By VALERIE KALFRIN
The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Tampa Bay Devil Rays’ outfielder Elijah Dukes being accused of impregnating a foster child in his relative’s care appears to be the most serious incident involving the home in years, public records show.

Johnnie Mae Johnson, Dukes’ step-grandmother, has been licensed as a foster parent since 2000, according to documents from the Department of Children and Families released to the Tampa Tribune Thursday in response to a public-records request.

The records show Johnson has housed as many as four girls under 18 years old in her home at 4210 W. Nassau St. at any given time. Annual re-licensing reports say some girls have run away or been removed at Johnson’s request because they were disruptive. Other sections of these reports have been redacted. The reports say Johnson attends the girls’ medical checkups and court dates.

After learning earlier this year one of the girls in Johnson’s care had become pregnant, Families First of Florida, which provides children’s foster-care services, issued Johnson a compliance plan on May 3, 2007. Much of the document is redacted, but the plan states the “alleged perpetrator will not be allowed on the premises” or allowed to have any contact with the other foster children. The document does not name Dukes.

Tampa police filed no charges against Dukes, 22, because state law allows adults between 18 and 23 to have consensual sex with 16- and 17-year-olds. Police also did not file criminal charges against Johnson, 65, because they found no evidence that she created an unsafe environment for the children in her care.

The teenager involved, whom police did not identify, turned 18 in April and now lives in Riverview. Her baby is due in November, a police report said.

Johnson declined comment on Thursday.

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800.

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