more lies and failures of social workers

Posted on Thu, Feb. 4, 2010

Kelly defense: Victimized by their own staff

By Nathan Gorenstein

Inquirer Staff Writer

Two top managers at the social-service agency that was caring for 14-year-old Danieal Kelly before her death were victimized by their own staff, who lied about how often they made required home visits, defense attorneys said yesterday.

In opening statements at the federal trial of the two managers and two staff caseworkers, defense attorneys also attempted to diffuse what lawyer William Brennan called "the elephant in the room" - Kelly's death by starvation in 2006 while the agency, MultiEthnic Behavioral Health Inc., was responsible for her well-being.

"This is a fraud case. This is not a murder case," said Brennan, who represents a worker charged with participating in the fraud.

The now-defunct agency was supposed to provide care for Kelly, who had cerebral palsy, and other at-risk children using federal funding funneled through the city's Department of Human Services.

But prosecutors charge that the defendants instead billed the city for services MultiEthnic never provided - including home visits that never happened.

William Cannon, the attorney for Mickal Kamuvaka, 60, who ran MultiEthnic when the city contracted it to monitor 500 homes, conceded that the agency was not always well-managed, but said Kamuvaka had been at the mercy of her employees. "She had to rely on their integrity," he said.

The defense attorneys said federal prosecutors had to prove the four intended to lie and defraud the government.

"Did he intend to lie? If he didn't intend to lie, he's innocent," said William R. Spade Jr., the attorney for MultiEthnic social worker Julius Juma Murray, 52, who was handling Kelly's case when she died.

Cannon said Kelly's mother had kept her covered with blankets up to her chin when workers from MultiEthnic visited. While she was underweight, Kelly also "was beset with medical problems," he said, and there was "no medical record to show she ever weighed more than" the 42 pounds recorded at her death.

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, her body was covered with bedsores, some of which were maggot-infested and bone-deep.

From July 2000 through December 2006, the city paid MultiEthnic about $3.7 million for services.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Vineet Gauri told the jury that the defendants had been "social workers" employed to provide assistance for the city's least fortunate, but that "they chose not to be that safety net."

Gauri said Kamuvaka had "spearheaded the fraud," assisted by a second agency manager, Solomon Manamela, who on one occasion reported he was doing agency work when, in fact, he was out of the country.

Clients were supposed to sign a form every time a social worker visited, but Gauri said Murray and fellow caseworker Mariam Coulibaly had clients sign a "stack" of forms in advance.

Each of the defense lawyers made a point of introducing his client and offering details of the defendant's life: Kamuvaka was born in the Central African Republic, earned a degree in social work and psychology in 1976, received a doctorate in social work from Cornell University, and was one of the founders of MultiEthnic.

Manamela, 52, is from South Africa and, during apartheid, fled to Tanzania. "He has spent his life helping troubled children," said his attorney, Paul J. Hetznecker.

At MultiEthnic, Manamela "put his trust in the . . . workers" he supervised, and "they violated Mr. Manamela's trust in them," said the lawyer.

But, like Cannon, Hetznecker conceded that "there was a lot of mismanagement there."

Spade said Murray was born in Sierra Leone, received an undergraduate degree in computer science from the University of Maryland, and chose to do social work.

"The mother of the girl was hiding what was going on," Spade said, referring to Kelly's mother, Andrea, who pleaded guilty last year in the Court of Common Pleas to third-degree murder and was sentenced to 20 to 40 years.

Coulibaly, 40, was born in Mali and holds a nursing degree. Five other MultiEthnic employees also charged by the U.S. Attorney's Office have pleaded guilty.

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Contact staff writer Nathan Gorenstein at 215-854-2797 or ngorenstein@phillynews.com.