DANIEAL KELLY - 14 yo Disabled (2006) - Philadelphia PA

The father of a disabled Philadelphia girl who starved to death in
2006 is set to stand trial along with three other people late next year.Daniel
Kelly will stand trial in November 2010 on charges of endangering the
welfare of a child. Fourteen-year-old Danieal Kelly weighed just 42
pounds when her maggot-infested body was found in her mother's squalid
home. Authorities say Daniel Kelly abandoned his daughter.Three
social-service workers also face charges. Two are charged with
involuntary manslaughter and tampering with records to cover up
failures to check on the girl. The third is charged with endangerment
and perjury.Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart set the trial date Friday.Danieal
Kelly's mother Andrea pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and is
serving a 20- to 40-year sentence. Four others have also pleaded guilty.

A call log listing messages from the day Danieal Kelly died is missing
from documents turned over to federal prosecutors, and a witness
yesterday described how the agency responsible for ensuring her health
learned of the handicapped teenager's death.Silibaziso Sibanda, a billing clerk who rose to be office manager at
MultiEthnic Behavioral Health Inc., stifled a sob as she recalled
taking the call from a Philadelphia official on Aug. 4, 2006.Kelly, 14, had cerebral palsy, weighed 42 pounds, and was covered with
bedsores when she died of starvation in her mother's West Philadelphia
home.Sibanda also confirmed a government assertion that the company's office
call log skips from Aug. 3 to Aug. 7, and she said torn-up slivers of
paper shown to the jury appeared to have been ripped from the log.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Bea Witzleben did not explicitly state that the
shreds included the missing pages.Four MultiEthnic employees, including a founder, Mickal Kamuvaka, are
charged with failing to provide in-home social services to Kelly and
other children that the city's Department of Human Services had hired
them to perform.Included were visits to Kelly's home that the government says never
happened. The defendants are accused of tossing out subpoenaed
documents after learning of her death and fabricating paperwork to make
it appear the work had been done.Sibanda, who received an accounting degree from Temple University after
immigrating from Zimbabwe, said that after a DHS worker called with
news of Kelly's death, she contacted Kamuvaka and the social worker
assigned to the family, Julius Juma Murray.Both arrived within an hour, and Murray spent part of the day filling
out paperwork in the conference room, Sibanda said. She added that she
had presumed it was "notes about the girl that died," but U.S. District
Judge Stewart Dalzell struck that answer after a defense objection.Sibanda also said Kamuvaka had told her that if approached by
investigators "not to talk to them because I wouldn't know who they are
. . . [unless] they should subpoena me."Kamuvaka, 60, who was the agency's program director, has a doctorate in
social work from the University of Pennsylvania, and is one of four
MultiEthnic founders. A second founder, Solomon Manamela, 52 is also on
trial, along with Murray, 52, and Mariam Coulibaly, 42, a former
caseworker.MultiEthnic had contracts with the DHS from 2000 through 2006.
Testifying about how DHS had managed the agency was Brian Clapier, the
director of quality improvement.Kelly's death launched state, city, and federal investigations, and
resulted in the demise of MultiEthnic, a prison sentence for the
teenager's mother, and the firing of a number of DHS workers.

On the day Manuelita Buenaflor learned that 14-year-old Danieal
Kelly had died, the social service administrator with two doctorate
degrees was sad, but unsurprised.Buenaflor was the "quality assurance" director for the agency
responsible for insuring the well-being of Kelly and hundreds of other
children. But Buenaflor knew that the MultiEthnic Behavior Health Inc.
workers regularly failed to make the home visits required by their
contract with Philadelphia."In my heart I said it was just a matter of time before this would
happen," Buenaflor sobbed today in U.S. District Court, "My reminders
were ignored."After Kelly's 2006 death by malnutrition at her West Philadelphia home,
nine MultiEthnic employees were charged with billing the city for
services they never provided, and then attempting to cover-up the
fraud. Five have pleaded guilty and four are in trial in U.S. District
Court.A witness yesterday also testified that a city social worker was first
dispatched to the Kelly home in September, 2005, after DHS received an
anonymous call to the agency's hotline describing children running
around without clothes and out on the street late at night without
supervision.The city intake worker who responded, Trina N. Jenkins, testified that
Andrea Kelly appeared "overwhelmed" by caring for eight of her nine
children. A ninth child was in state custody.The family was living on one floor of a row house, Jenkins said, none
of the children were enrolled in school, and all were apparently
sleeping in the same room. But the children were clean and clothed, she
said.Jenkins said Danieal Kelly, who had cerebral palsy, was described by
her mother as "non-verbal." Jenkins helped enroll the older children in
school, and said Andrea Kelly was cooperative worried about DHS'
intervention, repeatedly telling the city worker "I'd do anything to
keep my family."After 10 days, long-term supervision of the Kelly family was turned over to MultiEthnic.After Danieal Kelly's death, then-Mayor John F. Street fired the
commissioner and top deputy of the Department of Human Services. Other
employees were fired by Mayor Nutter.Andrea Kelly pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and child
endangerment in state court and was sentenced to up to 40 years in
state prison. MultiEthnic has folded.Originally from the Philippines, Buenaflor holds doctorates in theology and child and family counseling.She helped found MultiEthnic in 2000 with two of the defendants, Mickal
Kamuvaka and Solomon Manamela. Also on trial are caseworkers Mariam
Coulibaly and Julius Juma Murray, who was assigned to Kelly's family.Buenaflor has admitted to healthcare fraud, and testified after reaching a plea agreement with federal prosecutors.As quality assurance director, who reviewed caseworker files and found
that months would go by without the employees filing any "progress
reports" documenting the home visits - often required once or twice a
week - that were mandated by the city contract.Buenaflor said she issued memos warning staff against fabricating reports in lieu of doing their job.On cross-examination, she conceded some missing reports may have been
written up by caseworkers but never formally submitted. And others may
have been held by a supervisor. Kamuvaka's attorney, William Cannon,
commented that it was "better late than never," but Buenaflor disagreed.She said workers were, "Writing notes for visits not existing, and that's sickening."Many of the agency's employees were immigrants with limited English,
and testimony at the trial has frequently been slowed by what U.S.
District Court Judge Stewart Dalzell has referred to as the "language
barrier."The trial, also delayed by snow, is now in its third week.

