From the New York Times, AP/USA Today and elsewhere:

Prosecutors in Philadelphia have indicted nine people, including the girl’s parents and social workers, in the 2006 starvation death of a teenager with cerebral palsy. In bringing charges to a grand jury, District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham said that the city’s Department of Human services was in “total meltdown.”

Officials said Andrea Kelly was embarrassed by her daughter’s disability and didn’t want to touch her, take her out in public, change her diapers or make sure she had enough fluids.

The grand jury charged Kelly, 39, with murder in the death of her 14-year-old daughter Danieal, and father Daniel Kelly was charged with child endangerment.

Also charged were: four social workers, two employed by the Department of Human Services and two who worked at a nonprofit hired by DHS to provide direct help to the family, and three friends of the victim’s mother who allegedly lied to the grand jury about Danieal’s deteriorating condition.

Abraham said the report should “outrage the entire Philadelphia community” and bring about “earth-shattering, cataclysmic changes” at the Department of Human Services.

See also:

• DA says saving Danieal was too much trouble for DHS workers (Philadelphia Daily News)
• Editorial: Child Welfare (Philadelphia Inquirer)

No one, child or adult, should have to endure the pain inflicted on Danieal Kelly, who was left to starve to death in a rundown rowhouse because her parents didn’t want to deal with her cerebral palsy.

(photo from New York Times)

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 2nd, 2008 at 4:34 pm and is filed under caregivers, cerebral palsy, criminal justice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.