Aug 21, 2009 12:13 am US/Pacific
Missing Boy's Foster Dad Fails Polygraph
OAKLAND (CBS 5 / KCBS / AP / BCN) ―
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Louis Ross, the foster father of 5-year-old Hasanni Campbell, in an interview with CBS 5.
CBS
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Hasanni Campbell.
Oakland Police Department
The foster father of a missing 5-year-old Fremont boy with cerebral palsy told CBS 5 on Thursday that he failed a polygraph examination, also known as a lie detector test, as part of the police investigation of the case.
The revelation came as newly released court documents Thursday alleged that Louis Ross sent an expletive-laden text threatening to leave Hasanni Campbell alone on a Bay Area Rapid Transit platform just 10 days before the boy disappeared.
Hasanni disappeared Aug. 10 after Ross said he left him in a car near a shoe store in Oakland's Rockridge neighborhood.
Despite the text threat, failed polygraph test and the execution of a search warrant at Ross' home, police maintained Thursday that he was not a suspect in the boy's disappearance.
"In any case we keep an open mind. Whether it's a missing persons case, whether it's a criminal case, in any type of case we try to keep an open mind and we try to cover all of our bases. And that's why the search warrant was done last week," said Oakland police spokesman Jeff Thomason.
Nothing was seized from his home, but court records showed that Ross voluntarily surrendered his cell phone to police.
The court documents revealed not only the angry text message, but also that Ross "voiced some misgivings" about caring for a special needs child when he talked to officers investigating the boy's disappearance.
Ross sent the angry text July 31 to Jennifer Campbell, who is his fiancee and the boy's aunt and foster mother, according to a statement submitted by Oakland police to justify obtaining the search warrant for Ross' Fremont home.
In the search warrant affidavit, investigators also said they were mystified that Hasanni could disappear from "a crowded business district with no witnesses."
Further, the affadavit said bloodhounds were unable to detect Hasanni's scent outside the store where Ross said he left the boy.
The affadavit also said police believed foul play might have been involved.
But Thomason said Thursday that Hasanni's disappearance was still a missing person investigation, although he acknowleged that a homicide investigator is in charge of the case.
Since the boy vanished, police searched the neighborhood, a Hayward junk yard, and local parks, but came up dry.
The court papers showed the relationship between Ross and his fiancee was violent at times and that police had reports that Ross threatened her with a sword.
That sword was among the items that police were looking for when they searched Ross' 2002 BMW and his home on Roxie Terrace in Fremont -- where he lives with his fiancee, the missing boy and the boy's younger sister.
When Ross was asked about any domestic disputes, he downplayed them, saying simply that he was "venting." He also stressed that he had been cooperating "100 percent" with police.
John Burris, an Oakland attorney who has consulted with the foster parents, said Ross is "a little overwhelmed" that he is being scrutinized by police and "is disappointed that attention is being focused on him" rather than on the search for the boy.
But Burris said Ross also realizes that it is "par for the course" and that police want to investigate everyone close to a missing child.
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The Associated Press and Bay City News contributed to this report.)
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