SARASOTA, Fla. — It’s a $28 million verdict that one family hopes will bring changes to the Department of Children and Families (DCF.)
On Monday, jurors for a Sarasota civil lawsuit found the decision not to remove a 6-year-old child from a home and lack of a safety plan resulted in more abuse.
Investigators say back in 2015 the child's mother attempted to drown her and stabbed her more than a dozen times, leaving the child with a lifetime of medical and psychological concerns.
The mother is now in prison and the grandparents have adopted the child.
The family’s attorneys say they believe this case has statewide importance and hope it affects the way DCF completes investigations where children are determined to be in present danger with their parents.
“In this case, last Friday night, a jury rendered a verdict of $28 million in a civil lawsuit against DCF because they allowed a child to be exposed to her mother who had a long history of disturbing mental illness problems and involvement with the department," Lead Counsel Damian Mallard said.
"Twelve hours after they left, the child was stabbed 14 times, had her abdomen cut open, and her intestines were coming out. Thankfully the surgeons at Sarasota Memorial saved her life, and she was flown to All Children’s Hospital in St. Pete where she spent the next 10 days,” Mallard continued.
He says the problem is DCF isn’t consistent in how they investigate these types of calls. He says not all DCF investigators were checking the history of police activity before visiting a home and making the decision to remove a child from their parent’s care or placing the child with a relative temporarily.
“The verdict really reflects their assessment of just how badly injured a child can be when they don’t have access to the right information, when they don’t have access and have to go through red tape, to get critical, critical data, about who they’re investigating,” Attorney Alan Perez said. “We hope the legislature and Governor DeSantis come through for us and help this child and help get what she needs.”
Under Florida law, cases involving high-value verdicts have to be approved by lawmakers and signed off on by the governor.
The child’s grandfather, who is now her adopted father, hopes the state will make changes to how investigators handle cases. We are not identifying him to protect the child.
“She has been through hell and back over the last seven years. We are grateful she is with us and can really start to heal. We also hope that DCF will change the way it does things. The investigators need to have access to police records, and they need to be trained better to do their job. Hopefully some good will come out of this. Other children will be saved from the horrors our daughter has had to experience,” he said.
10 Tampa Bay has asked DCF for a response to this verdict. This story will be updated once we hear back.