Danieal Kelly 14, Starved girl with disabilities was failed at every turn

[Bearlyhere]

           
               Andrea Kelly
         
Starved, disabled girl was failed at every turn

By KATHY MATHESON, Associated Press Writer Fri Aug 1, 7:35 PM ET

PHILADELPHIA - For days before Danieal Kelly died in a fetid, airless room — made stifling hot by a midsummer heat wave — the bedridden teenager begged for something to drink until she could muster only one word: water.

Unable to help herself because of her cerebral palsy, she wasted away from malnutrition and maggot-infested bedsores that ate her flesh. She died alone on a putrid mattress in her mother's home, the floor covered in feces. She was 14 but weighed just 42 pounds.

The nightmare of forced starvation and infection that killed Danieal while she was under the protection of the city's human services agency is documented in a 258-page grand jury report released this week that charges nine people — her parents, four social workers and three family friends — in her ghastly death.

The report describes a mother, Andrea Kelly, who was embarrassed by her disabled daughter and didn't want to touch her, take her out in public, change her diapers or make sure she had enough fluids. It portrays Daniel Kelly, the father who once had custody of Danieal, as having no interest in raising her.

And it accuses the city Department of Human Services of being "uncaring and incompetent."

"It was this indifference that helped kill Danieal Kelly," an angry District Attorney Lynne Abraham said. "How is it possible for this to have happened?"

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

Andrea Kelly, 39, the only defendant charged with murder, was ordered held Friday without bail. The social workers — suspected of falsifying home visits and progress reports in the case — face charges ranging from child endangerment to involuntary manslaughter. The family friends are accused of lying to the grand jury about the girl's condition before her death.

None of the lawyers for any of the defendants had any immediate comment.

Human Services Commissioner Anne Marie Ambrose, in office only a month, said Thursday that she is intent on improving child safety and worker accountability in an agency that has repeatedly been accused of failing to protect children.

Late Friday, the city announced the resignation of Assistant Health Commissioner Carmen Paris. The grand jury had accused Paris of interfering in the investigation of the girl's death while she was acting health commissioner, but found insufficient evidence to charge her with obstruction of justice.

The report on Danieal's death in August 2006 documents a downward spiral from the early years that she spent in Arizona with her father and his girlfriend.

Though Danieal attended special-needs classes only sporadically, a school report described her as an active learner and "one of the sweetest students ever enrolled in this program." But allegations of parental neglect soon surfaced, and following Daniel Kelly's breakup with his girlfriend in 2001, Danieal never again attended school.

Daniel Kelly and his children moved to Philadelphia in 2003. He eventually asked his estranged wife to move in, even though she had several other children and he knew she was incapable of caring for Danieal, authorities say. He then moved out.

"Daniel Kelly was well aware what deserting his daughter meant to her safety and welfare," the grand jury report said. "He just did not care."

The Department of Human Services received at least five reports of Danieal being mistreated between 2003 and 2005. All described a "helpless child sitting unattended, unkempt and unwashed, in a small stroller in her own urine and feces," her screams ignored by her mother, the grand jury report said. The stroller, which served as a wheelchair, apparently never left the house.

Agency employee Dana Poindexter, assigned to investigate, also ignored Danieal, authorities say. Already having been suspended after a 3-week-old baby died on his watch in 2002, Poindexter continued his "slovenly, neglectful and dangerously reckless work habits" after being assigned the Kelly case, the grand jury said. He did not file a single report, authorities said.

The Kellys finally were assigned help from a private agency in 2005. Employee Julius Murray was required to visit the family twice a week, but authorities believe he may have come to the house only once — to have Andrea Kelly sign predated forms attesting to future visits.

The grand jury report said Laura Sommerer, a city social worker, failed to hold the now-defunct company accountable when, months later, Danieal still was not enrolled in school or receiving medical care.

And after Danieal died, authorities say, company director Mickal Kamuvaka held a "forgery fest" in her office where she had employees "concoct almost a year's worth of false progress reports."