Two administrators and two caseworkers from a city-funded social
service agency were convicted yesterday of health-care fraud and
conspiracy charges stemming from the death of Danieal Kelly, the
14-year-old with cerebral palsy who died of bedsores and malnutrition
at her mother's apartment.While the verdicts ended a month-long federal trial, they are not the
final legal acts stemming from the West Philadelphia girl's death in
August 2006 and the ensuing investigations into the agency, MultiEthnic
Behavioral Health Inc., and the city's Department of Human Services.Mickal Kamuvaka, 60, a MultiEthnic founder who served as day-to-day
manager, had no reaction as the verdict was read and declined to
comment afterward. She still faces a city charge of involuntary
manslaughter, as does caseworker Julius Juma Murray, 52, who was
assigned to the Kelly family and also was convicted yesterday. Murray
also faces trial on federal immigration charges.An overhaul of the Department of Human Services that started after media reports of treatment failures in Kelly's death is
continuing. DHS used federal funding to have MultiEthnic provide
in-home care for the teen and other at-risk children.The U.S. District Court jury of seven men and five women also convicted
Solomon Manamela, 52, another agency founder, and caseworker Mariam
Coulibaly, 42.Coulibaly was acquitted on three of 20 charges, and Murray was acquitted on three of 19 charges.The four face sentences ranging from three to more than seven years in prison.According to testimony, the federal investigation started after William
McDonald, a criminal investigator from the state Department of Health
and Human Services, read a lengthy article in The Inquirer about
Kelly's death.The fallout from that death, and other failings earlier reported by The
Inquirer, prompted then-Mayor John F. Street to fire the commissioner
and top deputy of DHS. Mayor Nutter later discharged other employees
and installed a child advocate, Anne Marie Ambrose, as DHS commissioner.According to Murray and agency records, he visited the West
Philadelphia home on July 24, 2006, less than two weeks before Kelly
died Aug. 4. But prosecution witnesses testified that the odor from
Kelly's massive bedsores - the odor of decaying flesh - would have been
impossible to miss.The jury found that the defendants fabricated paperwork for home visits
that never happened, and that when a federal investigation started,
they tossed out or shredded documents sought by the government."Danieal Kelly starved and, to put it bluntly, rotted to death in her
bed," Assistant U.S. Attorney Bea Witzleben said after the verdict.
Deliberations extended over parts of two days. From July 2000 through December 2006, the city paid MultiEthnic about
$3.7 million for services it was supposed to have provided to more than
500 families.Some of those services were delivered, defense witnesses testified."We've never alleged they provided no services at all," said Witzleben,
who prosecuted the case with Assistant U.S. Attorney Vineet Gauri.
Rather, she said, agency workers encountered some cases "that were very
difficult to work with . . . and they chose not to do so." Kelly's mother, Andrea, was caring for eight of nine children in the
first floor of a rowhouse in the Mantua neighborhood. She pleaded
guilty in state court to third-degree murder and child endangerment,
and was sentenced to up to 40 years in state prison.Yesterday, Ambrose said DHS, which has 1,800 employees and 100,000
children receiving varying degrees of care, has overhauled the in-home
services program, established new oversight policies, and is setting up
a program to expand checks on families receiving care from private
contractors."We've tried to really create a culture of responsibility," she said.The head of a nonprofit agency that offers legal representation to
children in DHS said the agency still had issues to resolve - including
how complex cases like Kelly's are managed - but agreed there had been
extensive improvements.Frank P. Cervone, executive director of the Support Center for Child
Advocates, said that the circumstances of Kelly's death were an
aberration, but that the agency's failure to adequately oversee
contractors was not unusual. He said that shortcoming had been improved
under Ambrose."I feel much more confident," he said. Testimony from coworkers described Kamuvaka and Manamela as frequently
failing to provide training and supervision to agency workers.
Kamuvaka, in particular, was said to have condoned the creation of
false records.Her attorney, William Cannon, said Kamuvaka "was very disappointed" by
the verdict and repeated his courtroom defense that she and other
managers had been the victims of their own staff, "social workers who
did her in" by faking reports and not providing services.Paul J. Hetznecker, Manamela's attorney, said his client had been
"scammed" by his own employees, though he conceded there was
"significant" mismanagement."But that doesn't take away from the dedication Solomon Manamela has
had" to social work, Hetznecker said. Kamuvaka holds a doctorate from
the University of Pennsylvania, and like Manamela has had a career in
social work.Manamela and Coulibaly also declined to comment. Murray is being held on the federal immigration charges.

