Casino killer’s adoptive parents testify officials hid his mother’s mental illness

Wednesday, Oct. 27, 1999 | 11:10 a.m.

The Board of Supervisors stressed in passing the motion Tuesday that it was not admitting wrongdoing regarding Jeremy Strohmeyer and his adoptive parents, John and Winifred Strohmeyer, who have a claim pending against Los Angeles County.

Jeremy Strohmeyer was 18 when he sexually assaulted and strangled 7-year-old Sherrice Iverson in a casino bathroom in Primm, Nev., in May 1997. He is serving a life prison term.

The adoptive parents told the supervisors that adoption officials deliberately withheld the information about the son they were adopting.

"We do not believe we are an isolated case," Mrs. Strohmeyer said. "In 1999, we came face-to-face with our son's adoption records.... We found out how we were manipulated."

The couple said the county failed to disclose that the biological mother was diagnosed a chronic schizophrenic in 1976, and that she had been hospitalized in state mental institutions nearly 60 times before giving birth

County officials only told the couple that the boy's mother had a history of alcohol and drug abuse and was hospitalized and "appeared mentally ill" at the time she gave birth, Mrs. Strohmeyer said.

The Long Beach couple testified they would never have adopted the baby known as Jeremy Hall in 1980 if they had been told the extent of his mother's illness.

Before the adoption, they said, they even filled out a form specifying they would not accept a child with mental illness or retardation in his family history.

After the testimony, the board voted unanimously to have the Department of Children and Family Services to review disclosure policies and report back to the board in two weeks.