BY SARAH STEPHENS
ELMORE/AUTAUGA NEWS
Jessica Taylor, of Millbrook, was sentenced today in Elmore County Court to serve four years in jail after pleading guilty to felony Child Abuse of her former daughter. She must also serve two years of probation after completing her sentence.
Her daughter has now been adopted by another family out of the area, and her name has been changed to protect her in the future. As part of the plea agreement, Jessica and her husband Dan Taylor are not allowed to make any contact with their former daughter.
Circuit Judge Joy Booth listened intently to an impact statement from the adoptive mother, on how she first saw the little girl, formerly known as Harper. She also gave an update on her condition today, which she described as healthy, happy and beautiful. (The impact statement will be at the bottom of this story.)
Jessica Taylor showed no emotion as the sentencing hearing occurred standing next to her lawyer. While an impact statement was read, she would occasionally frown or look at her attorney. But once she learned that Judge Booth would in fact sentence her to jail time she began crying. Even though she had earlier pled guilty to child abuse, she told the Judge she never willingly hurt her daughter and believed what all of the doctors had told her about her daughter’s non-existent medical issues.
Judge Booth admonished Jessica Taylor, explaining that she actually has a daughter who was born with many medical conditions that are not imaginary. Judge Booth said she could not conceive how a mother could do this type of harm to her own child.
Back in 2021 Jessica Taylor and her husband Dan Taylor were both indicted on one count of felony child abuse. However, charges were recently dropped against Dan Taylor. The District Attorney’s office said in a recent statement, charges were dropped against Dan “as there is little evidence to reflect this knowledge and/or participation in the willful neglect of this child after Jessica Taylor’s admission of guilt.”
Dan Taylor was in the courtroom this morning, but left quickly after the judge sentenced his wife, and was not available for comment.
Jessica was handcuffed and escorted out of the courtroom to be booked into the Elmore County Jail.
Back in January of 2021, the Millbrook couple both faced accusations of child abuse relating to their daughter, who officials said did not have a medical condition, despite the fact thousands of dollars were donated by friends and area residents to help with the child’s “medical treatments” and other expenses.
At just one of the fundraisers, $10,000 was raised for what we now know were imaginary diseases for the child then known as Harper. We do not have an estimate of how much money was given to the family throughout multiple fundraisers. We do know that many fellow teachers gave up sick time to give to Jessica Taylor to allow her to stay home with what they believed was a sick child.
Jessica Taylor formerly taught at the Child Development Center of Millbrook.
In speaking to EAN anonymously, many told us they not only gave money, but had donated vacation time so Jessica could stay home with her “sick” child. They told us they were angry or embarrassed but did not wish to pursue charges.
Under her plea agreement, Taylor had possible punishment ranging from one year and a day to 10 years. Judge Booth said she had originally planned to sentence Jessica Taylor to more than four years, but would honor the request of the adoptive mother, who asked for at least one year in jail for every year her daughter had to suffer the torture of child abuse.
How were the fake illness stories uncovered?
Medical doctors became suspicious of Jessica Taylor’s behavior and stories about her daughter’s multiple illness and began fact checking. They realized that the child, then just four years old, was being treated by 36 different physicians at 15 different facilities in Alabama and Georgia. One of those facilities admitted the child for treatment, but only to give them time to contact the Lee County Department of Human Relations and notify investigators of their suspicions. The Millbrook Police Department was also called in to investigate, as well as the Elmore County DHR.
Below is the majority of an impact statement read in Elmore County Court this morning before Judge Booth. We are not identifying the adoptive mother for obvious reasons.
“I’d like to speak on behalf of the victim in this case, who is now my daughter and was formerly known by the name “Harper Taylor.”
The victim in this case, a child who was only four years old when she was rescued from her abusers, is what I want to talk to you about today. What people may not truly understand about this case is that this abuse was not just ONE incident of abuse, but FOUR YEARS (the most FRAGILE and formative years of her early life in fact) of daily physical and mental abuse. Our daughter spent the first four years of her life being tortured. But her abuser did not torture her with instruments, fists or even words. Our daughter’s abuser used something far more sinister and far more depraved: she used the very medical practitioners whose job it is to help patients in need. And her abuser was not a stranger. Her abuser was her biological mother, Jessica Taylor, the one person who should have loved her and protected her from the evil in the world. Instead, her mother became that evil.
