Swain DSS workers banned from Cherokee

Swain DSS workers banned from Cherokee | The Asheville Citizen-Times | citizen-times.com

CHEROKEE — Five social workers named in the police investigation into the death of Aubrey Littlejohn will no longer work on the Cherokee Indian Reservation.

The attorney general for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in a memo on Friday said the N.C. Division of Social Services approved a request that the social workers be excluded from duties in Cherokee during the investigation.

“Obviously we don’t have a comfort level until we see that this issue is resolved,” Principal Chief Michell Hicks said Monday.

The memo said social workers not involved in the investigation would work on the reservation.

Cherokee doesn’t have its own social services office. State offices in Swain and Jackson counties handle calls on the reservation.

The 15-month-old child died Jan. 10 after spending the previous day strapped into a car seat for 12 hours and given only bites of a hot dog and sips of soda, according to a search warrant filed by the State Bureau of Investigation.

Aubrey was a member of the tribe though living in Swain County.

Her great-aunt, Lady Bird Powell, discovered she wasn't breathing that night and took her to the Cherokee Indian Hospital. Powell called 911 along the way and tried to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation, according to court papers.

She has denied the allegation that Aubrey was left strapped in her car seat and wasn't properly fed. She said in an interview that Aubrey was well-cared-for

Aubrey's mother, Jasmine Littlejohn, gave her daughter to Powell when she was only months old because she could not care for her. Littlejohn was in jail awaiting sentencing in a federal drug case at the time of the child's death. She is still in jail.

Social worker Craig Smith, who visited Powell's home five months before Aubrey died, has already been suspended with pay pending the outcome of the investigation. He was at the home acting on a tip that Aubrey fell down a set of stairs from an unbuckled car seat.

Smith told police he falsified records after the child's death to show he had made sure she was seen by a doctor for injuries from the fall, according to investigator’s statements in court papers. He told investigators his supervisor instructed him to fix the records. A preliminary autopsy found Aubrey had a broken arm that had healed before her death.