But authorities say Andrea Kelly, whose other children are now in foster care, is primarily responsible for her daughter's death.

The report said she was confronted repeatedly by her own mother, uncle, friends and even two of her sons about Danieal's deteriorating health. She would lie or put them off by saying she would seek help, or banish them from the house, authorities say.

In the meantime, the report said, she entertained friends, attended classes and fed her other children.

"This behavior indicates that Andrea Kelly did not merely allow Danieal to die," the report said. "She may have even wanted her disabled daughter to die."

When an ambulance responded to a 911 call for Danieal on Aug. 4, 2006, the girl had been dead for several hours. Authorities said she was so emaciated she looked like the victim of a concentration camp.

She had been lying on the filthy mattress for so long that her body outline was imprinted on it.
  Edited  to add her name to subject.
***************************************************************************************

This is one of the worst stories I have ever heard.  This person was disabled and a child, this girl was slowly and deliberately tortured to death.  She had sores all over her body with maggots in them with the stinging and burning pain of urine and feces added.  She had no one to advocate for her and was crying out in pain and lack of hydration.  There were a lot of people involved and no one cared, they are all responsible for her death, imo.

[MuffyBee]

May 1, 5:28 PM EDT

Pa. social workers charged after starvation death

By MARYCLAIRE DALE
Associated Press Writer
 PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- By all accounts, there is blame to go around for the 2006 starvation death of disabled teenager Danieal Kelly. Her mother pleaded guilty to murder this week for criminally neglecting the once-vivacious girl. Her case worker and a supervisor are charged with involuntary manslaughter for alleged "ghost visits" to the family's squalid home.

On Friday, federal prosecutors took aim at their entire company, MultiEthnic Behavioral Services, which had a $1 million-a-year contract with the city to provide in-home services to needy families.

"At some point, they realized they could get paid for doing nothing," U.S. Attorney Laurie Magid said at a news conference.

Magid's office charged four company founders and four social workers of the now-defunct firm with fraud, and a ninth with perjury before a grand jury.

Company owners furiously forged documents before routine audits and in the panic that followed Danieal's death, the federal indictment charges. Worried supervisors tried to destroy computer evidence and client files, prosecutors said.

FBI agent Janice Fedarcyk called it "almost inconceivable" that the defendants would further risk the lives of needy children just to enrich themselves.

The defendants, including case worker Julius Murray and company co-founder Michal Kamuvaka, were expected to make initial appearances Friday afternoon in federal court.

Murray's lawyer recently said he insists he made the visits, a claim that Ed McCann, chief prosecutor in the city's homicide unit, calls "ludicrous."

Danieal, who used a wheelchair because of cerebral palsy, appeared chubby-cheeked and joyous in photos taken on school outings in Arizona, where she lived with her father and stepmother.

But after the couple split, Daniel Kelly returned with Danieal to Philadelphia and abandoned her at the chaotic home of her unfit mother, who eventually had nine children living there, a city grand jury found. The father was charged last year with child endangerment.

At her plea this week, Andrea Kelly said she wished she "could have done more to save" her daughter. She denied her food, water or medical care, even when her distressed son tried to intervene.

District Attorney Lynne Abraham called the girl's death slow and torturous.

Family members had long sounded alarms about Danieal's demise to Andrea Kelly.

Red flags were likewise raised about MultiEthnic.

The company was formed specifically to bid on the city contract - though prosecutors said one founder had a criminal record - and took in $3.7 million from 2003 to 2006, when it dissolved in the wake of Danieal's death. It had frequent staff turnover and sometimes relied on student interns to make the visits, McCann said.

As early as 2003, clients told the Department of Human Services that the visits weren't always made, McCann said. The DHS commissioner knew about the complaints. Yet the yearly contract kept getting renewed.

"It's not just MultiEthnic's fault. It's DHS' fault, too, for not doing what they were expected to do," Abraham said Friday.

The city's top two commissioners were ousted after Danieal's death, and the department is now being revamped under new leadership, she said. Authorities considered criminal charges against DHS officials but could not make a case for them, she said Friday. Two former city social workers are charged in state court with child endangerment.

