9 charged in starvation death of teen

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WO YEARS AGO, 14-year-old Danieal Kelly was found dead in her squalid Parkside home. The little girl, who had cerebral palsy, was ravaged by bedsores and her wasted 42-pound body rested on a filthy mattress covered in her own feces.

Yesterday nine people were charged in connection with Danieal's starvation death on Aug. 4, 2006 - among them her parents and two social workers for the city Department of Human Services who were accused of neglecting the girl and then trying to cover their tracks.

The charges came as a result of an extensive grand-jury investigation. District Attorney Lynne Abraham yesterday released the searing 258-page grand-jury report, which details the DHS failures in this case and points to deep-rooted institutional problems at the agency.

The warning message in the report is clear. It states that in addition to prosecuting those responsible for Danieal's death, "it is equally important to systematically reform the organization. Otherwise, it is only a matter of time before the next such tragedy occurs."

Abraham released a gruesome photograph of Danieal's pitifully ravaged corpse, saying she wanted people to understand the consequence of such far-reaching neglect.

"How did Danieal become this emaciated corpse in this morgue photo?" she asked.

Abraham said that DHS has suffered from management problems for more than 20 years, despite repeated attempts at reform.

"DHS has to be reined in, overhauled," Abraham said, adding that the state "ought to take it over and exercise stricter control, not give a provisional license again and again."

City and state officials said yesterday that a state takeover of DHS was not imminent.

Also charged in Danieal's death were two employees of a private health firm under contract with DHS, who also are accused of not caring for Danieal, and three friends of Danieal's mother who allegedly lied to jurors about the girl's health.

Danieal's mother, Andrea Kelly, 39, was charged with murder, involuntary manslaughter and endangering the welfare of children. Her father, Daniel Kelly, 37, was charged with endangering the welfare of children.

DHS employee Dana Poindexter, 51, was charged with endangering the welfare of children, recklessly endangering another person and perjury. Fellow DHS staffer Laura Sommerer, 33, was charged with endangering the welfare of children and recklessly endangering another person.

Julius Murray, 41, and Mickal Kamuvaka, 59, worked for a now-closed private firm called MultiEthnic Behavioral Health that was meant to provide care to Danieal's family under a contract with DHS. They were both charged with a series of offenses, including involuntary manslaughter, tampering with public records and tampering with physical evidence.

And three friends of Andrea Kelly - Andrea Miles, 18, Marie Moses, 34, and Diamond Brantley, 22 - were charged with perjury for lying to jurors about Danieal's health in the days before her death.

As of 6 p.m. last night, six of the nine had turned themselves in to authorities. Daniel Kelly turned himself at police headquarters before reporters arrived. Andrea Kelly, Andrea Miles, Julius Murray, Mickal Kamuvaka and Laura Sommerer turned themselves in, walking past reporters without saying a word on their behalf.

Poindexter is expected to turn himself in today. A call by the Daily News to his attorney was not returned. Marie Moses and Diamond Brantly have yet to turn themselves in and police are looking for them.

Abraham said she wouldn't rule out further charges and stressed that the investigation continues.

Other staffers are named in the report, although not charged. According to the document, then-acting DHS Commissioner Cheryl Ransom-Garner "set the tone of unaccountability," ignoring reports of fraud at MultiEthnic and keeping details of the Danieal case from then-Mayor John Street. She resigned in 2006.

Also named but not charged is Deputy Health Commissioner Carmen Paris, who was acting health commissioner at the time of Danieal's death, and who allegedly told personnel in the Medical Examiner's Office not to discuss the Danieal case with anyone.

Attempts to reach Ransom-Garner and Paris for comment were unsuccessful yesterday. A call to District Council 47 President Cathy Scott, whose union represents DHS workers, also went unreturned.

Recently appointed DHS Commissioner Anne-Marie Ambrose held an emotional news conference yesterday to respond to the grand-jury report.

"Certainly the findings in that report indicate everything that DHS doesn't stand for," said Ambrose, who broke down in tears when asked about the morgue photo of Danieal.

Ambrose, who was joined by Health Commissioner Donald Schwarz, said that, as of yesterday, Poindexter and Sommerer had been suspended. Ambrose said she expected they would be fired.

Paris also has been suspended. And Ambrose said all the staffers who are named in the report will be reviewed.

Both Ambrose and Schwarz stressed that substantial reforms were under way and promised greater oversight and accountability. But they couldn't explain why Poindexter and Sommerer had remained on staff until yesterday.

"There are a lot of pieces to the reform, and I think one of the questions we will ask is just that question," Schwarz said.

Ambrose and Schwarz stressed that they expect to keep DHS under city control. And Gov. Rendell's spokesman, Chuck Ardo, said the state has no immediate plans to take over DHS.

"We are certainly going to monitor the situation, but the governor believes that the new administration and the new leadership at the agency deserve an opportunity to straighten things out," Ardo said.

State Welfare Secretary Estelle Richman did not respond to requests for comment.

In a statement, Mayor Nutter also said he was committed to reform.

"We recognize that today's developments will take us one step further in the pursuit of justice for Danieal Kelly. We are more determined than ever to make the changes necessary to ensuring that such a case does not happen again," Nutter said.

The grand-jury report is a grim retelling of Danieal's short life. Her early years were spent shuttling between her separated parents. She spent several years living in Pittsburgh and Arizona with her father, often receiving indifferent care. When she attended school, she thrived, but such attendance was sporadic.

By the time she was 11, Danieal (pronounced "Danielle") was living in Philadelphia with her mother and eight siblings, and her care grew worse. Embarrassed by her disabled daughter, the report said, her mother rarely took her outside. Andrea Kelly hated changing Danieal's diaper, so she allegedly tried to limit her fluid intake. And she never took her to school or to the doctor, the report said.

Three years before Danieal's death, DHS received a report of neglect - the first of 11 such complaints over three years - which was given to Poindexter. According to the report, he routinely avoided filling out investigation paperwork, failed to listen to complaints about her condition and stowed Danieal's file away in a dirty box filled with food wrappers and unopened mail.

Sommerer took the case next and was supposed to monitor MultiEthnic as it cared for Danieal. But she never read Danieal's file, never discussed the case with the contractor and didn't go into Danieal's room when she visited the house five weeks before her death, the report says.

Danieal was ill-treated by MultiEthnic, too. According to the report, Murray, who was assigned to the case, did not regularly visit the house and falsified documents on the case. And his supervisor, Kamuvaka, helped fake documentation after Danieal's death.

Kamuvaka is a part-time professor at Lincoln University, a part of the state university system. Asked about her future employment, Michael Hill, vice president for external relations, said he could not discuss personnel matters.

All is quiet now at the house where Danieal died in Parkside, a three-story, red-brick home with an ornate widow's peak roof. Another family lives there now, but a 66-year-old neighbor said she remembered when the Kelly family moved in.

The retired former nurse's aide said she saw that there was a little girl in a wheelchair on moving day.

"After that, I didn't see her again. I thought they had placed her in a home," she said. "I didn't know that that child was still in the house until the police came that day." *