WA was sued over Pierce County toddler’s death. Jury returned $130M verdict
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- A 2-year-old Parkland girl, Sarai Brooks, was killed by her mother’s boyfriend in 2022.
- Sarai had been under the care of the state’s child-welfare system due to suspected abuse.
- Sarai’s family sued the state and a daycare for wrongful death. A jury awarded $130M.
Pierce County jurors awarded $130 million against the state and a daycare in a lawsuit filed by the family of a 2-year-old girl who was discovered dead in a Parkland apartment by a social worker, according to a spokesperson for the family’s legal counsel.
The jury returned the verdict in favor of the estate of Sarai Brooks on Tuesday, a spokesperson for Dearie Law Group said in a news release Wednesday. The verdict was the largest of its type in Washington state history, the spokesperson said.
The wrongful death lawsuit, filed in 2024, alleged that the state and a South Hill daycare failed to protect Sarai, who had been removed from her mother’s care due to suspected abuse but was returned shortly before she was killed in 2022 by her mother’s boyfriend.
During opening statements in the civil trial last month, attorneys for the state and Love & Laughter Learning Center disputed allegations of wrongdoing. They emphasized that Sarai’s death was caused by two people: her mother, Jharmaine Baker, and her mother’s boyfriend, Augustino Seu Maile.
Attorney Ray Dearie, one of the lawyers representing Sarai’s family, told jurors at the time that the plaintiffs’ legal counsel was seeking $175 million in damages, including for Sarai’s three siblings.
“This verdict gives Sarai a voice,” Dearie said in a statement Wednesday. “The jury had the very difficult burden of hearing in graphic detail exactly what Sarai endured, and how many opportunities there were to save her.”
The jury’s verdict also included an additional $10 million against Baker and Maile, according to the spokesperson for Dearie Law Group.
Sarai, who was found dead on March 11, 2022, died from blunt-force trauma to her head, and had bruises from her face to her feet, abrasions on her cheek and lacerations on and in her mouth, The News Tribune previously reported.
Nearly a year earlier, Child Protective Services took Sarai and her two brothers from Baker due to suspicions of severe abuse, court records show. The state’s Department of Children, Youth and Families, which oversees CPS, learned that Baker was allowing Maile to regularly abuse Sarai, according to the lawsuit.
Baker got the children back in December 2021 under a court order that placed several conditions on their return, Dearie told jurors last month. Baker was required to keep away from Maile, immediately notify law enforcement if he showed up or tried to contact her kids, and enroll her children in daycare to put more sets of eyes on them, among other rules.
Baker, who was also abused by Maile and pregnant with his child, didn’t comply with all conditions, according to Dearie, who asserted that the noncompliance should have again led to the children being removed from her care. Although Baker denied any contact with Maile, neighbors reported they fought all the time, and Maile was asleep in a bedroom during one DCYF health-and-safety visit, Dearie had said.
During Sarai’s first two days at Love & Laughter Learning Center, staff documented two marks on her thigh and an eye bruise, but they didn’t report those injuries to DCYF despite having a mandatory duty to report suspected abuse or neglect, Dearie told jurors last month.
“The most painful part of this case is how profoundly preventable it was,” Dearie said in a statement Wednesday. “All it took to save this child’s life was for one person to do their job: a call to a social worker, a report from a mandated reporter, or any attempt at follow-up by the state. Any one of those actions could have saved Sarai’s life.”
The jury apportioned liability between the state and the daycare center as 90% and 10%, respectively, according to the spokesperson for Dearie Law Group.
“DCYF is unable to comment on the specifics of this matter as we evaluate our legal options,” DCYF spokesperson Nancy Gutierrez said in an email. “DCYF remains dedicated to the safety and well-being of children.”
Attorney Mary C. Butler, one of the lawyers representing Love & Laughter Learning Center, didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment Wednesday.
Butler told jurors last month that the state failed to provide key information to the daycare. Staff knew the children were in the custody of the state under a dependency order, but Butler said it shouldn’t have been inferred that the daycare also should have known a host of other things, including that there was abuse.
The daycare’s staff didn’t believe there was abuse, which is why they chose not to call Child Protective Services, according to Butler’s opening statements to the jury last month. There were no more documented injuries after the first two days Sarai attended the daycare and Baker had claimed that Sarai bumped her head with a sibling, Butler said. The state did not convey to daycare staff that Baker was untrustworthy, Butler added.
Attorney Melissa Nelson, one of the state’s lawyers, told jurors last month that Baker lied to and deceived DCYF about certain things, including contact with Maile, and that the state was unaware of Sarai’s injuries documented at daycare. DCYF couldn’t act on what it didn’t know, she said.
Nelson assured the jury, however, that DCYF knew this was “a high-risk case” and didn’t rely purely on Baker’s word, noting that the agency obtained a restraining order in June 2021 to keep Maile from the children. By December 2021, Baker had made progress and done everything asked of her by DCYF, and no social worker, daycare employee, service provider or other person in a “circle of trust” with eyes and ears on Sarai observed any abuse, according to Nelson.
Maile and Baker, 29 and 21 years old at the time of Sarai’s death, were both charged with her murder and ultimately entered into plea bargains. The News Tribune previously reported. Maile was sentenced to more than 16 years in prison in July 2024 after pleading guilty to manslaughter and other felonies. Baker was sentenced to six years in prison in June 2023 after she pleaded guilty to criminal mistreatment and two counts of second-degree child assault.
This story was originally published April 8, 2026 at 10:55 AM.
