Lawyer for Danieal Kelly estate hires lawyer

After four days of public vilification in which his professional ethics have been challenged, a lawyer for Danieal Kelly's estate has hired his own attorney to try to "set the record straight."

Veteran Center City litigator George Bochetto yesterday confirmed that he had been hired by Brian Mildenberg, one of two lawyers representing the estate of Danieal Kelly, the 14-year-old girl whose death by starvation in 2006 has resulted in criminal charges against her parents, family friends, and public and private social workers used by the city's Department of Human Services.

Bochetto said he was astounded by the adverse publicity that had fallen on Mildenberg. He said he was planning a news conference for Monday to "set the record straight."

"Brian Mildenberg is being vilified when he should be applauded for courageously taking on a difficult case out of a sense of professional responsibility," Bochetto said.

After the federal wrongful-death lawsuit filed on behalf of the estate became public this week, the lawsuit was strongly criticized by Mayor Nutter and District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham.

The mayor called the lawsuit "one of the most insane, obscene and disgusting things I've heard in all my public life." Abraham called it "money-grubbing" and part of the parents' "desire to get rich."

Although the notice of his hiring says Bochetto was asked to "review media coverage," Bochetto said he had not thought about the possibility of filing a slander or libel action against news media outlets or others because of the public criticism.

"My primary concern is to get the record straight and try to communicate the facts of this case," Bochetto added.

Bochetto said he had been hired only by Mildenberg and was not representing Mildenberg's cocounsel, Eric G. Zajac. Zajac yesterday could not be reached for comment.

Mildenberg and Zajac originally filed a wrongful-death suit in federal court in October against DHS and others on behalf of the Danieal Kelly estate.

The girl's parents, Andrea and Daniel Kelly, were listed as parties to the suit because they had been named administrators of their daughter's estate by the Philadelphia Register of Wills on Oct. 12, 2006, two months after the child's death.

But, according to court documents, the Kellys soon got into a dispute over how the estate's administrative duties were to be divided, and the suit was withdrawn last Oct. 29.

Those disputes were settled last month. The Kellys agreed that they were legal representatives of their daughter's estate but that any personal rights they had to any settlement proceeds would be determined by a judge in Philadelphia Orphans Court.

The Kellys also agreed to the court appointment of a trustee for the estate, waived their rights to participate in a wrongful-death lawsuit, "and understand they may not recover [money damages] in the end."

After Mildenberg and Zajac reinstituted the suit, Bochetto said, most reporters and media commentators wrongly assumed that the parents were trying to benefit from the death of their own daughter. The suit was filed in Common Pleas Court on Aug. 1, and removed to U.S. District Court on Aug. 5.

Bochetto said the news coverage also made it appear that the Kellys had the suit filed from prison. The suit was originally filed last year, long before the July 31 grand jury presentment and the arrests of the Kellys and their seven codefendants.

Instead, Bochetto said, the goal of the wrongful-death suit would be filed to provide money for the care of Danieal Kelly's nine siblings, all of whom are now in foster care.

The grand jury report alleges that Danieal Kelly, who had cerebral palsy and could not walk, endured years of neglect. She starved to death on Aug. 4, 2006. At the time, her body was covered with festering bedsores and she weighed just 42 pounds.

The grand jury report accused two DHS employees and two employees of a contract social-service firm assigned to provide for the girl's care with failing to visit the home and see that the child got the care she needed.