Andrea Kelly, 38, was sentenced after her plea to 20 to 40 years in prison.

The MultiEthnic founders - Kamuvaka, 60; Solomon Manamela, 51; Earle McNeill, 69; and Manuelita Buenaflor, 65, all of Philadelphia - face about six to eight years in prison if convicted, and Murray and the other four employees about three to five years.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_STARVATION_DEATH_CHARGES?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

[cookie]

again...gobsmacked! just when I thought that I had read the worst story, another one comes around! grrrrr...I just want to beat this woman up for what this child suffered!

[MuffyBee]

April 30, 2009

20-40 yrs. for Danieal Kelly's mother

By JULIE SHAW
Philadelphia Daily News

shawj@phillynews.com 215-854-2592

In a soft, almost inaudible voice, the mother of Danieal Kelly - the 14-year-old girl who died of starvation and neglect in her mother's Parkside home in 2006 - accepted her role in her daughter's death yesterday, saying, "I wish I could have done more than what I did."

Common Pleas Judge Benjamin Lerner then sentenced Andrea Kelly, 39, to 20 to 40 years in state prison - a term negotiated by the prosecution and the defense - after she pleaded guilty, as expected, to charges of third-degree murder and endangering the welfare of a child.

The death of Danieal - who suffered from cerebral palsy and was found dead with maggot-infested bedsores, as flies buzzed about her feces-covered bed - highlighted troubled aspects of the city's Department of Human Services.

DHS and a private agency it contracted, MultiEthnic Behavioral Health, were supposed to have been checking on Danieal's well-being.

Ed McCann, chief of the District Attorney's Homicide Unit, recited in court a summary of the testimony at Kelly's preliminary hearing last fall. He described how Danieal's body was found in her mother's home on Memorial Avenue near Viola Street on Aug. 4, 2006, an extremely hot day.

A forensics technician-supervisor at the city's Medical Examiner's Office had testified how she "saw maggots eating away at a [bed]sore on the child's collarbone," McCann said.

Edwin Lieberman, an assistant medical examiner, testified that Danieal weighed 42 pounds and was extremely dehydrated and malnourished, and that the most serious of her sores gnawed all the way to her bone, McCann said.

As part of the plea agreement, the prosecution decided not to pursue a first-degree murder charge against Kelly.

Richard Q. Hark, Kelly's attorney, told reporters afterward that his client "was relieved to accept responsibility for her role in this case."

But, he also blamed DHS. "Had one DHS worker done their job on one occasion, the child would be alive, and that's why the more significant part of the case goes on," he said.

Kelly was among nine people charged in the case following a scathing grand-jury report by the D.A.'s Office. Two now-fired DHS caseworkers are charged with endangering the welfare of a child and related offenses. A social worker and one of the founders of MultiEthnic, which has since closed, face involuntary manslaughter and related offenses.

Danieal's father, Daniel Kelly, 37, is charged with endangering the welfare of a child. He was not living with his daughter at the time of her death.

Those five adults still face trial.

McCann and Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Selber said yesterday that two adults charged with lying to the grand jury - Marie Moses, 35, and Diamond Brantley, 22, who were friends of Andrea Kelly - are expected to plead guilty to perjury early next month.

A ninth defendant, Andrea Miles, 19, who was a juvenile at the time of her offense and who was also a friend of Andrea Kelly, has already admitted to perjury in Family Court and was sentenced to probation. *

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/44038907.html?cmpid=15585797


 

[MuffyBee]

 Posted on Thu, May. 7, 2009


Social worker pleads not guilty in Danieal Kelly case

By MICHAEL HINKELMAN
Philadelphia Daily News

hinkelm@phillynews.com 215-854-2656

A social worker for a now-defunct private nonprofit agency that was supposed to be looking out for Danieal Kelly - the 14-year-old girl with cerebral palsy who was starved to death in 2006 - pleaded not guilty in federal magistrate court yesterday to fraud and conspiracy charges.

