Danieal Kelly Case: Trial Begins for Social Workers

On February 2, 2010, four former employees of the now-defunct MultiEthnic Behavioral Health, Inc., went on trial in federal court on charges of wire fraud, health-care fraud, conspiracy, lying to the grand jury and lying to federal agents, stemming from the death of Danieal Kelly. Administrators Michal Kamuvaka and Solomon Manamela, and case workers Julius Juma Murray and Mariam Coulibaly worked for MultiEthnic, a social-service agency charged with providing care for at-risk children with federal funds funneled through the city's Department of Human Services.

While Kamuvaka and Murray are also charged in State Common Pleas Court with murder, Defense attorneys in this federal case emphasized in opening arguments that this case "...is not a . . . homicide case," adding, "Nobody . . . wanted that child to die. She was living with her mother, who was starving her." Not to exempt the parents, especially the mother, for culpability in this girl's death, but if MultiEthnic had done its job, Danieal Kelly might still be alive today.

On August 4th, 2006, police and paramedics found the 42-pound body of 14-year-old Danieal Kelly in her West Philadelphia home. Danieal, who had been dead for several hours by then, was found lying on a dirty mattress surrounded by feces. Maggot-infested bedsores covered her back. She had been on the mattress for such a long time, the shape of her body was imprinted into the mattress.

The third of nine children, Danieal Kelly suffered from cerebral palsy and her mother was said to be "embarrassed by her disabled daughter, didn't want to touch her, take her out in public, change her diapers or make sure she had enough fluids." On April 29, 2009, Andrea Kelly, 39, took a plea bargain that spared her a first-degree murder charge, and was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison for third-degree murder and endangering the welfare of a child. (A more detailed account of the Danieal Kelly story can be found in this article -- The Death of Danieal Kelly: Philadelphia's Shame.)

The city paid MultiEthnic $3.7 million to provide care to more than 500 families between July 2000 and December 2006. The four social workers defended themselves by stating that "they were not paid for any medical expertise." Defense lawyers claimed their clients were "social workers, not doctors."

Federal prosecutors have charged that MultiEthnic Behavioral Health Inc. failed to perform home care visits to Danieal Kelly, yet billed the City for these services. When the FBI began investigating MultiEthnic for its negligence in the Kelly case, and 500 other cases assigned to them, subpoenaed documents were allegedly shredded and tossed out, or not produced. Kamuvaka is also charged with ordering his staff to create records documenting home visits to Danieal that never occurred, and with creating false paperwork whenever the City notified the agency of upcoming audits. Call logs listing messages from the days immediately surrounding Danieal's death are missing from documents turned over to federal prosecutors.

So far in this case, two top city commissioners have been fired, and the department is now under new management. Two former city social workers are charged with child endangerment. Dana Poindexter and Laura Sommerer, fired from DHS, have been charged with endangering the welfare of a child and recklessly endangering another person. In July of 2009, Sommerer was sentenced to four years probation. Andrea Miles, a friend of Andrea Kelly and a minor at the time of her offense, pled guilty to perjury in Family Court and was sentenced to probation for lying to officials about Danieal's condition.

This trial is expected to last a month, and is presided over by the Honorable Stewart Dalzell.

More articles on this case by Patricia Sicilia: The Death of Danieal Kelly: Philadelphia's Shame; Danieal Kelly's Parents file suit against City; Andrea Kelly Sentenced in Death of Daughter

SOURCES: Trial Opens for Social Workers; Social workers on trial for fraud after girl's death; Philly.Com: No matter what they say....; MORE DETAILS FROM TRIAL: Ex-Phila. caseworker tells of false reports; Kelly defense: Victimized by their own staff; Prosecutor: Cover-Up was Immediate; Log of calls on day teen died is missing, aide says