Jessica Taylor systematically took a healthy child to 30 plus different medical practitioners over several states and subjected her to invasive procedures, hospitalizations, unnecessary surgeries, medical tests, and dozens of medications–the side effects of which would give a grown person pause.
On February 17th, 2015, a baby girl was born at 38 1/2 weeks gestation to Dan and Jessica Taylor. This child suffered very minimal complications at birth and was discharged at the normal time for a cesarean delivery. In fact, the only complications prior to birth were due to Jessica Taylor’s being diagnosed with gestational diabetes. This precious baby went home a normal, healthy baby.
Unfortunately, that was where her normal life stopped. I’ve learned over the past four years of caring for our daughter, that most things with Jessica Taylor started with a crumb of truth and she simply created the rest. For example, one blood test indicated that Harper likely had something called Von Willebrand factor, which is most common in people with type O blood and simply means that she may likely have a heavier menstrual cycle or could take slightly longer to clot when injured (or she may NOT). All indications thus far are that this was merely an incidental finding- and not one which will have any effect on her life at all. It is something that many people have, and simply never know they have it—people who live normal lives. But this factor was discovered after years of Jessica making up symptoms and subjecting a small child to blood test after blood test and visit after visit to multiple “specialists.” The fact that this was found is due only to the fact that statistically, if one turns over every genetic rock, something is bound to be found.
For Jessica, this was the crumb she needed. She began parading this child around on social media and in public claiming that she had von Willebrand’s disease, a chronic condition that is far more serious and potentially far more life threatening. There is no evidence that Harper Taylor ever had or will ever have von Willebrand’s disease.
When Harper Taylor came to our home on September 17th, 2019, I opened my front door at 10:30 at night to find a tiny underweight child who looked like she had not had a decent meal in years. Her skin was more gray than pink, her eyes were sunken in and her hair looked thin and falling out. But beyond her physical condition she was terrified. She quickly identified me as her safe person and for the next two weeks I began building a trust with her. The first few weeks with “Harper” in our home were the most difficult because she was terrified of everyone and everything new that she came in contact with. She was particularly afraid of new adults—largely because in her experience in her four short years of life the new adults that she encountered were generally coming at her with needles or painful procedures (things that would terrify any child- or adult for that matter).
We quickly learned that Harper had never really had much of a routine. Things like bedtime and teeth brushing were difficult and she had never slept alone. We learned that her diet prior to her coming into care was largely fast food. Despite her physical condition when she came, one thing became clear very quickly: the only unhealthy parts of this child had been created by her mother. Once she was in a healthy home, she flourished quickly.
The months that followed were filled with documentation, trust-building, caseworker visits, court dates, and weekly in-home therapy sessions (where her game initially was a very disturbing game of doctor where the baby doll was always sick and needed “shots”). Over time, she gained weight and learned that she was now safe from the monsters that she had experienced in the first four of her life.
Once we received word that the TPR of Jessica and Dan Taylor had been upheld all the way to the Alabama Supreme Court, we were allowed to legally adopt our daughter and we received copies of her medical records. I thought reading the records would give me some sort of closure—or at least clarity—in understanding what our child had endured at the hands of her abusers, but nothing could have prepared me for the horrors of the reality she was rescued from. I do not pretend to understand the inner workings and depravity in the mind of someone who would torture their own flesh and blood, but I’d like to give the court just a bit of a snapshot into this precious child’s life. I’ll start with the one visit that is in the top 10 most horrific records I have ever read.
On April 25, 2018, then 3-year-old Harper was taken to UAB Children’s hospital for testing due to the myriad of medical symptoms which only truly existed in the mind of Jessica Taylor. Due to complaints of bloody diarrhea, and persistent fevers and vomiting (which were never medically documented—other than what was reported by Jessica Taylor), UAB had scheduled to perform three tests that day: an endoscopy, a colonoscopy, and a bone marrow test. The endoscopy involved a tube being inserted down Harper’s throat and multiple tissue samples were clipped from her esophagus and throat. Next, a tube with a camera was inserted rectally into her colon to check for signs of the phantom bloody diarrhea. This yielded no evidence of any bleeding, active or past. The final test was a bone test, which was done under local anesthetic only, where a large needle was inserted with Harper lying face down on a table into the lower left iliac crest- and area of the hip very near her tailbone. I am told by grown people who have had this done that it is excruciating, and that the local anesthetic does very little to curb the pain. This was Harper’s SECOND such test. Again, she was THREE.