Julius Juma Murray, 51, formerly of Upper Darby, had been assigned to the Kelly case, but prosecutors said that he and others helped create false records for Kelly's file to make it appear that the agency provided services to her and made visits to her home.

Murray worked for MultiEthnic Behavioral Health, Inc., which was paid more than $3.7 million by the city between July 2000 and December 2006 to provide in-home social services to needy and at-risk children.

Authorities said that MultiEthnic was a "money for nothing" enterprise.

Eight of the agency's employees were charged by a federal grand jury on May 1 with wire fraud, health-care fraud and conspiracy to obstruct a federal investigation.

A ninth employee, Patricia Burch, was charged only with lying to a federal grand jury.

Burch was arraigned before a federal magistrate yesterday, pleaded not guilty and was released on $25,000 unsecured bail.

Three others, including MultiEthnic Behavioral co-founder Mickal Kamuvaka, previously pleaded not guilty to the charges and were released on $25,000 unsecured bail with electronic monitoring.

Murray and Kamuvaka also have been charged by a Philadelphia grand jury with involuntary manslaughter and related offenses in connection with Kelly's death. No trial date has been set on the state charges.

Murray, a native and citizen of Sierra Leone, is in federal custody. He was arrested last August for making a false statement to federal immigration authorities when he applied to become a U.S. citizen in July 2007. (He has pleaded not guilty in this case.)

In his application, Murray denied that he had ever lied in applying for permission to enter the U.S. Murray said under oath in his citizenship interview that his citizenship application was true and correct.

Murray first entered the U.S. in 1992 on a nonimmigrant-visitor visa and later requested asylum. The request was denied in 1996 and he agreed to leave the U.S. in January 1997, when authorities began deportation proceedings.

He returned to the U.S. in April of that year and said on a visa application that he had not previously visited or lived in the U.S., and denied ever applying for a visa.

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20090507_Social_worker_pleads_not_guilty_in_Danieal_Kelly_case.html

[Nut44x4]

Posted on Wed, May. 13, 2009

2 plead guilty to perjury in girl's death

Two women pleaded guilty yesterday to lying to a grand jury about the condition of Danieal Kelly, the 14-year-old with cerebral palsy who died of starvation in a fetid West Philadelphia apartment in 2006.
Marie Moses, 35, and Diamond Brantley, 19 - both friends of Danieal's mother, Andrea Kelly - each pleaded guilty before Common Pleas Court Judge Benjamin Lerner to one count of perjury after waiving their right to a trial.

Lerner said the crime, a third-degree felony, carries a maximum sentence of up to seven years in prison and a $15,000 fine.

A third friend of Kelly's, Andrea Miles, 18, is being tried on the same charge as a juvenile because of her age at the time of the crime, officials said.

Lerner said defense attorneys had recommended a sentence excluding jail time. He said he would likely sentence Moses and Brantley to a combination of probation, community service, and court costs. He scheduled sentencing for July 2.

Danieal, weighing only 47 pounds, was found dead in her bed in a filthy, sweltering apartment on Memorial Avenue near Viola Street on Aug. 4, 2006.

When the body was found, the girl was gaunt and had maggot-infested bedsores. Her bed was covered with feces as flies buzzed around her.

Assistant District Attorney Edward McCann said Brantley testified on Nov. 16, 2006, that she visited the home on Aug. 3, the day before Danieal's body was found, and that the child "smelled like soap" and smelled "clean and fresh."

McCann said Moses testified the same day that the apartment was clean and that Danieal appeared "healthy" and looked like "her normal self."

McCann said that paramedics and a worker from the Department of Human Services (DHS) noted that the home was in deplorable condition, with dirt, food containers, and piles of dirty clothes strewn about.

He said one paramedic would testify that the apartment was among the filthiest he had seen in 10 years on the job, that the stench was nearly unbearable, and that the home was unfit for human habitation.

McCann said that Danieal's brother Daniel, then 14, would testify that, a day before the body was found, he told Andrea Kelly that Danieal was looking ill.