Great Update Tom!!

This case is beyond a travesty!! I have the case link somewhere and it's a nightmare.

ahh here we go, first check this out.

Fed Agent: Documents in Danieal Kelly Case Were Destroyed After Being Supoenaed

The prosecution presents alleged evidence of obstruction of justice in the federal fraud case linked to the horrific neglect and starvation death of 14-year-old Danieal Kelly in 2006. The defendants, managers, and employees of a private social services agency, were supposed to be monitoring Kelly and other at-risk children.

A federal agent on the case has testified he found shredded and ripped-up documents related to the Danieal Kelly case and many other cases in a dumpster behind the agency offices. And the documents had been supeonaed by federal authorities.

The prosecution alleges the defendants and others systemically fabricated documents to cover missed family visits and tried to coverup their actions following Kelly's death.

The teen, who was supposed to be seen twice a week, weighed just 42 pounds and suffered to-the-bone bedsores when she died

Now I can't possibly put this here because it's huge and contains a very graphic autopsy photo but there no denying the guilt of so many people for one sweet little child. RIP Danieal.

[PDF] Grand jury report

Joanie said:

Now I can't possibly put this here because it's huge and contains a very graphic autopsy photo but there no denying the guilt of so many people for one sweet little child. RIP Danieal.

[PDF] Grand jury report

---Thanks for that Joanie! Glad I skipped through it before breakfast. Ooooh, these people make me so mad

TomTerrific0420 wrote:Joanie said:

Now I can't possibly put this here because it's huge and contains a very graphic autopsy photo but there no denying the guilt of so many people for one sweet little child. RIP Danieal.

[PDF] Grand jury report

---Thanks for that Joanie! Glad I skipped through it before breakfast. Ooooh, these people make me so mad

Thanks and I know what you mean! when you see that photo (which the report says wasn't nearly as bad as the rest) you know theres no way that anyone who saw her prior to her death didn't know what was going on. her injuries took agonizing weeks to create!.

everyone who had contact with her before death, with the exception of the other kids who begged their mom to help her, have earned their selves a one way ticket straight to hell I think.

A child services contractor has been sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison in a
case linked to the starvation death of a disabled 14-year-old Philadelphia
girl.

A judge on Thursday gave 72-year-old Earle
McNeill a far longer term than the four colleagues sentenced to date from
MultiEthnic Behavioral Services. Four others were convicted at trial this year
and are awaiting sentence.

Prosecutors say the company forged documents
after the 2006 death of Danieal (dan-YEHL') Kelly to suggest home visits to her
family and other needy clients that never occurred.

McNeill is a company co-founder who pleaded
guilty to one fraud count. Defense lawyer Jeffrey Miller says McNeill helped
backdate documents amid a city audit. Miller says McNeill may appeal his
sentence.

