“Any normal parent would do exactly as I did,” said Jessica Gasser, who was charged with injury to a child but no-billed by a Tarrant County grand jury.
DALLAS — Jessica Gasser wanted to tell her story herself, because it’s different from the story others told about her.
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” she said in an interview with WFAA, after a Tarrant County grand jury issued a no-bill in her case, clearing her of two charges of injury to a child.
Her attorney, Mike Schneider, accused investigators of mishandling the case, and Gasser said she isn’t sure she’ll ever recover from the damage.
“I don’t think there are words to describe exactly what we went through,” Gasser said.
In a 24-page affidavit dated July 2023, the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office accused Gasser of medical child abuse.
The document said Gasser took the child, who was three years old at the time, to doctors in multiple states and exposed her to unnecessary treatments and procedures.
The affidavit also alleged that several providers told investigators they suspected medical child abuse. Gasser and her husband lost custody of their daughter for eight months.
But in 2024, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services dismissed its case against the family, according to documents Schneider’s law office provided WFAA.
The family has been reunited, and last month’s no-bill from the grand jury cleared Gasser.
“Every single medical issue that Jessica was concerned about is shown in all the medical records to be completely true,” Schneider said. “And the thing is, CPS knew this, and law enforcement knew this. Some of the visits to the doctors that they complained about were actually part of a CPS investigation. Jessica was asked to go to a particular place and then got blamed for doctor shopping.”
Watch Jessica Gasser’s full interview with WFAA below
Schneider said he obtained text messages and email exchanges between investigators that he says suggest they knowingly mishandled the case in an attempt to elevate their profiles.
“Fame is driving some of this,” Schneider said.
When asked to respond to those allegations, the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office told WFAA, “We respect the grand jury’s decision. We have no further comment.”
The Department of Family and Protective Services told WFAA, “CPS cases are confidential per state statute.”
In the 2023 affidavit, investigators also accused Gasser of searching the internet using phrases like, “Is lying to a doctor about a child illegal?” And “How do you fix Munchausen by proxy?”
Munchausen by proxy is the medical term for a caretaker lying about an illness in someone who depends on them.
Gasser confirmed to WFAA she did search for answers to those questions.
“I’m not going to say I didn’t because look at the timeline. That was after they had taken my child, and I had been accused of this. So why wouldn’t I want to know more about what I’m accused of?” she said.
Jessica shared a recent family photo showing all four members of their family: Jessica, her husband, daughter Eillie, and Eliie’s big brother.
Ellie still faces medical issues, Jessica said.
She will soon turn five years old.
“Any normal parent would do exactly as I did,” Jessica said. “If no one was helping your child, what would you do? You would go to somebody else who would. That is all I did.”