In a recent article, this publication revealed rampant pedophilia perpetrated by those in positions of trust within a rural area about 80 miles southeast of Oklahoma City. James Jackson was one focus of the article. Jackson is currently serving a 15-year sentence for multiple convictions including child sexual abuse and bestiality.
The V1SUT Vantage has since learned that James Jackson, prior to his arrest and conviction, served as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA), a role that requires volunteers to advocate for the best interests of state custody children and allows them unsupervised access to those children. From the time Jackson and his pharmacist wife Rebecca relocated to Oklahoma from Fulton, Illinois, in 2017, red flags were raised concerning Jackson’s disturbing history, behavior and inappropriate relationship with a young woman the couple brought with them.
Yet somehow, a local CASA non-profit allowed James Jackson to complete volunteer training and presented him to the district court for swearing in. Jackson was assigned his first case as a CASA advocate in 2018. Witness testimony within his trial strongly suggests Jackson committed additional crimes against very young children, yet no one within the courts, child welfare services, or the web of non-profits and big government grants that make up the CASA system appears to be responsible or willing to acknowledge this failure to protect children.
Ignored Warnings: The Jacksons’ Disturbing History, Plan to Abuse Children
Beginning in 2015, concerns were brought to the attention of police in Fulton, Illinois, by the local school district involving James and Rebecca Jackson and Paula Israel (later renamed Autumn Jackson), a state custody child the Jacksons had gained legal guardianship over. In 2016, another victim disclosed years of sexual and physical abuse by both James and Rebecca Jackson to law enforcement, describing herself as a controlled sex slave due to their threats to kill her children and other family members. In October of 2016, the investigation was turned over to the FBI for further investigation.
Wetumka Police and City Leaders Were Aware of Jackson’s Past
Police records reveal Wetumka leaders became concerned about the Jacksons prior to their actual move to the Oklahoma town. On March 28, 2017, Wetumka City Administrator Aaron Walker and Police Chief Rick Maxwell contacted Fulton police to inquire about the Jacksons based upon a concerning phone call from James Jackson as he planned to purchase property in the area. At that time, Maxwell was briefed about serious accusations of sexual abuse and other crimes related to the Jacksons.
That information never made it to the local CASA non-profit or the citizens of Wetumka. James Jackson became a CASA volunteer and, for a short time, the mayor of Wetumka. During his months in office, Jackson attempted to abolish the Wetumka Police Department.
James Jackson Verbalized Plans to Sexually Abuse Children and Animals
Within Fulton police records, it is revealed that Autumn Jackson was sexually abused by James Jackson approximately 250 times. James Jackson openly discussed his plans to sexually abuse other children with Autumn. In her statements to the Fulton County Police Department in Illinois, she reveals:
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James has a bucket list where he wants to have sex with underage kids, animals, wants to drug someone unconscious and have sex with them, and wants to seduce and trap someone
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James will watch child pornography on his computer and fantasize about his bucket list
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That she has seen him ask a four or six-year-old girl if she wanted to “suck his dick”
Autumn further described James Jackson’s disturbing behavior when she was babysitting three Wetumka children, pulling apart a child’s legs and commenting during a diaper change, taking a toddler alone into a bedroom and asking her to perform oral sex on a two-year-old which she did not do.
Jackson Reported to Have Abused Two Young Children in Dustin
Within her victim’s impact statement, Autumn Jackson (Paula Israel) described the horrific and regular sexual abuse she suffered and named other victims of James and Rebecca Jackson including two “babies” from Dustin, Oklahoma:
“Please do not make the mistake of underestimating them. Please do not be like Paula, Michelle, Christy, Amber, Preet, Sarah, the original Claire, Aiden, Amelia, Carmen, Layla, Preeti, Rebecca’s sister Anne, Katarina, and hundreds of more victims, including the two babies from Dustin, who could have never said no.”
Dustin is a tiny town just east of Wetumka. A source with direct knowledge of the local CASA program believes the children in Dustin who Autumn identifies as being abused by the Jacksons may have been assigned to Jackson as a CASA volunteer.
There is photographic evidence that James Jackson fulfilled his desire to have sex with a dog. Somehow, he became an approved CASA volunteer and gained access to OKDHS children through the district court. No one involved is willing to explain how that happened or acknowledge two likely child victims in Dustin.
What is CASA? Mostly DOJ Funded, CEO Makes $500K+ Annually, But No One is Really Responsible for Children
CASA/GAL (Guardian ad Litem) for Children is a national organization that operates out of Washington D.C., Seattle and Atlanta as the non-profit National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association (formed 1984). Tax documents from 2021 show approximately 90% of the organization’s revenues come from government grants, in large part through the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
Of that overwhelmingly taxpayer-provided money, CEO Tara Lisa Perry earned a base salary of $519,966 in 2021.
The organization’s board includes members from big business, big finance, big tech and entertainment. The CASA/GAL Annual Report takes credit for serving 242K children in 2021, but within its national network, a layering of more than 950 legally disassociated non-profits across 49 states, no one seems to take responsibility when something goes wrong.