Daniel would also say the girl was pale and her lips were turning purple, McCann said. The teen would also say that he tried to give Danieal a glass of water but that she could not move, and that he told his mother she should call police.

Andrea Kelly pleaded guilty April 29 to third-degree murder and child endangerment, and Lerner sentenced her to 20 to 40 years in prison. Kelly's nine remaining children are in DHS custody.

Five other people are facing trial in the case. Danieal's father, Daniel Kelly, is charged with endangering the welfare of children.

DHS workers Dana Poindexter and Laura Sommerer are charged with endangering the welfare of a child and recklessly endangering another person.

Julius Juma Murray and Mickal Kumavaka, two workers for MultiEthnic Behavior Health Inc., a private agency, who were assigned to see that Danieal was safe and receiving needed services, are charged with involuntary manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child.

McCann said Moses and Brantley were "obviously, clearly covering up for Andrea; they were her friends." He said their testimony before the grand jury was "clearly at odds with reality."

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20090513_2_plead_guilty_to_perjury_in_girl_s_death.html

[Nut44x4]

Social workers guilty of fraud in starvation case
(AP) – 1 hour ago

PHILADELPHIA — Four social workers were convicted Wednesday in a fraud case stemming from the starvation death of a disabled Philadelphia teenager whose emaciated body was found with maggot-infested bedsores.

A federal jury in Philadelphia convicted the employees of now-defunct MultiEthnic Behavioral Health Inc., which was accused of defrauding the city of millions of dollars by not visiting needy families and then covering that up with false paperwork.

Prosecutors say the firm submitted paperwork for visits that were never made after 14-year-old Danieal Kelly's body was found in 2006. Officials said Kelly, who had cerebral palsy, weighed only 42 pounds at the time of her death, less than half the weight of an average girl her age.

All four defendants were convicted of conspiracy, wire fraud and lying to federal agents, and company co-founders Mickal Kamuvaka, 60, and Solomon Manamela, 52, were convicted of all health care fraud counts. Kamuvaka still faces trial on a charge of involuntary manslaughter in Kelly's death.

Julius Juma Murray, 52, the caseworker assigned to the Kelly family, and Miriam Coulebaly, 41, were each also convicted of three health care fraud counts but acquitted of three others. Murray also faces a manslaughter trial and is being held as a trial approaches this month on federal immigration charges.

Kelly's mother, Andrea, is serving 20 to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to third-degree murder.

The four are scheduled for sentencing in June. Prosecutors said sentencing guidelines indicate Kamuvaka could be sentenced to about nine to more than 11 years in prison, while Manamela could get a term of eight to 10 years, Coulibaly could face about six or seven years and Murray four or five years in prison.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iduLUk72bbqH7-GPCUHxWPIc-clQD9E7E98G0

[MuffyBee]

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/pa/20100423_Jail_for_a_Multiethnic_founder_in_Danieal_Kelly_case.html
Jail for a Multiethnic founder in Danieal Kelly case
Friday, April 23, 2010

 A cofounder of the now-defunct social service agency Multiethnic Behavioral Health Inc., which oversaw Philadelphia teenager Danieal Kelly in the months before her death, was sentenced Thursday to 90 months in prison.

Earle McNeill, 72, of Philadelphia, had pleaded guilty to fraud charges stemming from the investigation into the agency after the 14-year-old girl died from malnutrition and severe bed sores in 2006.

His sentence was increased about 12 months above prosecutors' recommendations after U.S. District Judge Stewart Dalzell determined that McNeill had not truthfully reported his Multiethnic income to a federal probation officer.

McNeill said he had earned $20,000 a year, when records showed he had been paid between $36,000 and $58,000, Assistant U.S. Attorney Bea Witzleben said.

The death of Kelly, who had cerebral palsy, prompted the firing of top Department of Human Services officials and multiple investigations of the city agency. Dalzell has also been sharply critical of the agency.

