Tentative settlement reached in civil suit over Danieal Kelly's death

A lawsuit filed on behalf of Danieal Kelly's estate has been tentatively settled with a private agency that had been contracted to look after the 14-year-old girl, who died of neglect and starvation in her mother's Parkside home in August 2006.

Walter "Pete" Swayze III, the civil attorney for the agency, MultiEthnic Behavioral Health, said yesterday that a "confidential settlement" had been reached in the case "pending approval by the Orphans' Court."

Swayze would not say how the now-defunct company would pay, but sources familiar with the case said MultiEthnic's insurance carrier would pay the settlement.

Swayze also confirmed yesterday that another lawsuit filed on behalf of Danieal's oldest brother, Troy Washington, was also recently settled with MultiEthnic. That amount is also confidential.

The suit on behalf of Danieal's estate, filed in Common Pleas Court on Aug. 1, 2008, caused a firestorm when it was first written about in the Daily News because the girl's parents would have been potential beneficiaries. The parents had just been criminally charged in connection with their daughter's death following a state grand-jury investigation.

Andrea Kelly, the mother, was charged with murder. Daniel Kelly, the father, who did not live with his daughter at the time, was charged with endangering the welfare of his child.

After the lawsuit was filed, a lot changed.

Danieal's parents were removed as administrators of the girl's estate and were named as defendants in the lawsuit.

Also, the city, the state, the city Department of Human Services and the state Department of Public Welfare were removed as defendants in the suit, which had been moved to federal court.

The state grand-jury investigation had also led to criminal charges against two now-fired DHS social workers, Dana Poindexter and Laura Sommerer, and two MultiEthnic employees, co-founder Mickal Kamuvaka and social worker Julius Murray.

Kamuvaka and Murray are among four former MultiEthnic employees who are now on trial in federal court on fraud charges.

Following the state criminal charges against the parents, Orphans' Court decreed in December 2008 that retired Judge Abraham Gafni become administrator of Danieal's estate. Gafni then hired the Raynes McCarty law firm to be the estate's new attorneys.

Attorney A. Roy DeCaro said his firm had been hired to take over the case "to see that [Danieal's] siblings, [her] 12 brothers and sisters, would be taken care of as a result of the terrible tragedy that occurred," referring to Danieal's death.

Last July, DeCaro filed an amended lawsuit in federal court that added the parents as defendants, contending that Andrea and Daniel Kelly willfully and/or negligently failed to care for Danieal.

DeCaro, in a separate court document, wrote that the estate was dismissing the federal civil-rights claims against the city, state, DHS and DPW based on past U.S. Supreme Court and Third Circuit Court decisions.

Those courts have decided that a state, a city and their agencies are responsible for an individual's constitutional rights if they have custody of that individual. But Danieal remained in the custody of her mother while her mother was supposed to be receiving services from DHS and MultiEthnic.

Tthe lawsuit was moved back to Common Pleas Court. DeCaro is expected to file a petition shortly to get approval for the settlement, which would benefit Danieal's siblings.

The lawsuit left as defendants MultiEthnic, Kamuvaka, Murray, Poindexter and Sommerer.

As for the lawsuit filed on behalf of Troy Washington, Eric Zajac, who is his attorney, did not return a call from the Daily News yesterday.

Andrea Kelly is serving a 20- to-40-year sentence in prison after pleading guilty to third-degree murder and endangering the welfare of a child. Daniel Kelly faces trial in November.