Laura Asbury flips through a stack of photographs. Her long, manicured nails graze dozens of smiley faces, inspiring deep dimples in her own.
Each shows the 32-year-old juvenile detention officer embracing a different girl. In one, Asbury wraps her slender arms around the broad shoulders of a girl who looks like any other happy 17-year-old — aside from the prison-issued uniform. In another, Asbury gently cups the belly of Grace Stokes, who at the time was 17 years old, eight months pregnant, and incarcerated. “I love my girls,” Asbury says.
For more than seven years, she didn’t simply work at the Summit County Juvenile Detention Center, better known as Dan Street. She lived and breathed her job, and was dedicated to helping any girl who would accept it.
There was no such thing as 9-to-5 or sick days. Asbury was the girls’ guardian 24/7, often answering their calls in the middle of the night and carting them to the hospital to deliver babies. She was the one who handed them GED applications, the one who threw them pizza parties when they collectively read 100 books. She ensured that many never returned to Dan Street and that the ones who did weren’t forgotten when sent off to prison.
Their gratitude is expressed in a stack of letters. “Thank you for all the outings and appointments you took me to,” writes one former inmate. “You have been someone I look up to . . . I look at you and think, ‘Damn! That’s how I want to be — strong, independent.’ You will always be in my heart.”
“[You] mean the world to me,” writes another. “[You] gave me a reason not to give up.”
They refer to her as “Miss A” — as in “Miss A would give you the world, if she could.” But even as Asbury sifts through her mementos, her smile fades.
While the inmates appreciated Asbury’s dedication, her bosses did not. Last year, Asbury was fired. Don Ursetti, spokesman for the Summit County Juvenile Court, claims she was let go because of her “noncompliance with court policy,” though he refuses to translate this from bureaucrat-speak.
But her firing may have been motivated by another reason. Asbury had a habit of calling out anyone who didn’t act in the kids’ best interest.
A single mother who prefers shopping at Gabriel Brothers to Dillard’s, Asbury has a girlish physique and straightened mane that make her appear much younger than her 32 years. But when she opens her mouth, she speaks with the cadence of a woman who knows exactly where to score weed among the empty row houses of East Akron. It’s not so much what she says; it’s how she says it — with a nonchalant, streetwise twang that leaves no room for flourish.
Asbury first entered Dan Street not as a twentysomething detention officer, but as a 13-year-old inmate.
She rattles off the things that led her to this place — the self-hate that comes from teenage fat, the relatives more dedicated to addiction than family. She often ran away, preferring to spend her time getting high at metal shows. “I was all about the Monsters of Rock and experimenting with drugs,” she says. “I used to use my family’s dysfunction as an excuse to act out. I’d highlight it when it was convenient.”
The first time Asbury ended up at Dan Street, she was arrested for running away. It was a quick overnighter before Mom picked her up.
The second time wasn’t so easy. Asbury was caught bringing a joint to school. In exchange for having the charges dropped, police wanted her to rat out the dealer. She found a better option in running away again.
When she was finally caught, she spent a week in detention. “I continued downhill from there,” she says. “I stopped going to school in my sophomore year. I went the first two days, then just started skipping.”
The woman next door gave her pot in exchange for baby-sitting. They’d spend afternoons getting drunk on Black Velvet.
She finally ran away to Virginia at 16, before returning to Summit County to serve her last stretch in detention. She was tired of getting in trouble — tired of causing her family so much trouble. She got a job as a waitress, enrolled at the University of Akron, and gave birth to her only son. Her lone goal was to land a job working at Dan Street. “I just knew exactly where those girls were coming from,” she says. “And I knew I could help. I just knew it.”
In 2000, she took a part-time job as a group counselor. One of her first girls was Grace Stokes, 14 at the time. The startlingly curvaceous beauty fought with her mother incessantly. She first ended up at Dan Street for threatening to kill her mother’s dog.
While Stokes fancied herself a hardass, able to hold her own in the Brunswick High cafeteria, she was terrified of the girls at Dan Street. They were a different breed of tough — girls who weren’t locked up for threatening dogs, but for attempted murder, felonious assault, and hard-core drug use. Stokes was especially scared of Asbury.
After her first night in detention, Stokes awoke to find Asbury screaming for her to get out of bed. “To be honest, at first I thought she was a total bitch,” Stokes says.
She remembers Asbury dressing her down, reminding her that she was just “a cupcake from the suburbs.”
“They’ll eat you alive in here,” the counselor told her.
Asbury always gave first-timers the worst of her “professionally paid bitch” routine, hoping they wouldn’t come back. Most didn’t. But Stokes would become a Dan Street fixture. “That first week was rough,” she says. “I had to earn my frequent-flyer miles before she warmed up to me.”
The girl would spend more of her teenage years at Dan Street than in her own bed. The more she messed up, the more time she spent with Asbury. “She was just real open and honest,” Stokes says. “She didn’t sugarcoat anything, didn’t give you any bullshit. She just told you like it is.”