In court documents, prosecutors said McNeill had "joined in the rampant fraud at the agency," adding that Multiethnic had "billed the city for services not rendered, and kept the contract by fabricating false records to make it appear that all services had been delivered."

Four other agency employees have been sentenced to prison. Another four defendants - Mickal Kamuvaka and Solomon Manamela, who also cofounded the agency, and caseworkers Mariam Coulibaly and Julius Murray - were convicted in March and await sentencing.

McNeill and the eight others were charged with failing to provide social services, required by a contract with the city, to at-risk families and children. The DHS paid Multiethnic about $3.5 million with federal funding from 2000 through 2007.

McNeill, a psychologist, holds a degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a doctorate from Boston University.

Kelly's mother is serving a sentence in state prison.

[MuffyBee]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iduLUk72bbqH7-GPCUHxWPIc-clQD9F8DJU80
Pa. worker gets 7 years in teen's starvation death
April 22, 2010

PHILADELPHIA — 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.

[Nut44x4]

 Andrea Kelly   insert> Danieal


Looking for Earle McNeill photo

[Nut44x4]

Refresher........

Department of Justice Press Release
 
For Immediate Release
May 1, 2009 United States Attorney's Office
Eastern District of Pennsylvania
Contact: (215) 861-8200 
Social Service Agency Workers Charged in Deadly Fraud Scheme
MultiEthnic Behavioral Health, Inc. Charged with Fraud Scheme Involving Multi-Million Dollar City Contract

PHILADELPHIA—United States Attorney Laurie Magid today announced the filing of a 21-count indictment charging eight employees of a social service agency with defrauding the City of Philadelphia and the federal government by falsely claiming to provide social services to needy families and then billing the City for the services.  A ninth employee is charged with a single count of lying to a federal grand jury. The indictment alleges that the fraud scheme was carried out by employees of MultiEthnic Behavioral Health, Inc. (“MEBH”) and contributed to the death of a 14-year-old girl for whom the City’s Department of Human Services had hired MEBH to provide services. Joining in today’s announcement were Health and Human Services Special Agent-in-Charge Pat Doyle, FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Janice Fedarcyk, and Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham.

The indictment alleges 12 counts of wire fraud, six counts of health care fraud, one count of conspiracy to obstruct a federal investigation, one count of providing a false statement to federal agents, and one count of perjury before a federal grand jury. Charged in the indictment are MEBH co-founders Mickal Kamuvaka, Solomon Manamela, Earle McNeill, and Manuelita Buenaflor; and MEBH workers Julius Juma Murray, Miriam Coulibaly, Christiana Nimpson, and Sotheary Chan. MEBH worker Patricia Burch is charged with one count of perjury.

From July 2000 through December 2006, the city had a contract with MEBH, paying the company $3,727,190, in total, to provide social services to more than 500 families. The contract was for in-home social services for children at risk of neglect, abuse, and delinquency. According to the indictment, eight of the nine defendants devised and carried out a scheme for billing the city for services when, in fact, services were not rendered. The contract required the workers to visit with family clients of DHS. The indictment alleges that the MEBH workers did not make the required visits and that they, along with the supervisors, falsified records to make it appear as if they had made the visits.

As the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office has previously reported, on August 4, 2006, 14-year-old Danieal Kelly, a DHS client that MEBH was supposed to be serving, was found dead in her home.  According to the federal indictment, defendants Kamuvaka and Murray, with the help of other employees, created false records to place in the client file to give the appearance that MEBH had provided services that had not been provided. The indictment further alleges that in the aftermath of the child’s death, supervisors Kamuvaka and Buenaflor ordered certain records to be removed from the client files which were inconsistent with the falsified records, that Buenaflor had a MEBH computer hard drive erased to prevent discovery of the fraud, and that Kamuvaka discarded two trash bags containing records that were the subject of federal grand jury subpoenas. Defendants Kamuvaka, Manamela, McNeill, Buenaflor, Murray, Coulibaly, Nimpson, and Chan are charged with conspiring to obstruct a federal investigation by altering, destroying, concealing, and falsifying records in MEBH files.

