Carole DeLeon

Tyler DeLeon: Key person

Carole Ann DeLeon, who worked as a paralegal with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Spokane, received a foster care license in 1996, despite two incidents in 1988 when the state’s Child Protective Services agency found likely child abuse in the rural Stevens County home. After her adopted son Tyler DeLeon died on Jan. 13, 2005, the state removed four children from DeLeon’s home and revoked her license. Although DeLeon denied she abused the boy, she decided to plead guilty to two lesser charges rather than face the potential of life in prison on a charge that she starved her adopted son to death. She was sentenced to six years in prison and served about half that time before released.