An Indiana mother faces felony fraud and neglect charges after allegedly lying about the severity of her daughter's medical condition.
Katherine Jackson, 41, allegedly misstated her daughter's condition, saying she was terminal— and likely to die—when the condition was actually chronic. She also, according to WANE-15, failed to refill prescription medication meant to help treat her daughter's chronic condition.
However, an attorney for the woman calls the allegations baseless and spearheaded by the Indiana Department of Child Services. "At no point in time did Ms. Jackson lie, exploit, or exaggerate the truth of her daughter's illness," Jackson's attorney, Tracey L. Harkins, wrote in a statement to Lawyer Herald.
In August 2022, WANE-15 did a story on Jackson. In the story, Jackson says, "Ultimately, she has months left with us. That's what doctors say. However, she writes her own story," Jackson said. "You can give me as many months or weeks as you think, but you're not God. You're not her. She's sassy, and she's got a lot of fight."
A GoFundMe page set up in 2021, stated, "The doctors have given [the child] 6 months to a year to live. [The child's] wish is to go to Walt Disney and meet Princess Elsa with her mother Katie, and little sister Everly, who is her best friend." The page raised $1,620.
The 2022 WANE-15 report states that in 2019, Make-A-Wish approved the child to go to Disney World. However, COVID-19 prevented the visit.
"Ms. Jackson did not lie about the disease to receive any support from the Make-A-Wish Foundation and is extremely grateful for their contributions—so much so that all the funds in the GoFundMe account, which was set up by a friend, were donated by Ms. Jackson back to the Make-A-Wish Foundation—all of which can be confirmed with documentation," Harkins stated.
A few weeks after the WANE-15 story ran in 2022, Jackson took the child to the hospital, and staff suspected child medical abuse, the station reported. According to the WANE-15 story, medical staff believed that Jackson had not been refilling the child's medication, something Jackson's attorney disputes.
"The claim that Ms. Jackson was not providing her children with the proper medication after days of being in the ER is not only absurd, given that said care was now the responsibility of medical staff, but also false," Harkins stated.
Police confirmed with medical professionals that the child suffered from Pilarowski-Bjornsson Syndrome (PBS), a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by delayed development and impaired intellectual development, according to the National Institute of Health.
WANE-15 reported that a specialist told police the illness was chronic, not a terminal illness, as Jackson had said. In August of 2022, the children were placed with a foster parent.
Harkins stated that this was the beginning of a false narrative against Jackson.
"The baseless attacks on my client, Katherine Jackson, are part of a much larger and more complex situation that has been spearheaded by the Indiana Department of Child Services," Harkins stated. "Up until late 2024, DCS claimed that Katherine's daughter's rare genetic disorder, Pilarowski Bjornsson Syndrome, did not exist, despite having proven lab results indicating otherwise. This is only one of many critical factual and provable details that have been tragically absent from public reporting, seeking to paint a false narrative of Katie."
Harkins said that Jackson will prove her case in court.
"Since the biased and egregious attacks on my client by the Indiana DCS, Ms. Jackson has been forced to live without her daughters, who mean the absolute world to her. Her devotion to her children is what motivates her to keep fighting nonstop through illegal medical document deletions, diagnosis denials and outright fabrications. She will continue to take every legal step necessary to get her children back, and we look forward to watching the truth prevail in court," Harkins stated.
