Haley's Story - A True Story
In loving memory of my beloved daughter
Haley Jordan Bobrowsky
August 10, 1991 - March 7, 2000
(Every single statement below is true and can be verified through supporting documentation and audio tapes that I possess. Haley's Story is the reason I formed Haley's Rights to protect children. Between the anger I have for what happened, and the love I have for my daughter, my true passion was created to fight to protect children. I'm not looking for, nor do I want sympathy by telling Haley's Story. It was posted because the story needed to be told ).
Preface
When my daughter was killed, I prayed everyday not to wake up. Nobody thought I would make it through that year. I almost didn't. Haley truly must have been watching over me. I then became spiritual and stronger than I ever thought possible and formed Haley's Rights. I found my purpose and true passion in life, fighting for children's rights. At first I wanted to change the laws to protect children. After quite a bit of research, I found the laws were there, but not enforced. I started out by re-investigating the case surrounding my daughter's death.
Later on, "Haley's Rights" began to monitor cases in the criminal courts as a watchdog group and apprise the public of cases where we felt unjustified light sentences were handed down to defendants when the victim was a child. If we felt we had a complaint with substantial merit, we would then file a complaint against a judge and/or prosecutor with the appropriate government agency along with supporting documentation. There was such an unbelievable amount of discrepancies in the homicide report in my daughters' case, that I re- investigated the entire case. The following are just a few of the many discrepancies I found. Many of the court proceedings in this case were not only a disgrace to my daughter and I, but the entire judicial system. As it turned out, one of the witnesses listed in the Homicide Report wasn’t even at the scene of the crash. A forensic engineer listed in the report didn’t even know why his name appeared in the report. The results from the blood work conducted by the sheriff’s office was high questionable. I hired my own forensic expert who stated that presumptive tests weren’t completed. The homicide report states: the nurses at the hospital and the investigator noted my former wife was laughing and having mood swings while Haley Bobrowsky was undergoing life-threatening surgery for 7 hours. I saw this as well. There was an illegal departure of sentencing. In a civil matter, during a deposition, I instructed my attorney to ask my former wife the following question: "Do you know if any prosecutor has ever received any money to reduce the charges that were brought against you"? My former wife's two attorney's pleaded the fifth amendment on her behalf. The normal answer would have been, no. I have that transcript. As I stated, these are only a small percentage of the discrepancies we found. There are many many more.
BACKGROUND
Haley lived with me, her father, about 50 percent of the time, ever since she was 10 months old. While Haley was in my care, I had the role of mother and father. Along with being a single dad, came a tremendous amount of responsibility. It was a responsibility I greatly enjoyed. I cooked for her, washed her clothes and took care of Haley when she was sick. When Haley got the chicken pox, I got the chicken pox. All of my time was devoted to Haley. It was the greatest time of my life. Never once did I ever have to scold Haley, disciplining only with patience and love. At the time of my divorce, my former wife's income was $150.000.00 + per year. I was at the poverty level. I even signed away the house to my former wife in divorce, which had $175.000.00 of equity in it. All I wanted was Haley. All my former wife ever cared about was money. Ironically, she was senior vice president of finance at Cost Effective Health Care, d/b/a National Recovery Institute (N.R.I.), a for profit substance abuse center which was closed down for 7.7 million dollars in insurance fraud in the mid 90's. No one was ever prosecuted in that case even though I turned over a memo to the Florida Attorney General's Office that was signed from the CFO of N.R.I. and stated that my former wife was the person responsible for instructing the staff to change billing codes. The reason given was; "Failure to investigate". My former wife was worth millions at the time she killed Haley. In 1997, when I was going through an extremely rough time financially, my former wife offered to help me out financially. She offered to buy my parental rights for $10,000.00. Even though I was facing eviction, I told her that my daughter was not for sale at any price. When Haley was with me, I had all the riches a person could possibly want. Haley was my best friend, my whole world and I loved her more than life itself. From helping her with her homework to picnic dinners on the beach, we were inseparable. I gave Haley what every child desires more than anything else, unconditional love and time. Haley was the meaning of life for me and it was ever so clear from the day she was born.
