Prosecutors won't seek charges against DCS, Damar in young woman's death
Marion County prosecutors will not pursue criminal charges against the Department of Child Services employee and Damar Services workers who visited an Indianapolis home six days before a young woman died yet did not report concerns about her well-being, a spokeswoman said.
Linda Kelley died Aug. 4 in a filthy, cluttered home with blackened bedsores covering much of her lower body. Some were so deep they exposed the 18-year-old's bone and organs.
On the day she died, her parents' house was littered with dog feces, cigarette butts, trash bags, soiled adult diapers, empty pop cans and other items. Bugs crawled on the refrigerator.
In September, after seeing pictures of Linda and the home, Marion Juvenile Court Judge Marilyn Moores said she could not understand how the workers visiting only six days earlier could submit positive reports on the conditions there.
Two DCS employees were fired for failing to protect Linda, who had entered the DCS system as a child and turned 18 shortly before her death. DCS officials also canceled the agency's home services contract with Damar, citing "termination for endangering life, health or safety of any person."
But those employees' conduct did not constitute a crime, said Peg McLeish, spokeswoman for the Marion County prosecutor's office.
"We were not presented with information that would rise to the level of criminal charges against DCS or Damar Services employees," McLeish said in an email. "The parents had the actual physical custody and care of Linda."
Linda's parents, John and Lavonne Kelley, each face a felony count of neglect of a dependent resulting in serious bodily injury, Marion Superior Court records show. They are accused of failing to seek proper medical treatment for their daughter.
Linda suffered from spina bifida, which is a permanently disabling birth defect that affects the spine. She was paralyzed from the waist down and also had a shunt in her brain.
DCS determined the Kelleys had neglected Linda in 1997, 1998, 1999, 2012 and 2013.
But some who were close to Linda say DCS and Damar Services share the blame for her death.
Karen Butterworth, who was Linda's foster mother when she was 3 years old, said Linda
There were roaches all over Linda's things, Butterworth said, even in the pump they used to feed Linda through a tube in her stomach.
Butterworth said she, the hospital staff, home health services workers, and people at Linda's developmental preschool all opposed Linda's return to her parents at that time.
"She really should never have gone home," Butterworth said. "It wasn't rocket science."
Butterworth said she was so disturbed by DCS' handling of Linda's case that she went back to school for social work. She worked for DCS in 2007 and 2008 before taking a job with the Indiana Department of Correction. She currently is employed
"There's no reason that people didn't know she was in the shape she was in," Butterworth said of the circumstances leading to Linda's death. "It's not a box we're checking. It's someone's life."
Linda Thatcher, who teaches students with significant disabilities in Indianapolis Public Schools, said she and others in the district repeatedly expressed concern about Linda's well-being to officials with DCS and Damar Services. She said they filed multiple reports in the two years before Linda's death, but officials wouldn't listen.
"We knew it was ungodly," Thatcher said.
Thatcher, who has been a teacher for 41 years, said Linda was a bright young woman who more than likely would not have been in the program for students with disabilities if she had attended school more regularly.
"The system is so broken," Thatcher said.
DCS spokesman James Wide and Daniel Grove, the attorney representing John Kelley, declined comment. Damar Services spokeswoman Nicole Woods and Arnold Baratz, attorney for Lavonne Kelley, could not be reached for comment.
Call Star reporter Marisa Kwiatkowski at (317) 444-6135. Follow her on Twitter: @IndyMarisaK.