DHS is credited with improving significantly since its worst days in the 1980s, when a series of scandals led to a 1990 class-action lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups.

In 2000, outsider Martinez took the helm and quickly won high marks for a variety of changes. The next year, DHS settled the class action, known as the Baby Neal case. The settlement allowed advocates to audit how the agency handled a sampling of cases for two years. The arrangement expired in 2003.

But experts say the Philadelphia agency remains seriously flawed, with a staff of uneven quality overburdened by caseloads that can exceed 30, nearly double the 17 that national standards recommend.

"In general, they've done a lot of great things at the department, and it's a totally different place than when we sued them," said Frank Cervone, who runs an agency that provides free legal advocacy for children. Cervone was part of the 1990 lawsuit and is among the city's foremost DHS experts.

"That said," he added, "they remain a public agency that has a lot of problems."

Hearing demons

Almost everyone who knew Lea Currie had serious doubts about whether the 25-year-old could care for her newborn son, Marrieon.

"She was hearing demons," said neighbor Felix Cruz, 33, who lived just two doors away from Currie on Charles Street in the East Frankford section of the city.

"She was off-balance," he added, echoing nearly a dozen others interviewed on the block. "She shouldn't have been raising that kid on her own."

Currie had tried to kill herself at 17, and she suffered from cerebral palsy, a muscular disorder that left her barely able to walk up the stairs.