Even after she was released, she would call Asbury for advice. The counselor would prod her into accepting responsibility for her fate.
But it would take the ultimate error for Stokes to understand. She had run away again, squatting and partying with friends in Toledo. That’s when she was raped.
She turned herself in. Asbury picked her up at a corner in Kent and delivered her to Dan Street for her last stint in detention.
Soon after, Stokes gave birth to a baby girl, conceived with a boy she was no longer dating. Asbury got her into a Job Corps program, where she earned her GED and learned to become a building manager, responsible for everything from drywall to carpet installation. She hasn’t had a legal run-in since.
“If it wasn’t for Miss A, I just — I don’t know how I would have done it,” Stokes says. “She’d go out of her way to help, to give you anything you needed.”
It’s a sentiment shared by numerous former inmates, who speak glowingly of the amazing Miss A. But the same traits that drew girls to Asbury also drew the ire of her bosses.
The real trouble started in 2003. That fall, Linda Teodosio was elected to replace Judy Hunter as Summit County Juvenile Court’s lone judge, responsible for overseeing Dan Street.
In Akron, the Teodosio name is akin to Russo in Cleveland. Her father-in-law, Al Teodosio, was the longtime chairman of the Summit County Democratic Party.
Linda Teodosio served five years as a municipal court judge before running for the juvenile court. She promised to reduce detention overcrowding by diverting inmates to programs with names like “Crossroads” and “Project: Greenhouse Effect.”
But if her words were sunshine and lollipops, her behavior was old-school patronage pol. Before Teodosio even set foot in the office, she fired a whopping 39 court and detention center employees, replacing them with the Democratic faithful. The detention center sank into chaos.
She seemed a judge better suited for press releases than management, issuing a blizzard of new policies that confused staff.
In 2004, Teodosio fired three people, including Carl Cannon, who’d worked at Dan Street for more than a decade. Cannon often worked as a “floater,” responsible for everything from shuttling kids to the courthouse to grabbing toilet paper from the janitor’s closet. For years, floaters would sit in the probation offices during slow weekend shifts, reading or watching TV until they were dispatched.
But Teodosio had issued a rule that made the probation offices off-limits to “unauthorized” personnel. One problem: She neglected to say exactly who was “authorized” — or to even let staffers know the rule existed.
So when Cannon sat down to play guitar and read his Bible on a Super Bowl Sunday, he didn’t realize he was endangering his job. “It was all on camera,” Cannon says. “We knew we were being recorded every time we were in that office. There was never a problem.”
Yet now there was. Cannon was fired — as were Martin Owens and Tommie Gusman, though none were even aware of the rule.
While veteran workers lived under the fear of first-strike termination, Teodosio’s handpicked employees seemed to have diplomatic immunity.
In the fall of 2003, dispatch received a call from the mother of an inmate. The woman had apparently caught the eye of detention officer Willie Hawkins, a Teodosio hire, during a visit to her son.
Hawkins dug up the woman’s phone number from her son’s file and called. She complained to his supervisors that she felt violated and harassed, but instead of a reprimand, he received a promotion. (Hawkins no longer works at Dan Street and could not be located.)
Employees say the inconsistencies came daily. While some staffers were written up for arriving 10 minutes late, others got a pass when they didn’t show up at all.
In 2007, Asbury was sure that detention supervisor Donald Guthrie had shown up to work drunk. “It was no secret that he was a drinker,” she says. “And I really didn’t care, as long as he didn’t show up drunk in front of the kids.” (Don Ursetti declined to comment on Guthrie’s behalf.)
But when Asbury complained to Guthrie’s superiors, she was written up for disrespecting the chain of command. Teodosio never investigated her claims.
The randomness of the rules made it difficult to focus on the real task at hand — saving kids. “You were constantly worried that whenever you were helping a kid out, you might be doing something that could get you written up, because you just didn’t know what the policies were,” Asbury says.
So she would learn her lessons the hard way.
In 2005, 17-year-old Tyresa Gissendaner walked through the doors of Dan Street. Though she came from the blighted Manchester-Thornton area of Akron, Gissendaner managed to stay out of trouble for most of her life. “People always said I was the nicest bad kid they ever met,” she says.
Gissendaner, who delivers her sass through a big, bright smile, ran track, loved school, and worked at the Boys & Girls Club. But she was attracted to troublemakers.
For years she’d been dating Richard, a guy from the neighborhood who ran with the V-Not gang. “We looked good together,” Gissendaner says. “People wanted to be us. We was like the popular couple.”
They were also a violent couple. Richard repeatedly hit Gissendaner, beating her unconscious, fracturing her nose, and knocking her teeth out. Gissendaner refused to press charges. “That’s just not how we do things where I’m from,” she says. “My mom told me to handle it.”
So Gissendaner did. After a long night of partying, the two got into a spat. Richard choked her until she was unconscious. When she came to, she grabbed a knife and stabbed him. “His eyes just got real wide,” she says. “And he said he couldn’t breathe. It killed me when I realized what I did.”
