jayRIngram's Blog

This is a story out of Philadelphia, but it should be getting national media coverage. I assume it's not because all parties are black, or there are no celebrities involved.

Andrea Kelly,39, is being charged with murder in the death of 14-year-old Danieal Kelly. It was in her Parkside house that Danieal's emaciated body was found. Danieal, who suffered from cerebral palsy, was reportedly kept in a dark room because her mother was embarrassed to take her outside. Danieal died two years ago of starvation while lying in her own feces, with flies buzzing around her mouth and maggot-infested bedsores ravaging her skeletal back.

These four have also been criminally charged in connection with Danieal's death: the now-fired DHS caseworkers Dana Poindexter and Laura Sommerer, and two people who worked at MultiEthnic - one of its founders, Mickal Kamuvaka, and Julius Murray. MultiEthnic was an outside agency that DHS assigned to handle Danieal's case. 

Poindexter had allegedly failed to investigate at least five abuse or neglect complaints regarding Danieal and had kept a file on her family at the bottom of a box filled with food wrappers and unopened mail.

Now for the even more despicable part.

The media has done such a marvelous job of throwing the blame solely at the feet of DHS and MultiEthnic, that it has pulled the scum from the bottoms of the ocean - ambulance chasing lawyers.

The parents of the 14-year-old, Danieal Kelly, who face criminal charges in connection with her death, have now also filed a lawsuit against their criminal co-defendants, blaming them for the girl's demise.

The scumbag civil attorneys, Brian Mildenberg and Eric Zajac, who filed the civil suit, contended yesterday that it would be wrong to paint Daniel and Andrea Kelly as money-grubbers.

"The parents are not seeking any money from this," Mildenberg said. "The potential beneficiaries are the brothers and sisters and the parents, but the parents may be disqualified by a conviction or a civil finding of abandonment."

If a jury decides that the estate should get money, Orphans Court would decide who the beneficiaries would be, the attorneys said. They said that Daniel and Andrea Kelly had to be named as administrators of the estate because they are Danieal's parents. They also said that the parents were aware before they were criminally charged that they may not benefit from a civil suit, and they contend that the parents' main concern in the suit is the welfare of Danieal's siblings.

"The beneficiaries could be these kids [Danieal's siblings], and that could be a positive outcome," Mildenberg said.

The attorneys confirmed that they filed the complaint on Aug. 1 because of an approaching two-year federal statute-of-limitations deadline. Danieal died on Aug. 4, 2006, so the suit, which contains federal civil-rights claims, had to be filed within two years of that date.

The wrongful-death suit seeks more than $50,000 and names as defendants the city, DHS, MultiEthnic Behavioral Health, DPW, and the Commonwealth.

To add insult to injury, the 19-year-old brother, Troy Washington, the oldest of Danieal's 10 siblings(from 5 different men) has filed a lawsuit as well. It contends that Washington "has suffered substantial mental pain" from his sister's death.

Zajac said yesterday that Washington, who was 17 when his sister died, tried to kill himself afterward and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

"He viewed her dead body before she was removed by the Medical Examiner's Office," he said.

Does anybody else but me wonder, where the hell was he at when this poor girl was rotting away. Could he not have done something, WHEN SHE WAS ALIVE?

Is this what this world has become? Is it now allowable for a mother and father to profit from the death of a child? A death that they caused, no less.

I, for one, do not totally agree that it's DHS' fault. I place the blame squarely on the shoulders of the "mother" and sperm donor.

If we, as a society, are so hell bent on making a government agency responsible for the welfare of all children, should we not come up with some way to keep a mother, such as this animal, from having so many kids? Would that not be the humane thing to do? Can we not force them on birth control until they can prove to be fit parents? This animal had 10 kids. That's 10 kids, well 9 now, that will be fighting against extreme odds to become normal adults. The one thing on this earth that should be free, and mandatory, is birth control.