Whenever I picked my daughter up at my former wife's house, my former wife would scream at me using every obscenity imaginable...constantly berating me in front of my daughter, for no reason at all. I never yelled back and simply ignored her. So one day, when Haley was around 3 1/2 years old, as we were driving back from her mother's house. Haley asked me; "Daddy, how come you don't yell back at mommy when she yells at you?". I pulled the car over to the side of the road, turned my head to look into Haley's eyes and said; "Haley, I don't yell back at your mommy because two wrongs don't make a right". Haley smiled from ear to ear and said: "Daddy, I love you". Haley was wise beyond her years. That is how I raised my daughter and it showed. Not only did I volunteer as a chaperon on Haley's field trips in school, but I volunteered in her school one hour a day and had lunch with Haley in the courtyard at school on the days she was staying with her mother. I missed Haley very much when she was with her mother. (My former wife even went into the school to complain about the fact that I was volunteering. She was trying anything she could to keep me from my daughter.) To know Haley was to love Haley. At 8 years old, she was the sweetest, most caring person one could possibly be. She was kind to everyone she would meet, wanting to help the needy and always sensitive to other peoples feelings. The room would light up when Haley walked in. It was as if a butterfly just landed upon your shoulder. Her love for nature captured your attention. Haley was in the true sense of the word, a humanitarian. She loved to learn. With an I.Q. of 139, Haley was in the gifted program at school. Haley's achievements not only included making the honor roll all the time, but she was an accomplished dancer as well. From the first day in dance class, Haley was in love with dance. Although I couldn't afford it at the time, I sold personal property in order for Haley to attend 4 dance classes a week, including a private lesson every other week. Haley's dance teacher taught with love. I loved to stay and watch Haley in each class. She was awesome. Sometimes she would like to stay for the next class to help her dance instructor with the little ones (younger children). When Haley was only 7 years old, she performed a solo at her dance recital in front of 850 people. With everyone's attention drawn to center stage, Haley's act started out with a cartwheel, into a round off landing and then proceeded to perform 3 back handsprings with perfect precision.
Haley will dance in my heart forever and there will never come a day where I don't think of her. I miss her dearly.
The Crime
For 8 years, my former wife tried to take Haley away from me. She finally did. On February 22, 2000, Haley's mother was driving her to school. She was going in excess of 50 mph in a 30 mph speed zone, around a curve, on a wet road, near a school, with no seatbelt on my daughter. Haley was ejected through the glass window of the SUV driven by her mother. The vehicle then rolled over my daughter. With two collapsed lungs, my daughter got up, took a few steps and collapsed. My former wife never even walked over to Haley after the crash. A witness claimed that my former wife was more concerned about her car and jewelry than her own daughter, Haley was taken to the hospital by trauma hawk, hooked up to what looked like 50 tubes and a brain monitor. I slept on benches in the waiting room for two weeks. Haley's heart stopped beating at 7:27 p.m. on March 7, 2000 at the age of 8 1/2 years old. My former wife tested positive for cocaine, hydrocodone and other drugs. She was charged in June of 2000 with manslaughter and 4 counts of culpable negligence. (Note: I know that Haley would never, ever, ever take off her seatbelt until a car was completely stopped. I have documents from DCF and a child psychologist stating, Haley was afraid of her own mother. Something happened in that car before the crash that scared Haley into taking her seatbelt off). This was not an accident. Accident are unforeseeable. However, it is foreseeable that if someone is doing cocaine, then drives a car with a child passenger, the child will get hurt or killed. On July 26, 2000 my former family law attorney and I met with the prosecutor at the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office. We were told by the prosecutor that the nurses at the hospital noted a tailgate party my former wife had at the hospital while Haley was in a coma between February 22, 2000 and March 7, 2000. The prosecutor stated the plea deal to me as follows:
6 years probation, No driving for 3 years, NO alcohol, Random Drug
testing.
I apprised the prosecutor that I was adamantly against this plea
agreement and did not understand why they offered such a lenient deal.
On July 27, 2000, my former wife pleaded no contest to Vehicular Homicide and Manslaughter By Culpable Negligence. The prosecutor changed the plea agreement from what she apprised me the previous day to:
5 years probation, Driving okay if DMV says it's okay (They did), Random Drug testing, the prosecutor asked the judge is she could drink alcohol on probation. The judge said yes.