As they waited for an ambulance, Gissendaner applied pressure to the wound. Each time Richard tried to hug her, more blood would gush out. “I love you,” he told her.
Richard refused to say who stabbed him. When he got to the hospital, he slipped into a coma for two months. By the time he awoke, he was blind and paralyzed, due to a lack of oxygen.
Detectives knew that Gissendaner and Richard had been fighting. When they questioned her, she spilled everything.
Gissendaner knew a lot of the girls in detention — familiar faces from the broken homes that littered her neighborhood. Everyone warned her to stay away from Asbury. “They kept saying how tough she was,” Gissendaner says.
But she took an immediate liking to the detention officer. Once, when Gissendaner was rushed to the hospital for medical complications she’d rather not reveal, Miss A was the one who sat beside her during her recovery. “She was always there for me after that,” Gissendaner says. “She was always at my side, and she didn’t even know me.”
Gissendaner says that Asbury always told it to her straight. “She wasn’t like the other [officers] who just didn’t care.”
It was Asbury who told her that the stabbing charges had been bumped up to attempted murder. At first, Gissendaner was in denial, convinced that she’d be walking out of Dan Street in a matter of days. “It was Miss A who set me straight. She was the one who got me the lawyer, tried to help me get the proper representation.”
Gissendaner’s mother couldn’t afford an attorney, so the case was left to a public defender, whose main priority was juggling a monstrous caseload. Asbury wasn’t pleased by the minimal face time the lawyer was providing her young client, so she encouraged Gissendaner to lodge numerous complaints with the public defender’s office.
It was no use. The lawyer told Gissendaner to take a five-year plea.
A year later, Asbury was written up for giving another inmate similar legal advice. “Again, there is no policy that says we can’t give the girls advice,” Asbury says. “But that’s the way it is.”
The best she could do was to mentally prepare Gissendaner for the world of prison. “She told me what it was all about,” the girl says. “She reminded me that no matter how bad I had it, someone always had it worse.”
Just a week after Gissendaner was sent to Marysville, Asbury was sending letters and care packages. She visited at least once a month, often dragging Gissendaner’s mother along. “She just made me feel so good,” says Gissendaner, who is completing her diploma and hopes to someday have a job like Asbury’s. “She reminded me that I could be an inspiration. I love her so much.”
But the bonds Asbury was forming with her girls would only get her into more trouble.
Shortly after Gissendaner left for prison, another beloved detention officer earned a glowing profile in the Akron Beacon Journal. Sherri Hankton was also the kind of employee the girls showered with thankful letters and needy late-night phone calls.
But Teodosio didn’t seem to appreciate publicity when she wasn’t front and center. A month later, she issued a memo warning employees that “it has come to my attention that some employees are having contact with children involved with the Court outside the scope of their assigned duties. While I certainly have no difficulty with words of encouragement and support during the course of chance meetings in public places, it is contrary to long-standing Court policy for any of you to engage in meetings with youth outside your assigned duties.”
To Asbury, the memo was vague at best. She knew there was a downside to entanglements with inmates. After all, she once ratted out an officer after discovering that he was dating a 14-year-old inmate. She also complained about an officer who bragged of her pot use on her MySpace page, which Asbury was worried the kids could find.
But letters? Encouraging words?
So Asbury went to Robert Scalise, the court’s policy writer. “He couldn’t find a thing amongst the policies that said the girls couldn’t contact us from outside the court,” she says.
Moreover, Teodosio had her own relationships with inmates. Among her favorites was Jaclyn Billings. Teodosio attended Billings’ soccer games and allowed her to do homework in the judge’s chambers. She was also aware that Billings corresponded with Asbury and Hankton, sending them e-mails and updates about her life outside Dan Street. “I’ve been so busy with school, soccer, homework, Crossroads, AA meetings, and my life,” Billings wrote Asbury. “Everything’s been going real good . . . I’m so proud of myself for once.”
But things weren’t really as good as advertised. In 2006, Billings hanged herself in her mother’s basement, just two months after Teodosio gave her an early release from detention. “She wasn’t ready,” Asbury says. “She couldn’t take the outside world yet. When she died, I actually cried with the judge. She consoled me. Everyone in detention was allowed to go to the calling hours.”
But Teodosio’s condolences seemed to end with Billings.
In February 2007, a former inmate found Asbury through MySpace. When the girl began sending messages, Asbury was careful to notify the girl’s probation officer. In four e-mails, Asbury simply asked her to stay out of trouble and keep her grades up. But her superiors were unimpressed.
Two weeks later, Asbury received a “last-chance letter.”
“The court is concerned that you are unable to exercise appropriate boundaries with the youth you supervise,” reads the reprimand. “If you continue to engage in any behavior inappropriate to your conduct as a Detention Officer, your employment will be terminated.”
Asbury wasn’t pleased. She highlighted the hypocrisy by pointing out all the letters and calls that other officers, teachers, judges, and magistrates received from former inmates. She also complained that after receiving the notice, her bosses continued to place letters from other girls in her mailbox. She said she was willing to make the changes they wanted, but was confused about the boundaries.
