By Melody Brunson, Editor
August 16, 2008 08:04 pm
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Justin Blake has been sitting in jail this summer running hundreds of scenarios through his mind about how his life could have gone so wrong. The father of an abused toddler who died earlier this summer, he says he and his wife, Vadney Blake, had a “happy life together” before events in June began to unfold.
Speaking in jail via video hook-up, Blake told the Times-Herald on Monday his wife brought their son to visit him every week while he was incarcerated the past 500 plus days and he didn’t have any idea there were problems at home before the news of Jalen Blake’s death on June 28. However, she did tell her husband about their son testing positive for methamphetamine on June 6.
“She told me there was no way (it was true) and I had no clue,” he said.
In their time together, Justin Blake said his wife never did drugs and she never abused Jalen or showed any signs of neglect in any way.
“I was the one with the problem and I kept that to myself. And I never did drugs around Jalen. I kept myself away. That was best for him,” he said.
The toddler, according to the Marion County Coroner’s Office, died from blunt impact to the head. Vadney, 22, of Cannelburg, was arrested in mid-July and charged with neglect of a dependent resulting in bodily injury, and dealing in narcotics. A probable cause affidavit says Vadney Blake admitted she abused the child and that a boyfriend, the late Jeff Truelove, may have as well.
A recent Times-Herald Letter to the Editor concerning Jeff Truelove upset Blake.
“As Jalen’s father I cannot allow Jeff Truelove’s name to just die because of the fact that my son just can’t die. Jeff Truelove’s name belongs in the thick of things just like everyone else’s. We may never know the part he played, but he did play a part. If nothing else, he knew Vadney was married to me and that is all wrong in my book and anyone with any comments or backlashes knows where to find me,” he wrote in his own letter to the newspaper.
Justin Blake says he didn’t know Jeff Truelove or how his wife hooked up with him while she was living at his parents, John and Glenda Blake’s in Cannelburg. As of Monday, he hadn’t had a chance to see or talk to his wife, although they are both at the Daviess County Security Center.
“I don’t know what happened. I’d love to talk to her and find out what happened. There’s only one person who knows the whole story,” he said.
Although Justin Blake was released from jail for a week to help make arrangements for and to attend his son’s funeral on July 3, he didn’t know at that time the cause of his son’s death and the nightmare about to unfold.
“Yes, I have been incarcerated for the last year and a half, and in that time I learned that there is nothing greater than the responsibility and love of a family,” he wrote in his letter.
“For my time in this jail has been constructive and I fought a fight for the right to provide for my family like a loving husband and father should do, and might I add a fight well worth it,” he continued.
Justin Blake said he thought having his wife live with his parents during his incarceration was the right thing to do because they would be taken care of and he wouldn’t have to worry about them having food or getting the bills paid.
His parents had grown close to his son — “as close as I wish I could have been,” Justin Blake said. They are “very, very hurt,” and “just as surprised” as he, at his son’s death, he said. His wife, Blake said, who he met at McDonald’s restaurant where he was manager before his incarceration, often lied to his parents about her whereabouts, and claimed she was staying at a friend’s house.
Justin Blake knew John Potts — the Child Protective Services caseworker who failed to remove the child from Vadney Blake’s care following a positive drug test showing methampetamine in the toddler’s system. He and Potts both graduated from Barr-Reeve in the late 1990s, but he doesn’t know if their association or growing up in the same vicinity, played into Potts decision not to remove his son from Vadney’s custody. Potts, one of the 800 new caseworkers hired as part of the reforms launched by Gov. Mitch Daniels, resigned from DCS on July 12.
Justin Blake, wrote in his letter to the Times-Herald, “My son had a great injustice done to him and I would like to clear my family’s names of the mud they have been drug through. First things first, if CPS would have done its job correctly, my son would be in the custody of my loving parents and in a wonderful home until I could be back with him again.
“The fact is that I knew nothing that was going on, and as Jalen’s father, I had every right to know because I only wanted what was best for my son and if that meant signing over temporary custody to someone, then consider it done. In all actuality my family and I have suffered a great tragedy and loved Jalen with all our hearts. Our hearts are broken with grief and distrust.”
Drugs are “the root of the problem. It changes people,” he said.
“Let it be known that I will do everything in my power to make sure this doesn’t happen to another family,” he wrote in his letter.
Blake said from jail that he’d like to be able to talk to young people and tell them “how not to do things.”
Earlier this month, Blake was sentenced to 2 1/2 years and was approved for work release this week. He was ordered by the judge to live at the Lighthouse Recovery Center situated on the old county farm for two years following his jail time.
“I brought this on myself. I did this to myself, but people need to learn from other people’s mistakes. If someone’s willing to listen, I’m willing to help,” he said.
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