Danieal's caseworker may be deported

Julius Murray, a social worker charged by the commonwealth with involuntary manslaughter and other offenses in the death of 14-year-old Danieal Kelly, is now also facing charges in federal court.

Murray, 51, a native of Sierra Leone, was charged Tuesday with making false statements under oath in his application for an immigrant visa and in his application for naturalization.

He is in federal custody at the Lackawanna County Prison in Scranton as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainee, and also will have to face a separate hearing before an immigration judge, Harold Ort, a spokesman for ICE in Newark, N.J., said yesterday.

On Aug. 5, ICE agents arrested Murray, who is in this country on a green card, after Philadelphia police alerted agents of his arrest in Danieal's case.

Murray is one of nine people who were criminally charged July 31 in connection with the starvation death of Danieal, who was found lying in her own feces, with maggot-infested bedsores on her back, on Aug. 4, 2006, in her mother's Parkside home.

A Philadelphia District Attorney's Office's grand-jury report alleges that Murray, who worked at MultiEthnic Behavioral Health, an outside agency contracted by the Department of Human Services, failed to check on Danieal, as he was assigned to do, in the five months before her death.

Murray, as an ICE detainee, is expected to have a hearing before an immigration judge, but Assistant District Attorney Ed McCann, who led the grand-jury investigation, said yesterday that Murray "won't be deported until the criminal matters" in Danieal's case are over.

The federal criminal complaint against Murray stems from an application for immigrant visa that he apparently filled out about 10 years ago and an application for naturalization that he apparently submitted last year.

The complaint says Murray first entered the United States around September 1992 on a nonimmigrant visitor visa under the name Julius Juma Murray. On the day the visa expired, Aug. 3, 1993, he applied for asylum.

He was denied asylum Sept. 30, 1996, because he failed to show up for a scheduled interview.

Murray was then placed in deportation proceedings, but failed to attend a scheduled December 1996 hearing, the complaint says. Then, around January 1997, an attorney for Murray informed the Immigration and Naturalization Service that Murray would be voluntarily departing the United States for Sierra Leone Jan. 26, 1997. The attorney gave INS a copy of Murray's plane ticket.

About three months later, in April 1997, Murray returned to the United States from Sierra Leone - this time, after having obtained lawful-permanent-resident status. The complaint says that when he was admitted into this country via New York City as an immigrant, he came in under the name Julius J.M. Murray.

Authorities allege that he provided false information in his application for an immigrant visa. In the application, which he appears to have filled out different parts of in August 1996 and February 1997, he allegedly falsely stated "that he had no previous residence or visits to the United States."

He also allegedly lied by stating that he had never previously applied for a visa to enter the United States.

Authorities also contend that in July 2007, Murray submitted an application for naturalization in which he denied ever having given false or misleading information to the U.S. government while seeking immigration benefits.

While being questioned by ICE agents Aug. 5, Murray allegedly admitted that he had provided false information on his application for an immigrant visa.

Murray is to appear before a U.S. magistrate judge, most likely next week. At that time, the charges against him will be read. Then, his case will be assigned to a federal judge for a hearing. *