“I didn’t feel that [the girl] contacting me through MySpace was out of the realm of the public space, where I was offering words of encouragement,” Asbury says. “I was up front with these people about it. And I think that’s why I got fired.”
For the next several months, Asbury believed her superiors were looking for any way to fire her. In March 2007, Assistant Court Administrator Steven Stahl, a Teodosio appointee who was also her neighbor and the former police chief of Munroe Falls, thought he’d found a reason.
A Dan Street frequent flyer named Jasmine Hooks had recently returned. She and Asbury had never gotten along. “She was always saying how she was gonna work on getting Miss A fired,” says Whitney Yates, a former inmate who served time with Hooks. “She was just angry. Always saying racial things to us. She called me a blue-eyed devil. And seriously, I think that’s why she had trouble with Miss A.”
On March 13, Hooks had a hearing in front of Teodosio. Asbury sat with her as she waited to go to court. “She started running her mouth, informing me that she was going to get me fired when she went to talk to the judge,” Asbury says. “I just ignored her.”
But as Asbury got ready to leave work that day, she was called into a meeting with Stahl.
During her hearing, Hooks told the judge that Asbury had been telling the other girls that she had genital warts and that they shouldn’t sit next to her. Asbury, busy in detention, wasn’t there to defend herself.
At best, the story seemed the imaginative concoction of a vindictive teen. “We all knew it wasn’t true,” says a Dan Street employee, who asked that her name not be used. “[Asbury] always tried her best and, I would say, went over what the normal people did to try and help them. She would never do a thing like that. It was ridiculous.”
When Stahl questioned Asbury, she relayed Hooks’ earlier threats about trying to get her fired. But rather than address Hooks’ claims, Stahl angrily confronted Asbury about another matter.
Just days earlier, Asbury had lodged her complaint against Guthrie, alleging he had shown up drunk for work. Stahl was upset that Asbury had violated the chain of command. “I told him that, honestly, I didn’t feel comfortable coming to him about the situation because of their personal relationship with [Guthrie],” says Asbury.
The next day, Asbury was removed from the girls’ unit while supervisors investigated Hooks’ claims.
Asbury wasn’t worried about getting fired. “I knew they’d question my girls, and they’d tell the truth and it’d all be over,” she says.
After two weeks, Asbury was allowed back on the girls’ floor. She figured the whole drama was over.
But on April 23, 2007, she was fired. Teodosio believed Hooks’ story. (Neither Teodosio nor Stahl responded to interview requests for this story.)
Asbury wasn’t going to go without a fight. She filed a claim with the Unemployment Compensation Review Commission, hoping to prove she’d been fired without cause.
Last November, hearing officer Shane Griest agreed. “It has not been shown that [Asbury] engaged in sufficient fault or misconduct to suspend her unemployment compensation benefits,” Griest wrote. “She has provided credible, first-hand testimony to establish that the incident which led to her final warning . . . and to her discharge did not constitute fault or misconduct on her part.”
Though the ruling allowed her to collect unemployment and a bit of redemption, Asbury did not get her job back.
Sitting in the Tower City food court on a sunny March day, Asbury and Stokes pick at fries slathered in neon cheese, as they laugh at children who scoop up free samples at the Charley’s Subs stand.
It’s been almost a year since she was fired, but Asbury is happy to be out of Teodosio’s shop. “It’s nice not waking up each morning worrying about who’s gonna stab you in the back.”
Now, she can at least visit her girls without the disapproving eye of her bosses. Just the week before, she took two former inmates to a Barack Obama rally. Then she registered them to vote. The following week, she visited Gissendaner and took in a prison art show.
But she hasn’t completely left her old job behind. In her spare time, she works on her website, www.impeachjudgeteodosio.com, where she lists grievances against the court. The week before, she proudly notes, she got over 2,000 hits. She’s also become a vociferous supporter of Katarina Cook, a Republican magistrate running against Teodosio in this year’s election. “All I care about is those kids,” Asbury says. “And that’s what I gotta fight for.”
Teodosio dismisses Asbury’s attacks as little more than the ravings of a wacko. Scene‘s calls to Teodosio were not returned; instead, she asked Wayne Jones, finance chairman of the Summit County Democratic Party, to call Scene on her behalf. Jones couldn’t answer questions. “I just don’t know enough about the story,” he says.
Meanwhile, proof of Asbury’s dedication sits next to her at Tower City. Stokes, now a mother of two, does maintenance and construction at a shiny new 100-unit apartment complex in the Flats.
“I can’t believe they’d just fire someone like Miss A,” she says. “There are a lot of kids in there that don’t have parents, that are neglected. I didn’t have a proper role model until Miss A. I think they should praise her for what she does. I was so upset when I heard.”
The two continue talking over the fries and the random noise of the food court. Asbury talks about how Stokes plans to take night classes and finish her degree. “I’d like to give back the way you do,” Stokes replies. “If I hadn’t dropped out, maybe I could have gone to college.”
