Arapahoe County – A jury ruled unanimously Wednesday night not to allow the family of missing Aaroné Thompson to be reunited.
Aaron Thompson and Shelley Lowe were fighting to regain custody of the eight other children who had been in their care.
The Arapahoe County jury took about seven hours to rule that they were negligent parents.
Colorado law says the judge now must decide what happens with the children, whether they stay in foster care or go to relatives. It’s possible that Thompson and Lowe will still have an opportunity to gain custody of the children by working through a court-ordered program, but they won’t be getting the children back in the foreseeable future.
Seven children, ranging in age from 8 to 15, were removed from the home on East Kepner Place on Nov. 17 after police announced they were stopping a search for missing 6-year-old Aaroné Thompson because they believed she had been killed. The children include Aaroné’s 11-year-old brother, Lowe’s 15-year-old brother and five children of Lowe’s from four different fathers. A girl born to Lowe and Thompson was placed in foster care after her Nov. 25 birth.
Thompson had reported to police on Nov. 14, a few hours after a Catholic Charities caseworker visited the home for an inspection, that his daughter had run away.
Police have yet to make an arrest in the case but continue “in our quest to seek justice for Aaroné,” said Aurora police spokesman Sgt. Rudy Herrera.
Thompson and Lowe were working through the courts to have their parental rights restored and asked for a jury to hear the case. The trial began April 10 in Judge Gerald Rafferty’s courtroom and was scheduled to last two weeks.
The jury began deliberating at noon Wednesday and reached a decision by 7 p.m.
Thompson and Lowe were in the courtroom to receive the news. They emerged from the courthouse quiet and under orders from Thompson’s attorney, Terraine Bailey, not to talk to the news media. Bailey said a gag order remains on the case.
The case was not public because it involves juveniles in a custody case. Sources confirmed the jury’s decision.
Arapahoe County attorneys prosecuted the matter, calling witnesses who included county caseworkers and Aurora detectives. It’s unknown whether the defense called any witnesses.
Caseworkers had been investigating complaints involving physical abuse and neglect that followed Lowe from Michigan, including allegations that children were not in school, were left unattended and had suspicious injuries.
The children told Arapahoe County investigators they hadn’t seen Aaroné for more than a year.
Records show that inmate Eric Williams, Lowe’s former common-law husband and father of two of the children, was briefly transferred from a state prison to the Arapahoe County jail last week. It is unclear whether he testified.
Williams was one of the first witnesses to lead police to believe that Aaroné had been killed and that Lowe and Thompson were persons of interest.
Documents obtained by The Denver Post said that Williams told police on Nov. 15 that Lowe had talked to him about Aaroné’s disappearance, saying that “something happened” and Aaroné was bleeding in a bathtub before she stopped breathing and died.
Williams told police that Lowe said she and Thompson buried Aaroné in a field.
Police had minimal reach in the courtroom, which was hearing a civil case, not a criminal one.
Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates, reached about the verdict before boarding a plane, said that “if the information that you have been provided is accurate, we’re relieved to hear the jury saw this case the same way we did.”
He said police expected the jury “would find the surviving children didn’t belong in that home. We certainly didn’t feel the children should go back to these parents.”
Denver attorney Walter Gerash, who is advising Lowe, said Oates’ previous comments to the media likely prejudiced the jury.
Gerash told Lowe not to testify “because of the threats of criminal charges against my client” related to the alleged death of Aaroné.
The Rev. Acen Phillips, who has ministered to Lowe and Thompson, said there was pressure from “every segment to make sure they didn’t get their children back.”
“It’s a sad day for a family who started out with a little kid who got lost,” he said. “They called for help; they lost their freedom, their home, their kids. They’re standing in the midst of nothing without some real charges being filed, and no one is looking for the child.”
Staff writer Jeremy P. Meyer can be reached at 303-820-1175 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com.
