the child---it is good is some cases saves childens lives- I know many good foster parevts who do it for love...but there are others who do it for the money, or they are sick--like this one-howver CPS job is to find the product (children) to filter the profit (money ) thru this slave system....
ughhh

Monday October 8, 2007, 8:49 am
WHy was he allowed to be adopted by her in the first place? This makes me so sick. Mental or not, does not give you any right to beat a child to death. No sympathy from me. Not enough is done to protect children. The system failed and continues to fail!

Monday October 8, 2007, 9:53 am
Everyone has said the system fails these children. True........But, most all society, the people fail children.

Forty years ago Dear Abbey ran a poll on this question: If you had it to do over again would you have children? A resounding seventy six percent said no!!!!! So, if the same question was ask today what do you think the percentage would be?

Children conceived in todays world are not wanted for the same reasons they were one hundred and fifty years ago. Back then it was for need as well as carrying on the name and there really wasn't any birth control short of saying no.

So, this couple wants to genetically pass on their genes.............At the rate the world is going with global warming, over population, floodings, drought, little land masses left, wars and starvation, what I might ask is in it for any child born now? What good would the genes do it now or in the near disaterous future?

All the fabricated medical engineering for this couple to have a child is a bit disturbing to say the least!!!!!

Plant life...............Plant trees........For life..............

Monday October 8, 2007, 9:58 am
OMG...........My last comment here was for another story.................

Sheesshhhhhhhh........Been reading to much on here.........LOL.............
Well.......Some of what here can apply........

Plant life.......Plant trees anyway.........

Monday October 8, 2007, 1:27 pm
Why must children bear the anger of adults?
Why do agencies drop the ball with background checks?

I hope Jerry is at peace, and I hope the authorities and lawmakers work harder to insure that these tragedies cease.

Thank you Charles, for the awareness.

Tuesday October 9, 2007, 7:39 am
Very disturbing, and I don't in the least feel sympathy for the mother. All of my sympathy is given to Jerry. There comes a time when you have to take responsibility for yourself, no matter what has happened to you, to claim it, and get help for it. It's a little too late after you've killed your child. She should be in prison, period.

Wednesday October 10, 2007, 9:59 am
Thank you all for your comments and viewpoints.
My personal feelings: 2 victims, 1 an innocent child who lost his life, the other, a woman, obviously mentally ill, who took his life. It seems that she reached out for help and was denied for whatever reason. The grandmother tried to get help for them, because she felt they were both in crisis.....no one helped.
I am still baffled as to how she, as a single mentally ill person was able to adopt a child? What court would put a child's life in the hands of a person with a history of mental illness?
Sounds like the accountability goes in quite a few directions. The VA failed to get her help, the courts put an innocent child in her hands and CPS failed them both.
I pray for the child and also, that she is given the help she needs, not drugged up and locked away in a jail.
Thanks again all......