The sentencing guidelines were 12 - 20 years in prison, but my former wife received 5 years probation. In December of 2002, my former wife filed for an early termination of probation. The probation officer claimed that my former wife was an exemplary probationer, although I believe that my former wife was drug tested only once in her 2 1/2 years on probation. One day before the hearing to terminate her probation, my former wife was called in for a drug test by the probation officer. She tested positive for cocaine and tried to slip the probation officer someone else's urine. My former wife was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Showing lack of remorse and taking no responsibility, my former wife left the following message on my voice mail ten days after killing Haley.
"Jacques, this is Stacie, ya know, ....Haley left this world to leave peace on it. You should kiss my f**king feet. I gave you a beautiful daughter for eight years."
This tape is only one of hundreds of abusive, degrading, belittling and threatening messages my former wife left on my voice mail ever since our divorce in 1992. Day after day, year after year, my former wife left these messages. She was obsessed with trying to take Haley away from me, until one day she finally did. I still have every tape. From the time of my divorce, every family law attorney who represented me told me to save them, as they could be used in family court along with my diaries. They never did. The system failed my daughter in life, death and even after death. Haley was my only child...my whole world. As I never re-married, it was just Haley and I. Ever since my divorce in 1992, I was trying to stop the physical and mental abuse being inflicted upon Haley by her mother. I filed complaints of abuse with Florida's Department of Children and Family Services (DCF). The reports even state "the victim child is afraid of her mother". Haley's mother and step-father were ordered into counseling by DCF after Haley's mother threw a book, because Haley wasn't reading up to her mother's standards. DCF never followed up on the case. In 1997, I filed a police report with the sheriff's office and state attorney's office when my former wife threatened to kill Haley and I. Included with my affidavit were threatening and abusive voice mail tapes left on my answering machine by my former wife. No charges were ever filed. Three weeks before Haley was killed, Haley told the nurse and receptionist in her elementary school that, "Mommy punched me in the back". The school didn't report the incident to anyone. Haley made me pinky swear that I would never let her mother hurt her again. I wasn't able to keep that promise.
Rabbi Jerrold Levy of Boca Raton breached my confidence by telling my former wife's husband what I told him in confidence as to why I filed a wrongful death claim against my former wife (I was solicited by 2 attorney's at my daughter's memorial service to file that claim). Rabbi Levy was the Rabbi at my daughter's pre-school, performed the service at my daughters funeral and was arrested a year later for soliciting sex on the internet with an underage boy. The cemetery, Menorah Gardens, where my daughter is buried, was charged with discarding bodies in the woods. My former wife bought all the plots around my daughter so I could never be buried near Haley, actually moved my daughter's remains and also refused to allow me to put Haley's last name, date of birth/death or any sign of her religious faith on the headstone I retained an attorney in Boca Raton, Florida, who filed breach of marital settlement agreement in the wrong court (civil circuit instead of family court). It was dismissed for wrong jurisdiction. This incompetent attorney, never re-filed the suit.
Maybe one day, the truth in this case will come out, maybe it won't. The tragic death of my daughter has been the most devastating event in my life. You never have closure on the death of a child. I did everything possible to bring out the truth and improprieties throughout this case and other cases as well. In 2002, I sent a letter to Governor Jeb Bush with supporting documentation of improprieties in the investigation of my daughters death. A letter was sent to the State Attorney in Palm Beach County from the Executive Office of the Governor. The State Attorney never addressed this letter. Click here to view that letter. It's true that the system failed my daughter. But Haley's death can also be attributed to the apathy of people who could have reported abuse and didn't. It's too late for my daughter, but not for other children. Awareness for the prevention of child abuse is the most effective way to stop child abuse and neglect which can and does lead to death.
Click here for Investigation Timeline
Keep the faith,
Jacques Bobrowsky, President and Founder
Haley's Rights
Haley's Home | Awareness | Haley's Story | Haley's Rights Contact |Links Statistics |Music Fundraising Event | Officers and Directors | News Archives About Haley's Rights | Calls to Action
All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2001