Andrea Kelly - murder/neglect of 14 y.o. daughter - TBD
9 charged in death of disabled Philly teen By KATHY MATHESON, Associated Press Writer 5 minutes ago PHILADELPHIA - Four social workers were among nine people charged Thursday in the death of a disabled 14-year-old girl who authorities say wasted away from neglect before dying at 42 pounds. Danieal Kelly's mother was charged with murder; counts against other defendants range from involuntary manslaughter to perjury. District Attorney Lynne Abraham said any of the nine could have foreseen the horrific fate of Danieal, whose emaciated body was found in her mother's squalid house covered with bone-deep, maggot-infested bedsores in August 2006. Abraham had scathing words for the city's Department of Human Services, calling its handling of the case "callous, indifferent, unconscionable" — and all too familiar. "Danieal did not fall through the cracks," she said. "It was a failure of institutional inclination. Saving Danieal was just too much trouble." Two of the social workers are city employees; two others worked for a company hired by DHS. Department Commissioner Anne Marie Ambrose scheduled an afternoon news conference to discuss the case. Warrants were issued for all nine defendants Thursday. Andrea Kelly, the mother of Danieal (pronounced "Danielle"), was charged with murder, and father Daniel Kelly, who did not live with the family, was charged with child endangerment. A 258-page grand jury report recommending the charges said not only that Andrea Kelly refused to get her daughter food, water and medical treatment, but that she repeatedly prevented one of her other children from calling an ambulance "for his obviously dying sister." A listing for Andrea Kelly's attorney, Vincent Giusini, rang unanswered Thursday. It was not immediately clear if Daniel Kelly, 37, of Darby, had an attorney; two phone numbers listed in his name were disconnected. Two employees of MultiEthnic Behavioral Health, a now-defunct company that DHS hired to provide social services to Danieal, falsified documents to cover up the fact they rarely, if ever, checked on her, the grand jury said. Julius Murray and Mickal Kamuvaka were charged with involuntary manslaughter and tampering with public records. An e-mail sent to Kamuvaka was not immediately returned. Contact information for Murray could not immediately be located. Murray's "fraudulent nonperformance of a job" — he seldom went to the Kelly house, which he was supposed to visit twice a week — allowed Andrea Kelly to starve her daughter over a period of months, the grand jury said. After Danieal's death, Kamuvaka directed Murray to fabricate and backdate reports on the family, grand jurors said. DHS social worker Dana Poindexter was charged with child endangerment for what the grand jury said were his "less than meager" efforts to look into several reports over three years that Danieal, who had cerebral palsy, was not receiving medical care, social services or schooling. "He did not complete a single investigation or risk assessment," the report said. "Indeed, his file on the family was buried at the bottom of a filing-cabinet-sized box, beneath food wrappers and unopened envelopes relating to other children's cases." A message left for Poindexter's attorney was not immediately returned Thursday. Another DHS employee, Laura Sommerer, faces a child endangerment charge. As Danieal's social worker for 10 months, she didn't notice Danieal's deterioration, even after a visit June 29, 2006 — about five weeks before the teen died. "The children appeared safe and comfortable in the home," Sommerer wrote in a report, according to grand jurors. Sommerer's attorney, Lisa Dykstra, declined to comment Thursday. Also charged were Andrea Miles, Marie Moses and Diamond Brantley, all of Philadelphia, who were friends with Andrea Kelly. The report accuses them of perjury for telling grand jurors that Danieal had been fine on Aug. 3, 2006, the day before her festering corpse was taken from the house. It was not immediately clear if they had attorneys. A message left for Moses was not immediately returned; phone numbers could not found for Miles and Brantley. The report should "outrage the entire Philadelphia community" and bring about "earth-shattering, cataclysmic changes" at the Department of Human Services, Abraham said. Abraham said that although at least 55 children have died under the agency's watch, it has given only "lip service to halfhearted corrective action." "You can't continue to bury these children and say things are getting better when they're not," she said. ___ On the Net: Grand jury report: http://www.phila.gov/districtattorney/pdfs/Grand_Jury_DHS_new.pdf (263 pages) http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080731/ap_on_re_us/starvation_death_charges

