Prosecutor: Cover-up was immediate

HOURS AFTER the starvation death in 2006 of Danieal Kelly, a 14-year-old girl with cerebral palsy, the nonprofit agency providing the 42-pound child with social services allegedly began its cover-up.

"Who orchestrated the cover-up?" asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Veneet Gauri, pointing to the lead defendant. "Mickal Kamuvaka."

In his opening statement, Gauri told the jury that Kamuvaka, 60, head of MultiEthnic Behavioral Health, "spearheaded the fraud," obstructed the federal investigation and created phony documents with the help of his three co- defendants.

The government alleges that the defendants engaged in a nearly $2 million fraud, which extended to at least three families, including the Kellys.

MultiEthnic received a $3.7 million contract from the city Department of Human Services to provide services to 500 at-risk, poor families with multiple problems in tough neighborhoods - like the Kellys.

Defendants Kamuvaka, Solomon Manamela, Julius J. Murray and Mariam Coulibaly are charged with 12 counts of wire fraud, six counts of health-care fraud, conspiracy and lying to the grand jury. Coulibaly also is charged with lying to federal agents.

If convicted, the defendants must forfeit funds gained in the alleged scheme and would face a possible federal prison sentence.

Kamuvaka and Murray are also charged with murder in Kelly's death in state Common Pleas Court.

In explaining the indictment to the jury, U.S. District Judge Stewart Dalzell cited 12 payments totaling $700,000 to MultiEthnic in connection with the alleged wire fraud and five payments totaling nearly $6,000 for the alleged health-care fraud.

On Aug. 4, 2006, Gauri said, Kelly was found dead in bed with heat stroke, bed sores and malnutrition.

Kamuvaka immediately called in workers, and she and Manamela, 52, directed them to fabricate documents to "make it look like MultiEthnic was serving the family, but they lied," said Gauri.

The prosecutor said that Manamela, also the agency's financial administrator, "fabricated documents every time the government came in to do an audit."

The prosecutor told the jury that they would see photos of Kelly's autopsy, which would show that the social worker, Murray, "was not seeing the child."

Manamela was supposed to meet twice a week with Murray to make sure that Kelly was going to school and getting other services, but Murray "never did any of those things," Gauri said.

Murray gave "a stack of forms" to a parent to sign in another case, claiming to have visited that home, when he didn't, Gauri said.

Coulibaly created phony documents for days, "even while she was out of town. She admitted it to agents, then lied," Gauri added. Later, she asked a different parent to sign documents "with different colored pens to make it look like she showed up."

Kamuvaka's attorney, William T. Cannon, in his opening, countered: "Dr. Kamuvaka had to rely on the [MultiEthnic] workers. They didn't do what they were supposed to do and they forged the documents."

"Nobody . . . wanted that child to die," he said. "She was living with her mother, who was starving her."

Murray's attorney, William T. Spade Jr., said that numerous agencies and neighbors failed to see Kelly's condition.

"The mother of this girl was hiding what was going on," he added.

Manamela's attorney, Paul J. Hetznecker, urged the jury to be wary of the witnesses who "lied" to his client, of their motives and actions. Manamela "was not a supervisor when a lot of this happened."

Coulibaly's attorney, William J. Brennan, quoted his co-counsel: "This is not a murder case, it's a fraud case."

"When did you ever see photos of an autopsy in a fraud trial?" he asked in the hall.