Witness tells of false reports by DCYF/CPS in Kelly death

Witness tells of false reports in Kelly death

By Nathan Gorenstein
Inquirer Staff Writer

Within hours of Danieal Kelly's death, officials at the social services company responsible for the 14-year-old girl's safety were rushing to produce backdated paperwork in an effort that apparently included forging the signature of the teen's mother on a form, according to testimony yesterday in federal court.
Written on the day of Kelly's death, Aug. 4, 2006, the document was an "encounter" form recording a home visit that had in fact occurred months earlier.

Kelly suffered from cerebral palsy and lived in a West Philadelphia household with seven siblings. She died, covered in bedsores, of starvation. Her family was under the supervision of the city's Department of Human Services, which subcontracted the work to now-defunct MultiEthnic Behavioral Health Inc.

After Kelly's death, nine MultiEthnic employees were charged with billing the city for services they never provided to her and other children, and with fabricating and destroying subpoenaed documents. Five have pleaded guilty, and four are on trial in U.S. District Court.

Yesterday, Christiana Nimpson, a former MultiEthnic caseworker, said she filled out the encounter form on the day of Kelly's death at the request of agency cofounder Mickal Kamuvaka - and that she left the "recipient signature" line blank.

Officials were rushing to complete required paperwork for the family's file, which DHS was demanding.

Nimpson said that after she completed the form, either Kamuvaka or Solomon Manamela, another supervisor, asked her also to sign the name of Kelly's mother, Andrea. Both supervisors are among the four on trial.

Nimpson said she refused, testifying, "I thought it wasn't right."

Under questioning from Assistant U.S. Attorney Bea Witzleben, Nimpson said she could not recall which of the supervisors made the request.

The form - bearing the signature Andrea Kelly - was entered into evidence. Defense attorneys did not challenge Nimpson's testimony, and exactly how the form came to be signed, and who signed it, was not answered.

Nimpson also said that on 10 occasions, Kamuvaka asked her to go through other caseworkers' files and fabricate missing reports. She said Manamela asked her to do the same thing five times in her four years with the agency.

Previous witnesses had testified that MultiEthnic managers worried that incomplete files would threaten the agency's contract with DHS.

To generate data for the forms, Nimpson said, she sometimes called families that were supposed to have been visited by other caseworkers. She also sometimes fabricated her own "progress notes" because she did not have time to make the required visits, she said.

Nimpson said she was paid about $28,000 a year, and, like other caseworkers who have testified, said she worked two or three jobs.

Nimpson said she did visit the Kelly household in late May or early June to teach Andrea Kelly parenting skills and was accompanied by the family's caseworker, Julius Juma Murray. Nimpson said she spoke to the mother on the porch and waited outside while Murray entered the home.

Andrea Kelly later received a 30-year prison sentence for her role in her daughter's death.

Contact staff writer Nathan Gorenstein at 215-854-4797 or ngorenstein@phillynews.com.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20100210_Witness_tells_of_false_reports_in_Kelly_death.html