Asbury interrupts her. “No! You could. When your kids get older, you’ll see. You can do it. Look at me!”
This article appears in Apr 30 – May 6, 2008.
People elect the government they deserve.
Laura Asbury? A model Detention Officer? Is this a joke? Actually, it’s not even funny…It’s just sad. Asbury was the last thing from a model employee and hearing her name again makes me sick to my stomach. Having worked at Summit County Juvenile Detention for about four years full time, she had accumulated and burnt through months and months of paid leave and then still managed to take leave without pay almost every other week because she didn’t have paid time left to use when she called off. How can someone who refuses to show up for work be considered a model employee? However, she wasn’t just a horrible employee she was a manipulative and mean person by nature.
Sure, she picked a couple of girls to “kick it” with, but she wasn’t a good influence, to say the least. I hardly consider someone who comes to work hung-over (maybe even still drunk) from the night before and makes a point to brag to the teens about this previous night’s adventure (and how she vomited in her car on the way to work) as a good role model. She doesn’t have a moral line. She probably didn’t tell you how she convinced the girls in her unit to side with her against a teacher and encouraged them to assault that teacher. She probably didn’t mention that she openly referred to the youth that she didn’t care for as “cunts” and “bitches.” She considered herself as “cool,” and yes some of her little inmate friends thought of her as “cool,” also, when she would “keep it real” with the group by picking a victim and putting their private issues (including medical issues) out in the open for the whole group to hear. Also, about this teenager by the name of Hooks, I was a personal witness to Asbury talking about this youth to another youth about Hooks (without Hooks being present) in an attempt to make an alliance to help her “gang up” against juvenile Hooks. After Asbury was fired she made a point to call several juveniles from detention at their homes to tell them Hooks had gotten her fired. To this day I hear from teenagers in detention how they don’t like Hooks and want to beat her up because of the distorted story they received from Ms. Asbury. Unfortunately, Hooks was only one of Asbury’s many victims.
One time a Target card worth $20.00 that was given to a youth in our facility came up missing. Asbury, of course, was the one who realized it was missing and then, of course, immediately began pointing fingers of whom she felt should be blamed. Sure enough, later, when the youth (that the Target card had belonged to) revisited detention she openly admitted she made a deal with Asbury to give over the Target card and then they would claim it missing and the detention facility would have to provide another card. Did she happen to mention how she “faked” a fall and submitted a workers comp. claim? Her fraud, however, didn’t work as planned because a couple of employees that she had told her plan to before hand came forward. Asbury caught wind of this and withdrew her claim. She wasn’t ever written up for being extra helpful with these kids, she was written up for things such as allowing a male sex offender into the girls unit to hang out with the girls and swearing at a teacher in front of the girls during class.
Something I always thought was strange is when she came to work giving out pricey video games and claimed the Battered Woman’s Shelter (that she had a second job with at the time) just gave them to her. Which reminds me…Did you happen to ask Ms. Asbury how many other jobs she has been fired or “let go” from? Did you ask how many write-ups she has accumulated from these other employers? Summit County Juvenile Court wasn’t the first and won’t be the last.
When Asbury was fired many co-workers gave a sigh of relief. Finally all the trouble, drama, and nonsense was gone for good. Yes, just like any place of work, I admit my place of employment is not perfect. However, I can’t deny how much easier it is to go into work knowing the poison is gone and we can all get back to working together as a team to help these troubled teenagers the right way!
All that crazy sh*t that you had to say about that woman with nothing to back it up! Mind your business John Doe – We know you still work there!! You would have to be a “John Doe” in order to say such, off the wall crap about her. I worked with Laura for a few years and you are making a ton of crap up. Get back to your job before you are next to get fired!! We won’t put your “Real” name out there……
Yeah, you would be a John Doe making statements like that! Since we all know that information isn’t true: Maybe if Miss A finds out who you are, she can clean up on a Slander Law Suit!! She deserves it!
Dear John Doe,
You are a “FRAUD”! I am an Attorney and I took the time this morning to check Miss A’s Workman’s Compensation Claim and the allegation that you previously stated. Her claim was never revoked or cancelled. Her Medical Bills were paid and she returned to work. Get your facts straight before you get online making a fool of yourself!
Hey Miss A, if you discover who John Doe really is you better take them for every dime the have!!
Keep up the Great Work Miss A!!
as a former co-worker of miss asbury, i can say jane doe is not making things up. while i no longer work there, i can say that a number of john doe’s claims are not far fetched. miss asbury did in my view of the time i was there do many of the things mentioned by john doe. it does seem to me that the scene did print a very slanted story.
How do all of you know that what john doe said is not true. I had a friend who worked at the same place and came home with some of the same situations as were mentioned by john doe. It seemed as though whenever there was trouble or issues miss asbury was always in the middle of it. so for those of you who claim slander may need to get the whole story not just one side and claim slander. Also who is the lawyer …must not be a good one if he/she has time to look through all of this stuff. a good lawyer would have better things to do than investigate this stuff.