Posted on Thu, Jul. 31, 2008 A Tortured Life, a Death from Neglect Jan. 3, 1992: Danieal Kelly is born in Youngstown, Ohio, the daughter of Andrea and Daniel Kelly. Danieal, who has cerebral palsy, is the third of 10 children born to Andrea Kelly by five different fathers. 1994: Daniel and Andrea Kelly separate. Andrea moves with her children to Philadelphia. 1995: Daniel Kelly takes Danieal and a son, Daniel, to Pittsburgh after he hears their mother is not taking care of them. In an interview, the father says the two kids had rotting teeth and had not been to a doctor in years. He and the children later move to Arizona. 1997: In Philadelphia, the Department of Human Services opens its first investigation into the Andrea Kelly family. A report says Danieal's 3-year-old brother had bug-infested clothes and decaying teeth. DHS sustains the neglect finding and selects a private agency, Pathways of Pa., to help the family. It provides assistance until March 1999. 1999: DHS opens its second investigation of neglect involving the Kelly children but finds allegations unsubstantiated. 2000: Arizona authorities charge Daniel Kelly with violating a protective order. At some point, authorities there also substantiate a child-abuse complaint. He says he spanked his son in public, but did not abuse him. December 2002: DHS receives first complaints about MultiEthnic Behavioral Health, the private agency that will later be hired to check on Danieal Kelly: company workers were not making home visits as required, and falsifying records. The agency took no action. Aug. 21, 2003: DHS receives first call claiming neglect involving Danieal. DHS has the case open for two years, and finally closes it as "unsubstantiated," without any evidence. About 2004: Daniel and Danieal rejoin their mother in Philadelphia, as their parents briefly reunite. May 12 2004: DHS opens a new investigation into the family. This inquiry looks into an allegation that Andrea was not providing proper medical care for Danieal. The case is closed by DHS, with the complaint deemed unsubstantiated. June 20, 2004: Another neglect complaint, saying mother does not properly care for Danieal. April 20, 2005: DHS receives a fourth neglect report. August 2005: Andrea Kelly, Danieal, and the other children move into an apartment on Memorial Avenue in West Philadelphia. Sept. 13, 2005: A Kelly family neighbor calls in a fifth neglect complaint to the DHS hotline. October 2005: DHS begins a seventh investigation into a complaint alleging "lack of supervision, poor home conditions." It hires MultiEthnic Behavioral Health Inc. to check on the children's medical treatment, monitor the children's school attendance, solve "housing issues," and address Danieal's medical needs. April 2006: Philadelphia school officials say they realize for the first time that Danieal needs to be enrolled in school. The enrollment process is still incomplete at the time of Danieal's death. June 29, 2006: A DHS worker briefly visits the Kelly home - failing to even enter Danieal's bedroom. Aug. 3, 2006: One of the children asks Andrea Kelly to call police or an ambulance for Danieal, but she refuses, the grand jury report says. Her siblings later tell investigators she was "always thirsty." Aug. 4, 2006: An ambulance is called only after it is clear Danieal is dead. Her emaciated body is found with maggots crawling in the bedsores, which went to the bone. Paramedics say the house is strewn with trash and "unfit for human habitation." Danieal's seven remaining brothers and sisters are removed from Andrea Kelly's custody. (Another child was already living elsewhere.) Aug. 4 2006: Officials at MultiEthnic allegedly begin falsifying documents to hide the agency's negligence. Oct. 10, 2006: Christian Kelly, the 10th child of Andrea Kelly, is born. DHS takes custody in the hospital. Oct: 19, 2006: After The Inquirer reports on the deaths of other children while under DHS care, Mayor John Street is shown photographs of Danieal Kelly. He fires DHS Director Cheryl Ransom-Garner and her top deputy. Nov. 2006: Danieal's death is ruled a homicide. May 31, 2007: A child welfare panel releases reports calling for sweeping reforms in DHS policies and procedures, including the supervision of private contractors such as MultiEthnic. July 31, 2007: Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham announces indictments of nine people in the case, including Andrea and Daniel Kelly, and workers for MultiEthnic and DHS. Abraham also calls for the state to take over DHS. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sources: July 31, 2008 grand jury report and previous DHS reports http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20080731_A_Tortured_Life__a_Death_from_Neglect.html

Aug 1, 2008 10:57 pm US/Eastern Report Describes Tortuous Last Days Of Phila. Teen PHILADELPHIA (AP) ― For days before Danieal Kelly died in a fetid, airless room—made stifling hot by a midsummer heat wave— the bedridden teenager begged for something to drink until she could muster only one word: water. Unable to help herself because of her cerebral palsy, she wasted away from malnutrition and maggot-infested bedsores that ate her flesh. She died alone on a putrid mattress in her mother's home, the floor covered in feces. She was 14 but weighed just 42 pounds. The nightmare of forced starvation and infection that killed Danieal while she was under the protection of the city's human services agency is documented in a 258-page grand jury report released this week that charges nine people—her parents, four social workers and three family friends—in her ghastly death. The report describes a mother, Andrea Kelly, who was embarrassed by her disabled daughter and didn't want to touch her, take her out in public, change her diapers or make sure she had enough fluids. It portrays Daniel Kelly, the father who once had custody of Danieal, as having no interest in raising her. And it accuses the city Department of Human Services of being "uncaring and incompetent." "It was this indifference that helped kill