Doctor Testifies Danieal Kelly's Wounds Were "Multiple" and "Severe"

MultiEthnicBehavioral Health, Inc. CaseworkerJulius Juma Murray was supposed to be making twice-weekly visits to Danieal Kelly's home to check on the condition of the 14-year-with cerebral palsy. He was supposed to make sure she was being fed and receiving medical care. In court documents, Murray claimed that in the days before the girl's death, he tried to visit the house twice, but on one occasion no one answered the door, and on another, no one answered the phone.

Cindy W. Christian, a program director at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, said that Danieal Kelly was suffering from starvation and that the odor from the bedsores on her back would have been so severe that "anyone coming near the girl would have been shocked by the disgusting odor." Reportedly, Kelly's mother unsuccessfully tried to mask the odor of her daughter's bedsores by burning incense. Christian said the odor would have been evident and the bedsores visible on July 26, 2006, the alleged date of Murray's last visit to Danieal Kelly's home. Kelly also had a sore on her collarbone from the pressure of her chin resting on the skin. Bedsores, Christian, continued, are caused by a lack of movement and medical care, and poor nutrition.

At the continuing health-care fraud trial of Multiethnic Behavioral Health, Inc. co-founders Mickal Kamuvaka and Solomon Manamela and caseworkers Julius Juma Murray and Mariam Coulibaly, Christian testified that Danieal Kelly was "severely malnourished and was suffering from starvation." Kelly weighed just 42 pounds but, according to Christian, she should have weighed approximately 88 pounds. Even considering her cerebral palsy, Christian testified that Kelly had "terrible muscle mass" when she died.

In the first two weeks of trial, U.S. Attorney Bea Witzleben has elicited testimony from several former MultiEthnic employees, who said they were pressured by management to fabricate home visit reports. Sokunthea Chan, a Cambodian immigrant and former caseworker, who had little or no experience in social work, testified at the trial under a grant of immunity. He told the court Friday that he often failed to make home visits because many of his clients lived in "very dangerous areas far away from each other" and he didn't want to spend the gas money. He also testified that some families didn't want to let the caseworkers in, and that he was allergic to the tobacco smoke he would encounter in some homes.

While Chan testified that he did receive memos warning employees not to fake reports, he said he had been explicitly requested to do just that by Kamuvaka and Manamela, and that 60% of his documents had been fabricated during his four-year tenure at MultiEthnic. Chan said on the day Danieal Kelly died, the agency shredded so many documents, the shredder overheated and broke down.

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer at Philly.Com; More articles on this case by Patricia Sicilia: Danieal Kelly Case: Ex-Case Workers Admit to Forgery and Faking Documents; Danieal Kelly: Trial of Social Workers Continues; Trial Begins for Social workers; Mother Sentenced in Death of Disabled Daughter; Outrage! Parents Sue City for not preventing their daughter's death; The Death of Danieal Kelly: Philadelphia's Shame