As a friend and past co-worker of Asbury’s I wish all of you, evil/hate filled individuals the absolute best in your lives. I hope that your find the LORD or at least some type of Higher Power. As her life moves on into a way more positive direction with wonderful things in her future I hope one day you all can find happiness and inner peace.
nice try karen…there is nothing in my comments that are evil/hate just what i seem to remember what the truth is….if things are going so well why does she need the scene magazine to make a point? you know there are 2 sides to every coin but name calling people who do not agree with you or her is not LORD like to me!
The article states that The Scene Magazine did contact the Court for their opinion and they spoke only a couple words. That is their choice! Again good luck to all of you and your futures!!
Judge Teodosio should of gotten rid of her sooner. I am surprised it took so long!
Dear Ms. Asbury, I know nothing about your employment situation, but I do know more about my daughter’s situation at the time of her death than you did. Talk about half truths. None of the references regarding Jaclyn were really the way you portrayed them to be and to make the insinuation that Jaclyn’s death was in any way caused by any of the Judge’s decisions just goes to show how little you really knew about my daughter’s situation. I think it is very wrong of you to exploit my daughter’s memory and upset our family for your own personal gain. I feel you have over stepped your bounds and you have definitely made misleading statements and half truths in regards to my daughter. You have no right to use my daughter’s name and personal information in this way and I hope you will have enough respect for my daughter’s memory, for me and for our entire family and will not continue to do so without my knowledge.
dear ms. billingsley…i am sorry about your daughter and i pray things are getting better for you. may god bless you….shame on ms.asbury!!!!
dear ns. billings…sorry i did not spell your name in my last comment….please accept my apology.
First, I want to clear up some issues about this model ex worker. Where most would focus on who specifically fired them Miss A has taken her fight to Myspace and now to the WWW through the help of godaddy.com She has helped to slander other people and their families without any regard for possible fallout or damage. Why not fight the fight in court with just the Administration and why you feel they fired you wrongly.
Secondly, as Government employees Miss A and others who worked at court are “at will” which basically means they can be let go at any time. In fact as part of the policies and procedures manual and employee handbook that was passed out and gone over each employee had to sign a sheet that acknowledged that fact. So unless I am misunderstanding that signed statement anyone in an administrative position at court can dismiss an employee with the Judges approval.
Now a few last things that I would like to go over please note that the information that is listed in MYSPACE, impeachjudgeteodosio.com and in the scene article are to be taken as entertainment only. In fact a lot of the stories have been streched to make them more interesting and even somewhat like a soap oprea. So like reading the newspaper, getting the TV news etc. you must get your facts from reputible sources and also check out the info so it is true.
Thanks for your time and I hope that not all of you will stoop to the level of belittling others to make yourself feel better.
JD
You people act like Asbury has come up with all of this on her own, when she surely has not. Did you actually read the Article? Miss Asbury was not the only one who was interviewed. As far as the web site goes, I think it is very well written! Entertainment? I guess?? Is it entertaining to see the covers get pulled of off Teodosio and all of her soldiers by actual court case numbers, pictures, and/or dates? Your lack of knowledge is more entertaining! Miss Asbury’s case is being handled in Court as well as many others. And, for those of you who are keeping track Miss Asbury’s case is still pending with the EEOC! Good for you Asbury! We miss you!!
You people act like Asbury has come up with all of this on her own, when she surely has not. Did you actually read the Article? Miss Asbury was not the only one who was interviewed. As far as the web site goes, I think it is very well written! Entertainment? I guess?? Is it entertaining to see the covers get pulled of off Teodosio and all of her soldiers by actual court case numbers, pictures, and/or dates? Your lack of knowledge is more entertaining! Miss Asbury’s case is being handled in Court as well as many others. And, for those of you who are keeping track Miss Asbury’s case is still pending with the EEOC! Good for you Asbury! We miss you!!
You people act like Asbury has come up with all of this on her own, when she surely has not. Did you actually read the Article? Miss Asbury was not the only one who was interviewed. As far as the web site goes, I think it is very well written! Entertainment? I guess?? Is it entertaining to see the covers get pulled of off Teodosio and all of her soldiers by actual court case numbers, pictures, and/or dates? Your lack of knowledge is more entertaining! Miss Asbury’s case is being handled in Court as well as many others. And, for those of you who are keeping track Miss Asbury’s case is still pending with the EEOC! Good for you Asbury! We miss you!!
Dear Ms. Asbury, I know nothing about your employment situation, but I do know more about my daughter’s situation at the time of her death than you did. Talk about half truths. None of the references regarding Jaclyn were really the way you portrayed them to be and to make the insinuation that Jaclyn’s death was in any way caused by any of the Judge’s decisions just goes to show how little you really knew about my daughter’s situation. I think it is very wrong of you to exploit my daughter’s memory and upset our family for your own personal gain. I feel you have over stepped your bounds and you have definitely made misleading statements and half truths in regards to my daughter. You have no right to use my daughter’s name and personal information in this way and I hope you will have enough respect for my daughter’s memory, for me and for our entire family and will not continue to do so without my knowledge.