Fast forward to the hospitalization at UAB in September 2019, where an astute medical team, led by Dr. Robert Pass, began to notice “irregularities” and began a systematic investigation into this case. During her stay at UAB Children’s Hospital (where she was admitted after having 8 teeth removed after it was performed there due to fears of her fictional bleeding disorder), Jessica Taylor removed her IV, reported symptoms and events that were proven false by her medical team, and even tried to hoard oxycodone and hydrocodone. Her behavior was so disturbing that Dr. Pass and his team extended her stay there so that they could call and investigate the case thoroughly before ultimately reporting the case to the Department of Human Resources.
The diagnoses that “Harper” came to our home attached to her medical record were: Von Willebrand’s Disease, Seizures, Sleep Apnea, Asthma, Multiple anaphylactic allergies, and IPEX Syndrome. These are just the ones I know off the top of my head—I am certain there were likely more. Her parents collectively had created a Facebook page called “Harper’s Heros” which was Jessica’s platform for her audience- this is where she got the “attention fix” that she so desperately craved. In one of her final posts, Jessica posted that the average life expectancy of a child with the fictitious diseases that she had labeled her healthy child as having, was seven years. She was preparing her audience for the death of her child. I have no doubt that it is no coincidence that she was suspected of hording Hydrocodone—or that one of the final “diagnoses” that Harper was diagnosed with was sleep apnea. Learning more about Munchausen by Proxy, I have learned that many who are victims that do not survive their abuse had that diagnosis in common. I assume because no one would suspect that a child who is so allegedly frail with disease AND had sleep apnea, would not simply just slip away in their sleep. Our daughter today is many things, but one thing she is NOT is frail or sick.
Our daughter’s diagnoses today are: Healthy, smart, loving and active 8-year-old. She has gone from her weight being in the 17th percentile in September 2019, to being between the 50th-60th percentiles today. Her skin has a beautiful healthy color, her blue eyes sparkle again, and she has THE most adorable freckles. Her hair is thick and golden. She has no known allergies. She rarely gets sick and now generally only sees the pediatrician for her annual physicals. But most importantly, she goes to bed every night knowing she is healthy, safe and loved.
This is what EVERY child deserves, but something that she never experienced until she was rescued from the monster that now sits in this courtroom. When she was adopted, we chose to change her name, as well as her social security number. This change signified the closing of a horrible chapter in her life but also the beginning of a new life: one in which monsters only exist in books and movies and no longer live in her house and family. She got to participate in choosing her new name.
There may still be long-term effects on our daughter from the medications and the medical torture she endured, and we have seen a few minor effects already due mainly to her early malnutrition, but she is protected and no longer has to fear the two people whose only job was to love and protect her. I have a letter to the court from her current pediatrician, Dr. Lisa Young, which I can submit to the court, provided that her name is redacted before becoming part of the record.
My request of the court is to plead that it will deliver some measure of justice for our daughter in sentencing. I would ask at minimum that Jessica be made to SERVE at least FOUR years in prison—the same amount of time she subjected her innocent child to medical torture. I would request that there be no suspended sentence, but that she serve that time in its entirety. In taking this plea, she avoided the 10-year statutory minimum that Winston’s Law would have put in place for aggravated child abuse of a child under age 6, which she would have faced when found guilty by a jury (as I have no doubt she would have been). In exchange for the leniency that this plea allows, our daughter deserves there to be some measure of justice for all that she endured.
As for Dan, I have little sympathy for all that he has lost as a result of his part. While he may not have been as active a participant in her torture, he completely failed to protect her—and there is evidence that he was in some cases willing to buy into the lies. He acknowledged under oath in the TPR hearng that he and Jessica took large sums of money in donations. They took donated PTO time from other school employees which would amount to much more. In short, he was an active participant in the fraud and attention that resulted from his wife’s torture of their biological child. And while there may be no justice for him in this courtroom today, the no contact order that was put in place as part of both of their deals will ensure that his punishment is that he must live every day for the rest of his life without this amazing child being a part of it. So, his is a life sentence of sorts. I have very little confidence that Jessica has any real remorse for her actions.
Thank you, your honor for your time and I ask again, to whatever extent it is possible, that you will give our daughter some justice with the sentence imposed on Jessica Taylor and that her time will be no less than four years of time to be served in prison.”