“Simply put, the supervisors and workers created a fiction that they wanted the city to accept as fact,” said Magid. “Because they knew, full well, that the truth would only cut off their source of funding and put an end to an enterprise built on the simple concept of ‘money for nothing’. And when they knew that audits were coming, they intensified their efforts to fabricate records.” 

“Today’s actions will help bring to justice those who allegedly stole from the government while a life was tragically lost through sheer criminal neglect,” said Special Agent-in-Charge Patrick J. Doyle of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, Philadelphia Region. “This Federal Agency, working closely with our law enforcement partners, will continue to vigorously pursue allegations that involve the theft of taxpayer dollars.”   

“The defendants charged in this investigation today did not simply defraud the Philadelphia Department of Human Services through their company, they defrauded the innocent victims who were entitled to and in need of vital social services,” said Special Agent-in-Charge Janice K. Fedarcyk, of the Philadelphia Division of the FBI. “The families that were supposed to receive these services suffered greatly because of the greed of these defendants, and as a result Danieal Kelly died of neglect that should have been detected and addressed by this company.”

“We are very grateful that our criminal justice partners took up the MEBH case where our Grand Jury investigation into the unspeakable death of Danieal Kelly left off,” said Abraham. “This indictment, coming on the heels of the conviction of Danieal Kelly's mother, Andrea Kelly on Wednesday, is timely and emphasizes the ease with which fraudsters can rip off the public tax dollars and, at the same time, endanger the lives of children and families placed under their supervision and care.”

Defendant Miriam Coulibaly is also charged with making a false statement to federal agents by lying about her participation in efforts to fabricate records to show visits to families that had not occurred.

INFORMATION REGARDING THE DEFENDANTS

NAME ADDRESS   AGE OR YEAR OF BIRTH   
Mickal Kamuvaka Philadelphia, PA 60     
Solomon Manamela Philadelphia, PA 51
Earle McNeill Philadelphia, PA 69
Manuelita Buenaflor Philadelphia, PA 65
Julius Juma Murray Upper Darby, PA 51
Miriam Coulibaly Brookhaven, PA 40
Christiana Nimpson Philadelphia, PA 53
Sotheary Chan South Carolina 40
Patricia Burch Philadelphia, PA 55

If convicted of all charges, defendants Kamuvaka, Manamela, McNeill, and Buenaflor face possible prison sentences ranging from approximately 78 to 97 months under federal sentencing guidelines. Murray, Nimpson, Chan, and Coulibaly face possible prison sentences ranging from approximately 37 to 57 months under federal sentencing guidelines. Defendant Burch faces a possible prison sentence ranging from approximately 15 to 21 months under federal sentencing guidelines.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office.  It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Bea Witzleben and Vineet Gauri.
 
 http://philadelphia.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel09/ph050109.htm

[MuffyBee]

I find it absolutely outrageous those that were PAID to be advocates of the disabled and to oversee the process was followed and  certain rules and regulations followed  to protect the disabled were instead  greedy, no good., money grubbing  bar stewards that not only expected to be paid for their work, they wanted to be paid for work they didn't even do, resulting in the painful death of at least one disabled child, and no telling how much other misery was caused to the other disabled due to lack of oversight.  There is a reason for checks and balances, and in this case, the group that falsified information/visits time sheets cost a life.  We need to have overseers for the overseers.   I find it unconscionable this child was starved to death  first by those closest to her and starved by those that falsified visits and in my mind, they are just as guilty for the death and slow starvation of Danieal.  The Danieal Kelly's of the world are our most vulnerable in our population.  They have no voice of their own, and instead rely on their caretakers.  And when the caretakers fail, there is supposed to be oversight, to prevent what happened to Danieal.  Foxes in the hen house   

Earle McNeil was sentenced to seven years for helping falsify reports and his attorney says they may appeal.  I hope if they appeal, McNeil gets socked with at least another seven years, since in my mind, seven years isn't much time to serve for the life of a helpless 14 yo girl.  You got blood on your hands, McNeil.  JMHO