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Kin: Mother has left kids before

Brother not surprised woman is accused of abandoning son

By JASON TRAHAN / The Dallas Morning News

ARLINGTON, Texas - For more than two decades, Juline Bullard has led a life of a cocaine addict, leaving a trail of a dozen children to be raised by family members, her brother said.

On Wednesday, her journey took her to the Arlington city jail.

Authorities identified Ms. Bullard, 44, as the mother of Teddy, the 3-year-old boy who spent more than a month with residents of a crime-ridden east Arlington apartment complex after she left him with an acquaintance.

Ms. Bullard's brother, who lives in Arlington, said he wasn't surprised when he saw his nephew's picture – released by Child Protective Services this week after the agency spent a month looking for his relatives – flash across his television.

"I think she was so whacked out on drugs, she didn't know what she was doing," said her brother, who asked not to be identified because he is embarrassed about his sister's plight.

"She's had 12 children by 10 different men," he said. "She's given up all her other children to her family, so this didn't surprise me. This is the first time she's left a child with a stranger."

Just after midnight Wednesday, someone tipped Arlington police to Ms. Bullard's whereabouts, and they took her into custody for failure to identify herself and for three outstanding traffic warrants out of Pantego.

Arlington police spent Wednesday sifting through conflicting accounts of how and when Ms. Bullard left her son and how he ended up being passed from one household to another before ending up at the Manhattan Park Apartments.

Ms. Bullard told detectives that in July, she left her son with a man who agreed to watch him for 90 days while she looked for a job and housing, police spokeswoman Christy Gilfour said.

That man, an acquaintance of Ms. Bullard's, told police that he never agreed to take care of the boy for an extended period, Ms. Gilfour said. He said that Ms. Bullard dropped off the boy at his girlfriend's unit at the Springcrest apartments while he was away. The next day, he saw Ms. Bullard at the nearby Manhattan Park Apartments and asked her to get the boy, but she never did.

"The man said he liked the boy but could not care for him," Ms. Gilfour said.

Ms. Bullard, who could not reached for comment, is being held in lieu of $7,300 bail at the Arlington city jail on suspicion of abandoning a child, as well as the other unrelated charges. Child abandonment is a state jail felony punishable by up to two years in jail and a $10,000 fine, police said.

Teddy passed into the care of several people at the Manhattan Park Apartments. Belinda Smith, a Manhattan Park resident who took care of him for a time, said she knew his mother only vaguely.

She said Teddy liked computer games. She would also read to him but could never console him when he began to think of his mother. "There was nothing I could do to satisfy him [about his mother]."

The day police were called, Sept. 14,

CPS took custody of the boy, who is in foster care. A hearing in the coming weeks will determine whether he will live with relatives or be placed for adoption.

"I want people to know that Teddy has family," his uncle said. "We're going to do all it takes for him to get back with his family. We want him to live a normal life. Unfortunately his mother might not be a part of it because of the drug use and irresponsibility."

He said he hopes his sister can get the help she needs.

"I tried to help her a couple of years ago. She wouldn't let me," he said, adding that he had not seen her in about eight months. "There's not a whole lot good to say about her, other than she's my sister, and I love her, and I hope that she gets help so she can rejoin this family."

He said that she was one of five children growing up in Fort Worth.

"She was raised in a normal home, but she chose to fool around with drugs. Once those drugs got hold of her, there was no stopping her."

She bounced from apartments to motels to houses – wherever the drugs and failed relationships would take her, he said. At some point, she moved to California, where another brothers lives. He ended up raising most of her children, whom she systematically abandoned, her brother said. Three of her children died over the years. The brother would not elaborate on the circumstances.

Eventually Ms. Bullard moved to Oregon, where she seemed to get her act together, her brother said. But four years ago she returned to Texas, he said.

"I helped because she said she was in an abusive relationship. She wasn't on drugs then, but after living with me for two months, she went off on her own. That's when all her troubles repeated themselves."

Marissa Gonzales, a CPS spokeswoman, said that it is common for drugs to ravage a family.

"We do see cases were families are involved in drug use and that puts the kids at risk," she said. "What is good about this case is that the boy is happy and healthy. It's traumatic to be away from his mother, but for now he's safe and sound."

Staff writer Holly Yan contributed to this report.