A retired Tarrant County detective investigated parents who made children sick. He says prosecutors made the job harder.
Retired Tarrant County detective calls for legislative change to protect vulnerable children from Munchausen by Proxy
When Detective Mike Weber retired from the Tarrant County Sheriff's Office earlier this year, he walked away an expert in an unthinkable crime.
Over the last 15 years, he's arrested more than a dozen women on charges of medical abuse.
The cases involve what's known as Munchausen by Proxy, in which caregivers, usually mothers, intentionally make their children sick.
Weber believes the motive is often a desire for attention.
"The main motivator has been something intrinsic, whether it's attention from the outside, on social media, attention from a loved one, whatever that may be," said Weber.
There's not a lot of data on this particular crime, but some studies estimate that one out of every hundred thousand children is medically abused each year.
Weber believes it's much more common.
Investigations, though, are complex, and prosecutors, he said, can be reluctant to take the case, pointing a finger at the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office.
Does the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office take cases seriously?
"You have to take these cases seriously and not treat them like they're misdemeanors and, unfortunately, that's what we see in our district attorney's office," said Weber.
He said he's had a rocky relationship with Tarrant County prosecutors.
He worked as an investigator for the DA's office for 10 years. Now that he's retiring, he's sharing his frustration.
"It was extremely frustrating to be continually lied to by people that you should be able to trust on this abuse," said Weber.
The Tarrant County District Attorney declined to interview or answer questions on its treatment of medical abuse cases, but provided the following statement to CBS News Texas:
"We prosecute Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy cases the same as any other case in our office. If the facts and the law support a conviction, we will hold defendants accountable."
Tarrant County case studies
Weber, though, points to three cases, in particular, where he feels prosecutors didn't do enough to protect Texas children.
2019
In 2019, he arrested a mother for felony injury to a child.
She was accused of faking seizures in her four-year-old son and making up symptoms at more than 200 doctor visits.
After years of preparing for trial, the DA's office dismissed the case, citing "prosecutorial discretion."
"They dropped the case and never called me. They never talked to the child abuse pediatrician," Webber said.
2021
In 2021, another mother was accused of lying about her son's medical problems.
"I was making him throw up to try to get his attention because he was in pain," she admitted in a recorded interview.
"Even though we had video evidence of the crime, (prosecutors) pled her to five deferred adjudication knowing the child was still in her custody," said Weber.
2022
Finally, there is the Jesika Jones case.
Weber said Jesika Jones spent years lying about her children's health, claiming her three daughters had epilepsy.
It was during a visit to Cook Children's Hospital in 2022 that medical staff grew suspicious and called the sheriff's office.
Weber said Jesika Jones was giving her four-year-old massive amounts of Benadryl.
"I had that feeling of I'm losing my kid... I'm losing my daughter," said Derek Jones, the girls' father and Jesika Jones' ex-husband.
He said he was shocked to learn about the lies.
"She would take them to the doctor appointments while I was at work because she was a stay-at-home mom," he said. "She would tell one person one thing, then another person something else, but she had it set up that they would never connect back together.
Jesika Jones was arrested in July 2022.
She eventually pleaded guilty to felony injury to a child and child endangerment, but was allowed to stay out of jail until her sentencing on the condition that she would not be around children.
Weber and Derek Jones said she quickly broke that rule by dating a man with kids.
"I arrested her for a bond violation. She was allowed to bond out on that bond violation, the DA's office never sought a bond revocation hearing," said Weber.
"I was like, 'Look, something's gotta happen. She's gonna end up harming some other kid,'" said Derek Jones. "But, I couldn't get the DA's office to do anything. It was more like, 'Oh, there's nothing we can do,' and I was like, 'She's just going to keep doing this.'"
Jesika Jones had been out on bond for two years at that point.
Three weeks before her sentencing, the DA's office asked a judge to send her back to jail.
At the hearing, a 12-year-old girl testified that just a month earlier, while she was still free, Jesika Jones had befriended her father, claimed to be a nurse, and given her medicine that had made her feel dizzy.
Jesika Jones' attorneys argued that Munchausen by Proxy is a documented mental health condition and said what she needed was help.
"She's ready to do whatever it takes to get well," her attorney told a judge.
Weber said that's a frequent defense in cases like these, but he doesn't see it that way.
"She knows what she's doing. She knows she's wrong when she's doing it. That is the legal definition of abuse," he said.
Prosecutors asked a Tarrant County judge to sentence her to 20 years. The judge went even further, calling her a public risk.
"It's the court's sentence that you will receive 60 years in prison," he announced, prompting loud gasps from a full courtroom.
It was a victory for Weber, who hoped prosecutors were taking notice.
"What I was hoping is that they looked inside that courtroom and saw how many people that case affected," he said.
Weber plans to keep advocating for victims
Weber now worries about who will carry on the fight for the next child.
"And I don't understand why the DA's office in Tarrant County wouldn't be interested in protecting children from this abuse," said Weber. "They should be partners in this. So far, they haven't been."
In his retirement, Weber has offered to consult with any law enforcement, free of charge. He's also focused on helping pass legislation on the issue.
While it's illegal to lie to get medication for yourself, Weber said, it's not currently illegal to lie to get medication for your children.
He hopes to change that.
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