Family of 2-year-old girl killed in Pierce County sues South Hill day care, DCYF
The family of a 2-year-old girl killed by her mother’s boyfriend in 2022 has sued the state and a South Hill day care, alleging that the two systems meant to protect the toddler failed.
A social worker found the girl’s body in the hallway of the Parkland apartment where she lived on March 11, 2022.
She died from blunt-force trauma to her head, The News Tribune reported, and medical examiners found she had too many injuries to record.
The family’s lawsuit is against the state Department of Children, Youth and Families and against the Love and Laughter Learning Center. The News Tribune asked the day care and a DCYF spokesperson for comment. The day care did not respond. The DCYF spokesperson did not comment on the lawsuit, but did provide updates about recommended changes the agency considered following a review of the girl’s death.
Attorney Raymond J. Dearie, Jr., with the Dearie Law Group, is one of the lawyers representing the family.
“They don’t want this to happen to another little girl, another little child,” he said. “And they want some justice for Sarai.”
The girl’s grandmother, Danielle Benson, is suing as the personal representative of the toddler’s estate.
“This was a complete system breakdown,” Dearie said. “They’re hoping that, in Sarai’s name, we can do better as a society, as a community.”
The lawsuit, filed Dec. 3 in Pierce County Superior Court, seeks unspecified damages. It gives this account of what happened:
Hospital workers found injuries such as scars, burns and bite marks on Sarai in 2021. DCYF found that Sarai’s mother was letting the man she was in a relationship with, Augustino Seu Maile, abuse the girl. They removed the child and put her in the care of her aunt and uncle.
Later that year, DCYF returned the girl to her mother, with supervision, and with the requirement that they not have contact with Maile, among other stipulations.
The mother continued contact with Maile, and he kept abusing the child.
“We believe any basic, competent investigation would have revealed that he was still abusing Sarai,” Dearie said. “... Fundamentally, how on Earth did you miss something that seemed to be so obvious?”
Sarai started going to the Love & Laughter Learning Center & School Kids Clubhouse in January 2022.
Workers at the day care were worried about Sarai when she showed up with injuries, including black eyes, the lawsuit says. They allegedly did not report the injuries to police or to DCYF, as required by state law.
Directors of the facility allegedly told employees they would “take care” of the concerns but also did not report the injuries to police or DCYF.
“There was no communication, and in this case the evidence shows that the day care facility, through its employees and its managers, failed to carry out one of its most fundamental responsibilities in protecting kids, and that’s functioning as a mandatory reporter,” Dearie told The News Tribune.
Manslaughter sentencing
A judge sentenced Maile to more than 16 years in prison earlier this year. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and three counts of second-degree assault of a child, The News Tribune reported. The assault charges were for hurting Sarai’s brothers.
He told the court at sentencing that Sarai’s death was an accident.
Sentencing Judge Angelica Williams disputed that and said that Sarai and her siblings had suffered 15 months of torture.
A judge sentenced the girl’s mother, Jharmaine Baker, to six years in prison in June 2023 after she pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal mistreatment and two counts of second-degree assault of a child.
Benson, Sarai’s grandmother, told the court at Maile’s sentencing that Sarai “was a fierce little girl,” who had been excited for her birthday. They were going to go shopping and get manicures and pedicures to celebrate Sarai turning 3.
Maile killed the girl a month before her birthday.
‘Complete system overwhelm’
The state publishes reports, called child fatality reviews, when a child under state supervision dies.
Among other things, the committee that reviewed Sarai’s death discussed “what they perceived to be a complete system overwhelm for DCYF and agency partners, such as law enforcement.”
The agency’s “field staff did what they could with the available resources,” the report says.
The review committee also discussed “the loss of collective knowledge and expertise within DCYF due to recent staff turnover and vacancy rates.”
The committee found “that turnover in this office led to multiple case transfers and oversight by different supervisors during the course of the CFWS (Child Family Welfare Services) case” and “identified the importance of new field staff having the opportunity to learn through the transfer of knowledge from veteran field staff and supervisors.”
The report said that DCYF’s domestic-violence training is good, but that “no current services are explicitly offered for physical abuse cases or cases involving a parental failure to protect from physical abuse.”
The group also “wondered if historical racism impacted the mother’s willingness to engage with a government agency” and “discussed the importance of DCYF building connections with culturally relevant communities and service providers as a mechanism to reduce barriers for parents accessing services.”
Among other things, they recommended that DCYF hire a domestic-violence expert to work with caseworkers.
Asked about the status of the recommendations in the report, DCYF spokesperson Nancy Gutierrez gave various updates in an email Monday, including that: “A domestic violence program manager position was created. This position was posted for hire.”
News Tribune archives contributed to this report.
This story was originally published December 8, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
