Kentucky Report On Child Abuse Fatalities Ignores The Death Of 9 Year-Old Amy Dye

Dec. 7, 2011



State records “establish in brutal detail” that Amythz “Amy” Dye’s Feb. 4 death was “a direct result of child abuse or neglect,” according to an order last month from Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd.

Yet Amy was not counted in the state’s annual report on child abuse deaths, which said that 18 other children died from abuse or neglect during the fiscal year that ended June 30.

Lawmakers and a leading child advocate are outraged that the Cabinet for Health and Family Services didn’t count the death of the 9-year-old Todd County girl, who was fatally bludgeoned by her adoptive brother after a history of alleged abuse in the home.

“If they didn’t even include Amy Dye, what good is the report?” asked Sen. Julie Denton, a Louisville Republican who is chairwoman of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee. “This is a cabinet that decides what they want their rules to be, and they’ve gone rogue.”

Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, said the omission makes him question the value of the annual report to lawmakers, which is required by law and is supposed to provide accurate statistics on child abuse deaths and injuries.

'Arrogance'
“You have to wonder how many other cases in which kids died are not included,” he said. “What you’re seeing is an attitude of arrogance that the cabinet places itself above the law.”

Cabinet officials did not include Amy’s death in the Dec. 1 report because they do not believe they are required to under the state law that defines abuse and neglect, spokeswoman Gwenda Bond said.

“The statute defines the parameters for this report,” she said.

But Shepherd has previously rejected the same argument from cabinet lawyers who were hoping to keep records of Amy’s case secret. They contended that under state law her death should not be classified as one of abuse or neglect because a sibling, rather than a parent or guardian, caused it.

That was an argument the judge flatly rejected as a misinterpretation of state law. Shepherd ruled Amy’s death was the direct result of abuse or neglect and ordered the records disclosed under a state law that allows the release of such records in the case of a child abuse death or serious injury.

“To be clear, a parent need not personally administer the fatal blow in order to be held responsible for abuse or neglect ... if the parent places the child in danger and neglects to protect the child from ongoing physical or emotional abuse by a sibling or anyone else,” Shepherd’s Nov. 7 order said. “Even if the parent here did not directly inflict the physical abuse, there can be no question that the failure to protect this child from the repeated attacks by a sibling constitutes child neglect at a minimum.”

But three weeks later, cabinet officials still declined to classify Amy’s death as being caused by abuse or neglect when they issued the annual report on child fatalities. The 18 deaths listed in the report were far fewer than the 33 during the previous year.

Its release comes as a national advocacy organization is pushing for stricter and more uniform standards among states that now voluntarily report child abuse death and injury rates to the federal government.

Experts believe that nationwide as many as half of all child abuse death are not currently reported — misclassified as being from another cause, such as an accident, said Kim Day, director of the Washington-based National Coalition to End Child Abuse Deaths. And there’s no incentive for states to report all deaths, she said.

“If you very narrowly define child abuse deaths, you have fewer deaths,” she said.

Todd Circuit Judge Tyler Gill, who recently sentenced Amy’s adoptive brother, Garrett Dye, to 50 years in prison for fatally beating her, said he was surprised to learn Amy’s death wasn’t classified as a child abuse death in the annual report.

“I think it should be in there,” he said. “I don’t think you’re going to find a whole lot of folks who have a different opinion.

Rep. Tom Burch, D-Louisville, found the cabinet’s decision incredible.

“They know it happened,” said Burch, chairman of the House Health and Welfare Committee. “Why would they not count that?”

The news that Amy’s death was not included in the annual report comes amid a flurry of developments involving the state child welfare system.

On Monday the cabinet confirmed that Patricia Wilson, its commissioner for social services, had abruptly resigned without explanation. Wilson oversaw the Department for Community Based Services, which includes child abuse investigation and protection.

Janie Miller, the cabinet secretary, released a brief statement Tuesday about the resignation of Wilson, a career social services employee.

“Commissioner Wilson’s resignation was a personal decision,” Miller said. “The appointment of a replacement is currently under consideration and an announcement is expected by Dec. 19, her last day.

Last week Gov. Steve Beshear ordered the cabinet to release all records of child abuse deaths and serious injuries, appearing to end a two-year court battle by The Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-leader for access to such material.

Shepherd has twice ruled that the cabinet must release such records, and he ruled the same way in the Dye case after the records were sought by the Todd County Standard.

More action is expected on Dec. 19, the day Burch and Denton plan a joint meeting of the House-Senate Health and Welfare Committee to go over the annual child fatality report.

Denton said she wants to know why the report was released three months after the Sept. 1 deadline set by state law. And she wants to know why the cabinet drastically altered the format of the report from previous years, paring down content and omitting most of the detail contained in past reports.

But she said she’s not confident of getting detailed answers.

“My expectations are not too terribly high,” she said.


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[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] "The Cabinet's records related to abuse and neglect of Amythz Dye"