Danieal Kelly," an angry District Attorney Lynne Abraham said. "How is it possible for this to have happened?" The report should "outrage the entire Philadelphia community" and bring about "earth-shattering, cataclysmic changes" at the Department of Human Services, Abraham said. Andrea Kelly, 39, the only defendant charged with murder, was ordered held Friday without bail. The social workers—suspected of falsifying home visits and progress reports in the case—face charges ranging from child endangerment to involuntary manslaughter. The family friends are accused of lying to the grand jury about the girl's condition before her death. None of the lawyers for any of the defendants had any immediate comment. Human Services Commissioner Anne Marie Ambrose, in office only a month, said Thursday that she is intent on improving child safety and worker accountability in an agency that has repeatedly been accused of failing to protect children. Late Friday, the city announced the resignation of Assistant Health Commissioner Carmen Paris. The grand jury had accused Paris of interfering in the investigation of the girl's death while she was acting health commissioner, but found insufficient evidence to charge her with obstruction of justice. The report on Danieal's death in August 2006 documents a downward spiral from the early years that she spent in Arizona with her father and his girlfriend. Though Danieal attended special-needs classes only sporadically, a school report described her as an active learner and "one of the sweetest students ever enrolled in this program." But allegations of parental neglect soon surfaced, and following Daniel Kelly's breakup with his girlfriend in 2001, Danieal never again attended school. Daniel Kelly and his children moved to Philadelphia in 2003. He eventually asked his estranged wife to move in, even though she had several other children and he knew she was incapable of caring for Danieal, authorities say. He then moved out. "Daniel Kelly was well aware what deserting his daughter meant to her safety and welfare," the grand jury report said. "He just did not care." The Department of Human Services received at least five reports of Danieal being mistreated between 2003 and 2005. All described a "helpless child sitting unattended, unkempt and unwashed, in a small stroller in her own urine and feces," her screams ignored by her mother, the grand jury report said. The stroller, which served as a wheelchair, apparently never left the house. Agency employee Dana Poindexter, assigned to investigate, also ignored Danieal, authorities say. Already having been suspended after a 3-week-old baby died on his watch in 2002, Poindexter continued his "slovenly, neglectful and dangerously reckless work habits" after being assigned the Kelly case, the grand jury said. He did not file a single report, authorities said. The Kellys finally were assigned help from a private agency in 2005. Employee Julius Murray was required to visit the family twice a week, but authorities believe he may have come to the house only once—to have Andrea Kelly sign predated forms attesting to future visits. The grand jury report said Laura Sommerer, a city social worker, failed to hold the now-defunct company accountable when, months later, Danieal still was not enrolled in school or receiving medical care. And after Danieal died, authorities say, company director Mickal Kamuvaka held a "forgery fest" in her office where she had employees "concoct almost a year's worth of false progress reports." But authorities say Andrea Kelly, whose other children are now in foster care, is primarily responsible for her daughter's death. The report said she was confronted repeatedly by her own mother, uncle, friends and even two of her sons about Danieal's deteriorating health. She would lie or put them off by saying she would seek help, or banish them from the house, authorities say. In the meantime, the report said, she entertained friends, attended classes and fed her other children. "This behavior indicates that Andrea Kelly did not merely allow Danieal to die," the report said. "She may have even wanted her disabled daughter to die." When an ambulance responded to a 911 call for Danieal on Aug. 4, 2006, the girl had been dead for several hours. Authorities said she was so emaciated she looked like the victim of a concentration camp. She had been lying on the filthy mattress for so long that her body outline was imprinted on it. http://cbs3.com/local/danieal.kelly.cerebral.2.786038.html

Nov 7, 2008 1:23 pm US/Eastern Mom, Caseworker To Stand Trial In Starvation Death PHILADELPHIA (AP) ― A Philadelphia judge has ordered two people charged in the starvation death of a disabled 14-year-old girl to stand trial. The girl's mother, Andrea Kelly, will be tried on a murder count. Private social-services caseworker Julius Murray will be tried on an involuntary manslaughter charge. Judge Patrick Dugan made the decision Friday after a preliminary hearing. Prosecutors had argued against a preliminary hearing because the case had already gone before a grand jury. Attorneys for the two defendants had wanted one so that they could challenge the evidence. Seven other people charged in the death of Danieal Kelly already were ordered to go to trial based on the grand jury's investigation. Prosecutors say Kelly wasted away from neglect in 2006. http://cbs3.com/topstories/danieal.kelly.disabled.2.859031.html