Comment by Colleen Billings — May 9, 2008 @ 05:08PM
I have seen all of the comments and the only one who makes any sense is Ms. Billings. Funny how all of miss Asbury”s supporters (KIM) do not seem to have a comment for her. All who support MS. Asbury are exploiting Jaclyn’s death as well. God bless Ms. Colleenn Billings and shame on all of you who support Ms. Asbury!!!!!
Is this whole thing a joke? It would be a cold day in hell before I would call a big time drinker and weed smoker a model for these young girls. The Scene must be crazy for believing this garbage and running this as a feature. What is the world coming to?
Drinkers and weed smokers – yeah, those are all in the Article and on the web site with court docket information – that is why the Scene picked that crazy court as the feature!
Hi,
I am a Liscensed Social Worker,and have known Laura for over 10 years,both professionally and personally and I know that she genuinely cares for those girls. She has given alot of herself to the kids that she tried to reach out and help. Not everyone is perfect, and she like everyone of us has flaws, but please understand that she is trying to do whats in the best interest of the kids. I am a former high school worker, and I had the pleasure of knowing Shawrica Lester, if you want to talk about injustice do your research, and see why Judge Teodosio didn’t sentence anyone to jail for her death? Maybe it was the fact that she let gang members into the court room to intimidate the witnesses so they wouldn’t testify? Someones child was killed, and no one was charged, eventhough there were witnesses? What doesn’t add up? Then most recently, a Tallmadge HS football player was charged with raping another player and gets a slap on the wrist? Are you serious? If we want the crime to go down in Akron, maybe we should start actually sentencing these criminal. Vote for Katrina Cook!!
It has been speculated that I was the Dan St. employee that spoke anonymously to this articles writer.
Well it wasn’t. Feel free to call the author & ask them or better yet come to me & ask me , I don’t bite.
If anything was to be said by me, I wouldn’t hide beind the thin veil of anonymity. If I have anything to say I say it. I thought that after almost 5 years on the job , that was a well known fact, Jacki has a big mouth.
Yes I still keep in touch with Asbury. By e-mail occasionally. I haven’t spoken with her on the phone in months. It is a casual aquaintance if anything, not this big secretive conspiritors frienship as many think.
I don’t know why I have to feel the need to defend myself for anything.
I have no clue as to what actually happened in detention seeing as I am just a cook & don’t have any access to any info. Frankly I don’t care what happened, all I know is I am caught in the middle of a silly little quarrel between those who are out for blood & those who want the truth to be out .
I talk to everyone at Dan St. I even talk to those who have treated me like I was beneath them & not worthy of any respect because I am ‘Just a cook”.
Have I ever done anything to any of you or lied to any of you to make you feel like this about me? I tell it like it is. So if any Dan st. current or former employees have any problem with who I talk to or don’t talk to outside of work, please by all means tell me when you see me. It won’t hurt my feelings any.
I didn’t know it was against the rules to be nice to everyone. Isn’t that what we try to teach our kids?
Jacki Edmond- or as the kids call me Miss Jacki – I work for Canteen Corrections -Dan st.
Jacki, I am sorry that you are getting all the credit for the Female Detention Employee’s comment in the Scene’s article, when all along it was me. Those losers!! They will never figure out who it really was. I haven’t even talked to Asbury since she left. But when the Scene Reporter contacted me, I was more than happy to tell the truth about that situation! Of course I couldn’t identify myself because I knew I would lose my job very quickly!
I am proud of you Laura. You know who I am!!
Do something about the eyebrows..looks like a 80 year old who lost her hair and drew them on with eyeliner.yuk..is this how they look in Ohio..scary
The title of this article should be, “why didn’t Judge Teodosio fire Ms. Asbury sooner?” Ms. Asbury has nothing to do better with her time than write nonsense about people she use to work with… because she doesn’t have a job!!! Get off your ass Ms. Asbury and try to find something new to do with your time. I dont know…. instead of trying to further corrupt minors so you can be “cool” and get high with them, trying staying off the drugs for a few months so you can pass a drug test and get another job. Or are you that worthless to society?!?!
Couldn’t Have Said it Better Myself- Exactly what I was thinking…get a Job, get off the dope and support your family! Court records show she can’t pay her bills but there’s plenty of time for MySpace. What a waste.
Dear sammy———shows what you know, “Miss A” is and has been working for awhile now. Sounds like you have nothing better to do than to spend your day making things up about her – “Miss A”. So, if you have a job? You had better at least act like you are working!
I have been working with Laura since January and we believe her to be a wonderful asset to our organization – we take random drug tests. So, get your information straight!! Maybe you need to volunteer or get a job yourself in order to entertain yourself. Sounds like you are the ones with all the fee time.
So, she has some debt and a couple speeding tickets – bet that is all you vultures found on her!!
Keep commenting on her and reading this article!! You guys are giving her great publicity!!!!!!!
Boy o boy you people sure have great creativity when it comes to making a bunch of bull up on one person.
Nice try!!!!
