DHS worker gets probation in Danieal Kelly's death

In sentencing the last Philadelphia social worker assigned to Danieal Kelly - the 14-year-old with cerebral palsy who starved to death in 2006 in her mother's squalid apartment - a Philadelphia judge said yesterday that the woman's bosses should have been charged with her.

"That the people at the top walked away from their positions and even advanced without any significant consequences is a crime which almost equals or maybe surpasses the crime in this case," Common Pleas Court Judge Benjamin Lerner said.

Lerner made his remarks before sentencing Laura Sommerer, 34, to four years of probation for pleading guilty to child endangerment.

Even before the scathing grand-jury presentment in August resulted in criminal charges against Sommerer and eight others, including Danieal's parents, the girl's gruesome death had taken a toll among officials at the city Department of Human Services.

In October 2006, two months after Danieal's death, DHS Commissioner Cheryl Ransom-Garner resigned, her deputy was fired, and a regional state welfare director was demoted. Carmen Paris, the city's acting health commissioner when Danieal died, resigned days before the grand-jury report was made public.

After the criminal charges were filed, seven DHS administrators or supervisors were suspended without pay.

But only Sommerer and DHS caseworker Dana Poindexter, 52, her predecessor on the Kelly case, were criminally charged. Both were supposed to have ensured that contract caseworkers DHS hired visited Kelly's house twice weekly to make sure she was well. It was later learned that she had not been visited for almost two months before her death.

In January, state welfare officials recognized improvements at DHS by restoring its full operating license, although they warned that "much more work needs to be done."

Lerner said DHS's management problems had persisted through several mayoral administrations and said, "I hope things change. It's a terrible thing that it takes the example of a case like this, and the unrelenting glare of publicity, before those changes occur."

Sommerer's sentence was far less than the 31/2 to seven years in prison she could have received. The sentence was negotiated by Assistant District Attorney Edward McCann and defense attorney Nathan J. Andrisani. Both said it took into account her cooperation in the criminal probe and good works in the community.

Andrisani alluded to the grand-jury presentment: "This was a much bigger picture. She happened to be the one holding the ball last at DHS. It was a system that was broken."

Andrisani described Sommerer as passionate about social service, and said she tutored and worked three jobs to put herself through Villanova University and earn a degree in social work.

"I am so sorry about the death of Danieal Kelly and the impact it has had on her brothers and sisters," Sommerer told the judge. She said she was "deeply sorry for not understanding the severity of Danieal's situation."

Sommerer said she understood that her guilty plea also meant she would likely never again work with children and that it would be impossible for her and her husband to fulfill their plan to be foster parents or adopt.

Lerner noted the presence of about 20 of her relatives, friends, and some DHS workers and told the weeping Sommerer, "I know you're a good person and a good professional, but I also know that this guilty plea is fully justified."

Lerner said jobs such as social work carry certain legal obligations. "Even with the best intentions, there are penalties if there is a failure to fulfill those legal obligations where a tragedy results from that failure," he said.

Sommerer pleaded guilty during what was supposed to have been a final pretrial hearing for the five defendants still facing charges for their alleged involvement in Kelly's death.

Lawyers for the other four said they would go to trial.

Danieal, who could not walk or care for herself, was found dead in her bed on Aug. 4, 2006, her body pocked with bone-deep bed sores and weighing just 47 pounds.

The West Philadelphia apartment where she lived with her mother and eight of her siblings did not have electricity or running water, and was fetid and sweltering in the summer heat.

The grand jury accused nine people of being criminally culpable in Danieal's death, including her parents, the two DHS workers, and two employees of a private social-services firm under DHS contract.

Andrea Kelly, 40, the girl's mother, pleaded guilty April 30 to third-degree murder and child endangerment, and was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison in a plea deal that spared her a life term.

Three of Kelly's friends also pleaded guilty to charges of lying to the grand jury by testifying that Danieal Kelly appeared healthy and well cared-for in the days before her death. All three were sentenced to probation.

In addition to Poindexter, those going to trial are:

Daniel Kelly, 38, charged with child endangerment. Prosecutors say Kelly had custody of Danieal and her slightly older brother Daniel Jr. from 1997 until 2003, when he returned to Philadelphia from Arizona. He allegedly abandoned the two with his estranged wife though he knew they were being neglected.

Mickal Kamuvaka, 60, cofounder of MultiEthnic Behavioral Health, a now-defunct private social-services firm that DHS hired.

Julius Juma Murray, 52, the MultiEthnic caseworker assigned to visit Danieal.

All are charged with child endangerment; Poindexter, Kamuvaka, and Murray are also accused of perjury or record-tampering in what prosecutors say was an attempt to cover up their alleged neglect.