Business tie-ins murky at day care
Owner of property where fire killed 4 children mum; fugitive suspect's ex-classmates recall her as angry bullyBy TERRI LANGFORD
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
March 7, 2011, 1:09AM

A 22-year-old day care operator's flight from justice has left government agencies red-faced and her family speechless. Now, questions linger about how an angry teen arsonist described by high school classmates as an arrogant bully ended up in the day care business.

Jessica Rene Tata was the face of Jackie's Child Care, the home-based day care that caught fire Feb. 24, killing four children. Tata, a criminal justice major at Houston Community College, is thought to have fled to Nigeria the day before the first of 14 charges, including four counts of manslaughter, were filed against her.

The extent to which she may have had business partners remains unclear. The property where the day care was located - a house at 2810 Crest Park Drive - is owned by Ronald Velasco, who has not returned repeated calls from the Houston Chronicle to explain his relationship with Tata.

Records show that Velasco is an officer in what appears to be one of his father's health care businesses, called Great Home Health Care Inc. Another of his father's health care businesses, called Vel-Nay Tru Living, is based at 12810 Westbranch Court, along with one of his son's businesses, Excelsior Home Solutions.

It is not clear if Ronald Velasco has a part in Vel-Nay, which, according to state records received more than $515,000 in Medicaid funds in the past year.

According to the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services, Vel-Nay provides training and support services for mentally disabled adults.

"We are busy. We are so busy right now," said Rodolfo Velasco from the door of his west Houston business, Vel-Nay Tru Living.

A younger man's voice instructed him to just "Shut the door!" When asked about his son's property on 2810 Crest Park Drive, the father said: "I don't know what he owns," before slamming the door.

Various reports indicate that Tata's father, Godfrey Tata, has a thriving health care business, but the only mention in a search of databases at four state agencies was a failed application to be in the substance abuse business.

"Our system shows a man named Godfrey N. Tata of Houston sought a chemical dependency counselor license in the mid-1990s but did not pass the required exam and therefore was not licensed by us," said Carrie Williams, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services.

He listed several businesses with the Harris County Clerk's Office, but most of the listings have expired. Velasco business records reveal no business partnerships with the Tatas, who continued their silence.

Tata's parents, Godfrey and Josephine, appear to have divorced decades ago. Jessica Tata is the youngest of five children.

Few willing to speak
Few people will talk about Tata. Those who knew her at Katy Taylor High School, where she set a fire in 2002 and was subsequently removed, speak of her as an angry bully and then ask that their names not be used.

"If she was going somewhere and you were in her way, she was either going to push you out of the way or mow you down," said Kat, a 2006 Taylor graduate who did not want her last name used. "It was all about Jessica all the time."

But the post-high school Tata has her supporters.

"This is not the Jessica I knew," said Dia Walcott, 24, a single mom who used Jackie's Child Care for her son, who was not there at the time of the fire. "No one forced her to do this (child care). She did it because she loves kids. And we went to her - we passed up so many day cares that were probably cheaper - but we went to her because we liked her."

"The thing that really kills me about all this ... I do know she was about to close the day care," Walcott said. "She was attending nursing school, or trying to. She hired people to come in and sit with the kids for a while."

Records show Jessica first registered "Jackie's Child Care" at another location in 2007, but state officials insist Tata never had a child care before being licensed a year ago at the home that burned.

At the time of the fire, Tata had seven children in her care 3 years old and younger. Video from a local Target indicates she left the seven by themselves to shop.

Fire at high school
As a registered day care home, Tata was allowed to supervise, by herself, up to 12 children - but no more than six younger children and six older children - at certain times of day.

The more than 2,000 home day care centers licensed in Houston are not required to have a city of Houston fire inspection.

The fire at the Jackie's Child Care operation exposed serious cracks in the anonymous city-county-state bureaucracies many Texans take for granted.

The Houston Fire Department and Harris County District Attorney's Office spent days after Tata's disappearance pointing fingers at one another.

Documents obtained by the Chronicle last week reveal that her day care home application wasn't vetted thoroughly.

Although she admitted in juvenile court she set a fire at Taylor High School in 2002, her three-year probation for the incident, which was technically not a conviction, was omitted from her application. A background check failed to find it.

Two classes of day care
Tata's day care home application - one of 11,056 applications sent to the Texas Department of Public Safety in 2010 for a background check - indicated she had never been accused of a felony as an adult or juvenile. Arson is a second-degree felony.

It is now believed that a lack of the original arrest report kept her arson case file from making it to the database used by DPS to conduct agency background checks.

In Texas, the most stringent regulations are applied to day care centers, the type of care most often used by wealthier families. Then there is a second-class type of day care, registered or licensed homes that are clustered in poorer neighborhoods and have fewer regulations. Most offer 24/7 care.

The state subjects them to fewer regulations in hopes of keeping operators from skipping the licensing process entirely, putting more children at risk in illegal operations.

Records show Tata received a total of $11,086.38 from the Texas Department of Agriculture, which distributes a federal grant to day care operators for food expenses. She received $5,773 from the Texas Workforce Commission in day care subsidies to working poor women. One mother said Tata charged $400 to $500 a month.

Reporters Peggy O'Hare and Claudia Feldman contributed to this report.

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