In Oklahoma, the 501(c)3 non-profit Oklahoma CASA proports to serve over 3,000 children through over 1,200 volunteers trained by 19 local CASA programs statewide, each being its own legal entity. Ultimately, the real recruiting, training and approval of the actual volunteers working directly with children happens at the local level.
According to Oklahoma CASA, the process for vetting volunteers at the local level involves criminal and child welfare background checks and at least “5 references to guarantee that you are a person of character, competence, and reliability.”
During 2018, James Jackson took required volunteer classes in Holdenville, Oklahoma, through 22nd Judicial District CASA, better known as Ada CASA, which serves Hughes, Pontotoc, and Seminole Counties. Also in 2018, Jackson was sworn in by Hughes County District Judge Gordon Allen shortly before his retirement.
This publication has learned that Ada CASA became aware of Jackson’s history sometime after he had already worked directly with state custody children and quietly asked him to step down as a volunteer, a process that would have had to involve notifying the district court.
This publication attempted to speak with Bekah Roberts, Executive Director of 22nd Judicial District CASA (Ada CASA) and followed up by email to inquire about Jackson’s application, references, access to children, dates of service and reasons for departure from the program. Roberts provided only the following cut-and-paste statement about the vetting process for volunteers:
“All CASA volunteers are screened in accordance with National CASA standards including state and local criminal records, national criminal databases, and national sex offender registry. James Jackson underwent the above background checks in October, 2018, including Illinois. i. Social security number verification; ii. Criminal records from the court jurisdiction in which the applicant currently resides and works; iii. State criminal records; iv. FBI or other national criminal database; v. National sex offender registry.” (by email on October 24, 2023)
Roberts was not the executive director of the Ada CASA non-profit at the time of Jackson’s involvement as a CASA volunteer, having assumed the position in September. Further attempts to acquire any additional information from her office were ignored.
Ada CASA reports supporting just 30 volunteers who advocate for 58 children with their staff of six people. With a 1:5 staff to volunteer ratio, it’s difficult to believe no one got to know James Jackson during his vetting and required 30 hours of training.
The FBI, Wetumka PD and city officials knew Jackson was a threat to children. The CASA network had multiple levels of entities over his training and vetting. The courts approved Jackson as a CASA, and OKDHS was responsible for the children he was assigned. Despite, or perhaps because of, a multitude of involved professionals, no one wants to take responsibility and this publication can find no indication that an investigation was conducted to ensure the safety and well-being of the children involved and to determine if further charges should be pursued against Jackson.
This is not the first time the collision of government and this string of non-profits has failed to protect children.
Jackson Among Other Recent Pedophile CASAs Across State
Tulsa CASA – Gabriel Joseph Lievano (convicted 2021)
Tulsa CASA approved Gabriel Joseph Lievano as a volunteer. Lievano sexually abused OKDHS children through the CASA program for years. The dates of Lievano’s known crimes run from 2008 until 2016, but an arrest warrant was not issued for Lievano until May of 2019, as prosecutors from the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s office declined to press charges on Lievano as recommended by law enforcement after a disclosure by the first set of siblings Lievano abused.
After fleeing the state and being apprehended in Florida, Gabriel Lievano was convicted on eleven counts of sexual crimes involving four children (two sets of siblings) he was assigned to represent as a CASA. His convictions include:
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9 counts – INDECENT OR LEWD ACTS WITH A CHILD UNDER SIXTEEN;
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1 count – RAPE, RAPE IN THE FIRST DEGREE BY INSTRUMENTATION; and
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1 count – FORCIBLE ORAL SODOMY
South Central CASA (Norman) – Attorney Christopher Fourcade (charged 2023)
Christopher Fourcade was a longtime attorney, OKDHS foster parent, children’s ministry director at First Christian Church and volunteer at five, youth services organizations including South Central CASA of Oklahoma. Fourcade is currently charged with four counts of lewd or indecent acts to a child and two counts of producing/possessing juvenile pornography.
It appears the processes approving adults to work with children within agencies, organizations, churches, schools and roles like CASA are observably not predator-proof. Children deserve a higher standard.
Embezzlement Problems Persist Across State’s CASA Organizations
Of lesser concern than child safety is an apparent lack of internal controls and ongoing embezzlement scandals involving directors and employees across the 20 CASA entities statewide. Anna Naukam, former executive director of Oklahoma CASA, and her husband Eugene Naukam III, former special projects coordinator for the organization, were convicted for embezzling more than $500,000 over six years to finance a lavish lifestyle that included cosmetic surgery and travel. Both remain on probation after serving prison time.
In 2017, Traci Lorre Owens, former executive director of the Canadian County CASA branch, was sentenced to ten months in federal prison, three years of probation and an order of restitution for stealing $55,143.93 from that entity. Owens funded a gambling habit with the stolen funds and reportedly spent working hours at local casinos. The non-profit briefly dissolved only to reorganize shortly thereafter.
In 2021, Kristi C. Page of Madill, Okahoma, pled guilty to embezzling from her employer, CASA of Southern Oklahoma.
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