Man accused of starving children has stroke, pastor says

CAMDEN, N.J. — A man accused of starving his four adopted sons was unconscious Monday after suffering a massive stroke the day before, according to officials with his church.

Raymond Jackson, 51, and his wife Vanessa, 49, are awaiting trial on aggravated assault and child endangerment charges.

Prosecutors said they systematically starved their four adopted sons for years until one of them was found last year rummaging through a neighbor’s trash for food. At the time, Bruce Jackson was 19, stood 4 feet tall and weighed 45 pounds.

Authorities found three younger boys at the family’s Collingswood home, all similarly underweight.

The Jacksons deny starving the boys and say that the children had eating disorders.

In this week’s edition of New York Magazine, Raymond and Vanessa gave their first media interview since they were arrested in October 2003. In it, they said they were the victims of lies by their eldest adopted son and prosecutors.

“I know Bruce loves us,” Raymond Jackson told the magazine. “I know he does. But sometimes I think about how my life is completely turned around. And it’s because he told a lie. He told a lie on me. He told a lie on us.”

According to the Web site www.savethejacksons.org, Raymond Jackson stayed home from church Sunday to care for one of his biological daughters. When the rest of the family returned home, he was unresponsive.

In the posting, the church says that the Rev. Harry Thomas, pastor of Come Alive New Testament Church in Medford, and members of the family gathered in an emergency room to pray for Jackson, who was transferred to another hospital late Sunday night.

The Courier-Post of Cherry Hill reported that Jackson was initially taken to Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Washington Township, then transferred to Cooper University Hospital in Camden. No official information on his condition was released but, according to the Web site, he remained in serious condition as of 4 p.m. Monday.

A secretary at Come Alive said Monday morning that Thomas was at the hospital then and that Jackson was in a coma. She declined to identify herself.

Jackson’s lawyer, Richard Josselson, did not return a phone call from The Associated Press on Monday.

Bill Shralow, a spokesman for the Camden County Prosecutor’s Office, said it was uncertain how Jackson’s health would affect the case against the couple. The couple are scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 6 for a pretrial status conference.

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