Two administrators and co-founders of a city-funded social-service
agency, convicted in March of conspiracy and fraud charges stemming from
the death of Danieal Kelly, were sentenced yesterday to long terms in
federal prison.Kelly, who was 14 and had cerebral palsy, died in August 2006 from
bedsores and malnutrition.Mickal Kamuvaka, 61, who ran the day-to-day operations of MultiEthnic
Behavioral Health Inc., was sentenced to 17 1/2 years by U.S. District
Judge Stewart Dalzell.Solomon Manamela, 52, a supervisor of caseworkers at MultiEthnic, drew a
14-year sentence.Dalzell ordered both defendants taken into custody immediately.The Department of Human Services had hired MultiEthnic to provide
in-home social services to 500 families with children at risk of abuse
or neglect. The agency was paid more than $3.6 million between July 2000
and December 2006.Authorities said that after Kelly died, Kamuvaka, who is known as "Dr.
K" and who has a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania,
orchestrated a fraud to backdate and falsify records in an attempt to
fool city auditors into thinking that the agency had been making visits
to children, including Kelly, that never occurred.When the feds began investigating, prosecutors said Kamuvaka convinced
one former MultiEthnic co-worker to lie to federal agents and schemed to
obstruct the federal grand jury's investigation by withholding and
shredding agency records related to Kelly and dumping them into a trash
bin.Before imposing sentence, Dalzell said Kamuvaka's stewardship of
MultiEthnic was so "lackadaisical" that it was "just a matter of time"
before one of the children under its care would die.The judge also said that Kamuvaka and Manamela had engaged in an "orgy
of document fabrication" and that neither defendant appreciated the
"full import" of the crimes.Kamuvaka declined to address Dalzell at sentencing.Defense attorney William Cannon said she wanted to preserve her
appellate rights. He said in court papers that "should not be looked
upon as some coldhearted indifference to . . . the tragic death" of
Kelly.Prosecutors said that nearly every MultiEthnic employee - with the
exception of one - who was interviewed by investigators described some
illegal or improper act Kamuvaka had asked or directed them to take.Assistant U.S. Attorney Bea Witzleben depicted Kamuvaka as a remorseless
offender who not only abandoned her own responsibilities, but
encouraged and directed subordinates to do the same and condoned
caseworker Julius Juma Murray's decision to ignore Kelly's desperate
plight in the four months leading up to her death.Murray, who was directly supervised by Kamuvaka, was to be sentenced
today. (Both have been charged with involuntary manslaughter by the
district attorney and have a trial date in Common Pleas Court in
November.)When Kamuvaka was shown photographs of Kelly's "gruesome" condition at
the time of her death, Witzleben said she tried to convince others the
photos were "fake."The prosecutor said the fraud and conspiracy directed by Kamuvaka was
"breathtaking" and "jaw-dropping" in its scope.Cannon, who called a dozen witnesses who testified about the positive
impact Kamuvaka had on their lives, said it would be unfair to "punish"
her for Kelly's death because it was "not foreseeable," adding, "it
cannot be that anyone should think of Dr. Kamuvaka as an evil person."Assistant U.S. Attorney Vineet Gauri described Manamela as Kamuvaka's
"right-hand man" who had helped "supervise the cooking sessions" of
agency books, referring to fabricating records.During the trial, prosecutors showed the jury supervision records that
had been signed by Manamela for dates when he was outside the country.Court papers said a forensic computer examination by federal agents
found backdated quarterly progress reports signed by Manamela and others
that were created after Kelly's death.Manamela told Dalzell that he was "very remorseful" for his misdeeds,
that he had been "very traumatized" when he learned Kelly had died and
attributed problems at MultiEthnic to "poor oversight."Five other former MEBH employees charged in the case - including some
who cooperated with the feds - were sentenced earlier to prison terms of
15 to 90 months.Danieal Kelly's mother, Andrea, pleaded guilty last year in Common Pleas
Court to third-degree murder and child endangerment, and is serving 20
to 40 years in state prison.

A man charged with contributing to the starvation death of his disabled daughter is being sought by Philadelphia authorities after missing a court hearing.

A defense lawyer says 39-year-old Daniel Kelly knew about Monday's status hearing.

Kelly is charged with child endangerment for leaving daughter Danieal with her unfit mother. The 14-year-old weighed 42 pounds when she died in 2006.

Her mother is serving 20 to 40 years for third-degree murder, and several social work contractors received long prison terms for skipping home visits.

Defense lawyer Earl Kauffman fears Daniel Kelly is worried about those sentences. But Kauffman says the father's case is different because he wasn't living with Danieal and didn't abuse her.

Kelly's trial is set for June.

Dad, workers get up to 5 years in starvation death

Posted: Oct 20, 2011 4:39 AM CDT
Updated: Oct 20, 2011 1:27 PM CDT
By MARYCLAIRE DALE
Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The absentee father of a disabled Philadelphia teenager who starved to death in a squalid apartment has been sentenced to between 2½ years to five years in prison.

Daniel Kelly was convicted of felony child neglect in the 2006 death of his 14-year-old daughter, Danieal (dan-YELL'). She weighed just 42 pounds when she died and had maggot-infested bedsores.

The father once had custody of the girl but abandoned her with her unfit mother. Andrea Kelly was convicted of third-degree murder.

A judge on Thursday also sentenced two social workers who failed Danieal to the same 2½- to 5-year term.

The horrifying case prompted the firings of several city officials. More than a dozen people have been convicted in state and federal investigations.

http://www.abc27.com/story/15737345/dad-2-others-set-for-sentencing-in-starving-death