I noticed a few comments in some of the other stories that Miss A is connected to. One involving a couple from court who were involved in inapropriate activities. If that is true I am glad to know that the female has M.S. now and is being punished. Hopefully she will not be able to work for much longer. Also I hear she and the “guy” had a child together and hopefully the child is stricken with some terrible disease as well so that the sins of her father will be passed on to her. I also know that this famous attorney in Stow has had a head trauma that caused him to have brain surgury so It really goes to show that when you go against what is truly the right way, god will get you.
hey margie….hat organization do you work for that would hire ms. asbury? must not be to important and besides it sounds like that she has not gotten to you yet!!!!!!!
maria….publicity….not sure this is what she would want….half – baked truths and a very slanted story….some publicity!!!!!!
Dear satisfied – you appear to know the “REAL” Deal!!
You’re right! Laura has NEVER cared about the TYPE of attention she has gotten. She just loves attention!
Miss Asbury… you are pathetic.
Miss Asbury… You are pathetic!
And… Congratulation on your publicity. You look like a crackhead!
Miss Asbury… You are pathetic!
Miss Asbury… You are pathetic!
Read all the comments…very obvious that Ms. Asbury is writing a lot of these herself…adding to the oh so WONDERFUL publicity she is receiving. Now that’s pathetic! Also, there is no job Ms. Margie.
Okay, whatever you say! I am sure you know it all!
Dear Satisfied,
You are a sick individual. But you’re right- what goes around comes around. We all have comfort in knowing you will also have your day with the brain surgeon.
Despite Grollmus’ florid prose, the thing that stands out to me is that Assberry broke the rules. There’s usually a valid reason for rules–such as, if you’re out fraternizing with former clients, you might not give sufficient attention to current ones.
Bottom Line- Asbury is a no good loser- a very sore loser indeed! Get on with your life idiot- even if that means pitifully hangin with teenagers!
You people who leave these comments full of insults and lies are the ones who are losers. It appears that this Article came out on April 30th and “some” people are so comsumed with it that they are still trying to leave negative comments – such fools. Get a life!
There are a ton of people and organizations who are supporting Miss A’s efforts despite the crap that you keep ranting and raving about! Better luck next time!!
nice try for the supporters of ms. asbury….you probably never worked with her…nor do you know her…..right 4-30-08 and people are still responding… ones who support her are the real losers!!!!!!!!!
Robert…seems you are still consumed….get a life!!!!!!!1
Asbury still keeps you fools coming back to check this site….ha-ha!
First time reading the story, yet it looks like “Wish You Knew” keeps on comin back as well. Add yourself to the Fool list! I, on the other hand, will not be back. Simple case of a rag publication,Scene, believing the ranting of an employee who deserved to be terminated- Asbury would be stupid not to know that her behavior was clearly crossing every professional boundary and was out of the scope of her job. If she was a licensed social worker, her license would probably have been stripped. Very unprofessional behavior- 24/7 care for the girls – c’mon! I can’t believe people are actually supporting this BS!
After reading a part of this story because I could not take the one side reporting of Denise Grollmus I feel this person was fired for just cause. I do not know anyone but I do know Grollmus only reports the dramatics and never listens to the other side. This is another pathetic reporting job by this high school reporter. This joke of a reporter needs to learn that these people that come running to her with their story are not always truthfull and she needs to do her investigation before she prints a story. Get a clue Grollmus and quit partying with the shitty band the Black Keys!
WOW!!!
Let me just say that anyone who knows and works in that kind of feild should be able to read the article and see that she was fired for just cause. Her job title is a Detention Officer(DO). As a DO, just like being a jail deputy or a Correcions officer it is well known and established that you do NOT create relationships with the inmates, in this case kids. Ms. Asbury clearly crossed the line. She was not a counsleor or BIG SISTER while behind/working a secured facility. In that matter alone she deserved what she got and sounds like it needed to come sooner. Creating relationships with the youth or inmates you observe creates a hard enviornment for all to work in, as it seems that is what clearly happened. I dont even care about the he said she said matters. Just read the article that sounds like it was meant to defend Ms Asbury, but actually put it out there that she was not a professional and didnt know her job or the rules.
for anybody who tlkin shit bout Miss.A fuck you. i been to dan street to many times for too long. when i was thier that woman was my best friend. she wouldnt some shit like that. that story is fuckin bullshit. yall just wanted a reason to git that nice,kind hearted woman fired. youpeople know she didnt do anything wrong.when us females in dan street needed someone to fuckin talk to Miss.A was thier.NO OTHER D.O. gave a damn about the females in thier.you will always be remembered by me,and anyone else you helped. i wanna thank you for evrything.You are my role model..
FUCK YOU HATERS
I happen to be the girl who’s Target gift card was stolen in Detention! Ms. A was not even there that day! Get your facts straight. The DO that took my card was written up for what she did.
Ms. Asbury was and is the BEST Detention Officer that ever worked there!
I can remember he saying – If I wasn’t me, I sure would want to be! Shake those haters Ms. A!! I love you!