PUBLIC TURNS AGAINST DEAD GIRLS' MOTHER

Tragedy: Lawsuit, Drug Reports Change Opinion of Woman Whose Children were
Killed by Train.

UPLANDShe escaped formal prosecution, but now Jackie Robles is finding
that the court of public opinion can deliver its own brand of justice.

It was a month ago today that Robles' two daughters were struck and killed
by a Metrolink train in Upland, after she fell asleep and the girlsAlexes
Robles, 3, and Deziree Soto, 22 monthswandered from home.

Public reaction was swift and stronggenerally in supportive sympathy for
the 21yearold mother and in critical outcry against the Upland police for
briefly arresting her.

People from miles around visited the scene of the tragedy, leaving flowers,
poems, toys, candles and stuffed animals as a shrine to the girls.

But on Thursday there was a demonstration of another sort on those tracks.

At sunset, about 100 people gathered at the Upland Metrolink station,
angrily decrying Robles for her failure to watch her two young girls.

"We've got to stop living in a society where we're pointing fingers, and
take responsibility for our own actions," said Kristine MacDonald, an
Upland mother who organized the event.

The group, mostly women and children, hoisted signs reading, "Being a
neglectful mother does not give you the right to sue" and "Choochoos don't
kill children, irresponsible mommies do." The group accented its march with
such rallying cries as "No fence, common sense" and "The kids would be
alive if Jackie wasn't high."

Thursday's rally was the second this week critical of Robles; on Monday,
about a dozen family members of Metrolink engineers staged a similar
protest in Los Angeles. And the tone of calls and letters to police,
newspapers and radio talk shows has turned decidedly negative. Even the
father of her oldest child has been critical.

The turning of the public tide of sympathy apparently has hinged on two
developments: the disclosure by the San Bernardino district attorney's
office that Robles had been using methamphetamine, and her decision last
week to sue Metrolinkclaiming it bore the responsibility for her
children's death because the tracks that course alongside the workingclass
neighborhood were not protected against trespassers.

Prosecutors decided not to charge Robles with felony child endangerment,
saying they could not conclude when Robles had used methamphetamine or
whether the amount detected in her system was enough to affect her judgment
Oct. 21.

But the fact that she had used drugs began a shift of public opinion, from
sympathy to criticism.

Kevin Chaffee, editor of the editorial page of the Inland Valley Daily
Bulletin, Upland's local newspaper, said the change has been reflected in
the tone of letters to the editor. "Some of the people who were critical of
the police for arresting her were now saying, 'We're not so sure anymore.' "

That wave of opinion swelled last week, after Robles and Fernando Soto, the
father of the younger girl, announced their intention to sue Metrolink for
$30 million.

"Since then," Chaffee said, "we've had a flood of mailand, uniformly,
it's been, 'How dare they sue?' "

That turnaround is evident at the Upland Police Department, which initially
was vilified by people critical of detectives for arresting Robles within
hours of her children's deaths.

Upland police recoiled at the anger, saying that if members of the public
only knew what they knew, they would not be so hasty to pass judgment. At
the time, Robles' drug use had not been disclosed.

Upland Police Chief Martin Thouvenell said the public attitude is much
different now. "We're getting five to 10 letters a day, supporting what we
did," he said. "And I'm getting calls from people who apologized for
reacting negatively toward us at the beginning, because they said they
didn't have all the facts."

Criticism of Robles for filing the lawsuit has come too from Eddie Ortiz,
the father of the older girl. He and Robles were not married, and he left
the home before Alexes was born.

"I definitely felt sympathy for her when this happened. I spoke to her when
she was in jail, and said that we had to suffer this together," Ortiz said.
But he said he would have argued against Robles filing the lawsuit. "I'm
upset that she's filed the lawsuit, because she admits being partially at
fault."

Robles' attorney, Arden B. Silverman, said Thursday he was not surprised by
how public reaction has shifted.

"I almost chuckle to myself over the public outcry," he said. "It's a pity
that they're dealing with this on such an emotional level and not on a
legal level.

"From the ultimate perspective," he said, "we have a slamdunk winner of a
case."

He said that the turning public opinion against his client "is frustrating
her and angering her. It's easy for people to say, let bygones be bygones
and let the tragedy passuntil it happens to you."

He credited Robles for admitting that she accepted some of the
responsibility for her children's death. "For her to have suggested
otherwise would have suggested she is a cold, calloused, calculated
individual. She's anything but that, and her honesty will help her."

The changing opinion against Robles is predictable, said Michael Josephson,
an ethicist and commentator. "People react to partial information, and
every time they get more information, there's an opinion shift," he said.

The lawsuit only added to the changing winds, he said. "It was one thing
when she was seen as a victim, and even if she was complicitous, you could
still sympathize for her.

"But when it looks like she's trying to capitalize on their deaths by
suing, and turning this into a situation where she could profit, her
complicity takes on a new significance. People ask, 'Wait a minute, you
could have stopped this, and now you're seeking millions of dollars?' That
rubs people the wrong way."

One person whose opinion of Robles has never changed is San Bernardino
County Dist. Atty. Dennis Stout. Although his office decided not to charge
Robles with a crime, "I as a human being am outraged by what she did. I
thought, from the very beginning, that her conduct was inexcusable."

Robles will next be in court Dec. 1, at a Juvenile Court hearing to decide
whether she should be allowed to regain custody of her infant son, Fernando
Soto Jr., who was taken from her the day of the accident.

Copyright Los Angeles Times