REMEMBERING DANIEAL

Danieal Kelly was 14 years old. She was born with cerebral palsy, which significantly limited her mobility and her ability to care for herself. She depended on the adults around her for some of the most basic necessities of life. But Danieal's disability was not who she was. There are photographs of a younger Danieal smiling brightly, including one taken during a school trip showing her with pigtails and a huge grin on her face. She was a daughter. A sister in a large family. A young girl who deserved to attend school, receive proper medical care, be included in the world around her and be treated with dignity. Most importantly, Danieal deserved to be cared for.

Her disability made her especially vulnerable, but it should also have meant that the adults and agencies responsible for her safety watched over her more carefully.

Instead, Danieal was failed by people at nearly every level of her life.

DANIEAL'S STORY

During Danieal's childhood, her parents, Andrea and Daniel Kelly, shared responsibility for her care at different times. Her father had previously removed Danieal and her brother from their mother's care because of concerns about neglect. Eventually, however, Danieal was again left in her mother's care in Philadelphia. Her father stopped seeing her, despite knowing about the earlier concerns surrounding Andrea's ability to care for the children. Danieal's condition meant that she could not simply get up and obtain food, water or medical care for herself. She relied upon others. Over time, Danieal was deprived of adequate food, fluids, hygiene and medical attention. She became severely malnourished. She developed horrific pressure sores from remaining in the same position for extended periods. She had not attended school or seen a doctor for months before her death. By the summer of 2006, Danieal was dying. People around her recognized how serious her condition had become.

According to Philadelphia's grand-jury investigation, one of Danieal's brothers repeatedly begged their mother to allow him to call an ambulance. Andrea refused.

On August 3, Danieal was still alive when her brother became alarmed by her condition and wanted to summon help. He was again prevented from doing so. Almost 19 hours passed before a call to 911 was finally permitted. By then, there was nothing paramedics could do. On August 4, 2006, Danieal Kelly was found dead. She weighed only 42 pounds.

WARNING SIGNS & SYSTEM FAILURES

Danieal did not die hidden completely from the outside world. Her family was known to Philadelphia's Department of Human Services.

Beginning in August 2003, DHS received reports concerning abuse or neglect in the Kelly household. Court records state that over the following three years, the agency received 11 reports involving the Kelly children. By September 2005, Danieal and her siblings had been placed in a program intended to provide services to children while they remained in their own home. Philadelphia contracted with Multi-Ethnic Behavioral Health to monitor the family. The entire purpose of those services was to help ensure that children like Danieal were safe. But required visits were missed. Records were falsified. Information was ignored. And while agencies and workers responsible for monitoring Danieal failed to do their jobs, she continued deteriorating inside the home. Danieal became so weak and malnourished that she ultimately weighed only 42 pounds. Still, no one reached her in time. After her death, investigators uncovered failures extending far beyond one caseworker. The investigation resulted in criminal prosecutions involving family members and people entrusted with monitoring Danieal's welfare. Her death also prompted intense scrutiny and reform of Philadelphia's child-welfare system. Danieal had been surrounded by systems supposedly designed to protect vulnerable children. Yet she died from neglect and starvation while under their watch.

JUSTICE FOR DANIEAL

Andrea Kelly was prosecuted for her daughter's death.

In 2009, she pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and endangering the welfare of a child. She was sentenced to 20 to 40 years in state prison. Danieal's father, Daniel Kelly Sr., was also prosecuted. Prosecutors argued that he abandoned his profoundly vulnerable daughter with a mother he knew had previously neglected her. In 2011, a jury convicted him of endangering the welfare of a child. He was sentenced to 2½ to 5 years in prison. Criminal responsibility extended beyond Danieal's parents. Dana Poindexter, a former DHS intake worker assigned to investigate reports concerning the family, was convicted of child endangerment, reckless endangerment and perjury. Mickal Kamuvaka, who ran the private agency responsible for providing services to Danieal's family, was convicted of offenses including involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment. Both were also sentenced to 2½ to 5 years in state prison in connection with the case. Additional workers were convicted of offenses associated with falsifying records and concealing failures surrounding the family's supervision.

 

Andrea Kelly
Relationship to Danieal: Mother
Convictions: Third-degree murder and endangering the welfare of a child
Sentence: 20 to 40 years in prison

 

Daniel Kelly Sr.
Relationship to Danieal: Father
Conviction: Endangering the welfare of a child
Sentence: 2½ to 5 years in prison

Mickal Kamuvaka
Relationship to Danieal: Social-services agency administrator
Convictions included: Involuntary manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child
State sentence: 2½ to 5 years in prison

 

Dana Poindexter
Relationship to Danieal: DHS intake worker
Convictions included: Endangering the welfare of a child, reckless endangerment and perjury
Sentence: 2½ to 5 years in prison

FOREVER REMEMBERED

Danieal Kelly was 14 years old. Her death exposed failures so severe that her name became associated with reform of Philadelphia's child-welfare system. But Danieal should never be reduced to a symbol of a broken system. She was a girl. There was once a younger Danieal with pigtails, smiling broadly for a camera on a school trip.

That is Danieal, too. Not simply the heartbreaking photographs taken at the end of her life. Not simply a number on a scale. Not simply a case file.

Not simply a child whose name appeared in a 258-page grand-jury investigation.

Danieal deserved to be comfortable.

She deserved enough to eat and drink.

She deserved clean clothes and a clean bed.

She deserved medical care.

She deserved education.

She deserved people who recognized that needing additional help did not make her life worth less.

There should have been a fifteenth birthday.

There should have been years beyond it.

Danieal's cerebral palsy meant that she depended upon other people.

That dependence should never have been a death sentence. Her name was Danieal Kelly. Abuse Angels remembers Danieal Kelly — the smiling girl with pigtails who deserved dignity, protection and care, and whose life mattered every bit as much as the lives of the people entrusted with protecting her.

We remember Danieal. We speak her name. And Danieal Kelly will not be forgotten.