Trial opens for social workers in death of Danieal Kelly

Four former employees of a city-funded social-service agency will go on trial in federal court today on charges stemming from the death of Danieal Kelly, the 14-year-old with cerebral palsy who died in 2006 of starvation at her mother's apartment.

The now-defunct agency was supposed to provide care for the teen and other at-risk children with federal funds funneled through the city's Department of Human Services.

But federal prosecutors charge that Michal Kamuvaka, who ran MultiEthnic Behavioral Health Inc., instead billed the city for services it never provided - including home visits that never happened - purportedly to care for the girl.

And when an FBI investigation started, subpoenaed documents were allegedly tossed out or never turned over to the government.

From July 2000 through December 2006, the city paid MultiEthnic some $3.7 million for services it was supposed to have provided to more than 500 families.

Danieal Kelly and her family were considered at-risk, and DHS ordered twice-weekly home visits to ensure she was safe and getting services she needed. When she died, she weighed 47 pounds, and her body was covered with bedsores, some of which were maggot-infested and bone-deep.

The apartment had no electricity or running water, and Danieal Kelly's siblings did not recognize the MultiEthnic case worker who was supposedly to have visited twice a week.

Kamuvaka, 60, and another administrator, Solomon Manadela, 52, allegedly failed to provide training and supervision to agency workers, failed to supervise children's cases, and "condoned the creation of false records to show visits that had not occurred," according to documents filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Bea L. Witzleben.

The case, before U.S. District Judge Stewart Dalzell, is expected to last for about a month. Jury selection started yesterday.

Court documents filed by the government say that when the city gave the agency advance notice of audits - including the cases to be checked - MultiEthnic personnel would work "furiously to create paperwork to help the company 'pass' the audit."

After Danieal Kelly's death, Kamuvaka is accused of having ordered staff to create "a number" of records to show that her family had received the home visits required by MultiEthnic's city contract.

Julius Juma Murray, 52, a former caseworker, who was supposed to have been visiting the home twice a week, is also on trial, as is Mariam Coulibaly, 41, another former case worker.

The aftermath of the teen's death led to MultiEthnic's closing and the firing of top DHS officials by then-Mayor John F. Street.

At the time, Street was already addressing other disclosures in The Inquirer about the deaths of children whose families were or had been under DHS supervision.

In subsequent coverage, The Inquirer probed the city's heavy reliance on private agencies for the one-on-one contact with families.

The newspaper also reported that MultiEthnic gave false information to the city in applying for its contract, listing as advisers people who had never signed on with the agency.

Five other MutltiEthnic employees also charged by the U.S. Attorney's Office have already pleaded guilty.

Danieal Kelly's mother, Andrea Kelly, pleaded guilty last year in Common Pleas Court to third-degree murder and was sentenced to 20 to 40 years.