Jury still out on Muslim mom's lawsuit

Jury still out on Muslim mom's lawsuit

Family accuses Children Services caseworker of discrimination

Saturday, March 12, 2011 02:53 AM
BY RITA PRICE

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

A U.S. District Court jury is to resume deliberations on Monday in the case of a Muslim woman and her daughters, who say that a Franklin County Children Services caseworker violated their rights.

Jurors deliberated for about seven hours yesterday without reaching a verdict.

The lawsuit filed by Hadiya AbdulSalaam and two of her daughters says caseworker Amber Spires lied, kept the family members apart and retaliated against them when they complained about the agency's handling of their foster-care case.

AbdulSalaam's attorney, Michael Moore, has said that race and religion were at the root of Spires' actions.

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In his closing argument yesterday, Moore told jurors that they should send a message "to this agency and this caseworker and to social workers all over the United States that this conduct will not be tolerated."

Moore also argued for damages for the family to show child-welfare agencies that "there are consequences to abusing the power that they have."

But Patrick Piccininni, the assistant Franklin County prosecutor representing Spires, told the jury that the caseworker never treated AbdulSalaam, of Grandview Heights, unfairly while investigating allegations of abuse and educational neglect in 2003 and 2004.

Piccininni said Moore deflected the real issues during the trial, which began Feb. 25.

"He wants to make his case about religion, he wants to make this case about being different, he wants to make this case about everything but the allegations," Piccininni said.

Spires "did not fabricate anything in this file," he said. "She did not lie."

Piccininni said that AbdulSalaam and her husband, Naim, were uncooperative and stonewalled the agency's attempts to resolve the case and return the girls to their mother.

They remained apart for about a year, during which time Mrs. AbdulSalaam said the agency refused to place her children in a Muslim foster home and allowed the girls to attend a Christian church with their foster parents.

A judge ruled in favor of Mrs. AbdulSalaam on the educational-neglect accusations in 2005, and the federal lawsuit was filed in 2006.

If the family prevails, observers say, it will mark the first constitutional-rights case decided against Franklin County Children Services. Spires is the sole defendant, but the agency and the county stand by her.

rprice@dispatch.com