ADAMS COUNTY, Pa. (WHP) — Three Adams County Children and Youth Services (CYS) workers have been charged after allegedly failing to properly handle the case of a 15-month-old girl, which lead to her death.
The three employees including caseworker, Steve Murphy; his supervisor, Clarissa Kiessling; and Sherri Depasqua, a CYS assistant administrator, were each charged with two felony counts of endangering the welfare of children.
READ MORE | State Police: Adams County woman charged with shaking, killing 15-month-old daughter
During a press conference held on Tuesday at 11 a.m., Adams County District Attorney Brian Sinnett discussed details in the year long investigation:
"This is Iris Mummert. Iris was born at just 27 weeks of gestation on Feb. 6 of 2019 with cocaine, opiates, and THC in her system," the DA opened the presser with.
According to court documents, the finding on drugs in the infants system immediately prompted the intervention of CYS. Iris and her older sister were placed into a foster home in Feb. 2019.
The child was already born with difficulties, and Sinnett says those difficulties only worsened under the care of her mother, Felisha Ellis.
From Feb. 2019 to Feb. 2020, Iris and her sister lived with foster parents.
The children's foster parents, along with other service providers, documented their concerns about the children returning to live with Ellis.
According to court documents, those concerns included Ellis's mental health, substance abuse, and other parenting issues.
Court documents show Depasqua recommended those concerns be thrown out and not presented to the court.
Iris's foster mother worked for Dauphin County CYS and was quoted in the court documents saying:
"As a professional in this field, I... have struggled to describe this work as anything else but shallow and mediocre, setting these children up for failure."
In Feb. 2020, Iris and her sister were returned to Ellis's care. A few months later, on May 21, 2020 a ChildLine referral came to CYS prompting an after-hours caseworker visit Ellis's home.
Court documents show, the very next day, May 22, 2020, Ellis was set to appear in a review hearing. She attended via telephone. Depasqua, Kiessling, and Murphy all attended in person. Not one of the three CYS employees shared with the court information about the ChildLine referral and that an after-hours caseworker visit took place to Ellis's home the day before.
Exactly seven days later, on May 29, 2020, Iris was violently shaken by Ellis, causing skull fractures, clavicle fractures, and a retinal detachment, among other injuries.
Ellis admitted to officials that she committed the act because she was upset and "wanted a few minutes to herself", according to Sinnett.
Now, the DA is saying her death could have been avoided with the help of three CYS employees, who allegedly ignored all of the warning signs leading up to Iris's murder.
"Iris's murder was very likely avoidable," Sinnett said. "As a result of that homicide investigation and prosecution. It became apparent that several serious failures occurred in the supervision and reunification process in this case."
The child's death sparked a statewide investigating Grand Jury requested by Sinnett in October 2022.
That Grand Jury recommended Steven Murphy (an Adams County CYS case worker), Clarissa Kiessling (Adams County CYS supervisor who directly supervised Murphy) , and Sherri Depasqua (the assistant administrator of Adams County CYS who directly supervised both Kiessling and Murphy), each be charged with felony counts of endangering the welfare of children.
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During Iris's 15 months of life, Sinnett says multiple concerns expressed by foster parents, service providers, and individuals were ignored. These included concerns of Ellis being abusive, unable to manage both children at the same time without assistance, and having limited cognitive functioning.
Due to the three workers ignoring these legitimate concerns according to documents, and due to the employees failing to inform the court about these concerns, Sinnett says they will now be prosecuted in connection to Iris' death.
All three individuals are being charged with two felony counts of endangering the welfare of a child and have all turned themselves in to the police.
Sinnett said Murphy resigned from CYS on Jul. 14.
"Any relation to this? I have suspicions, but I don't know that," Sinnett said.
Sinnett continued on to say that Kiessling and Depasqua were serving as supervisors at CYS as recently as the morning of Aug. 1, the same day they were charged with child endangerment.
As for Ellis, she is still being held at SCI Cambridge and is expected to remain there for decades under the charge of third degree murder, according to officials.
CBS 21 News reached out to Adams County CYS. We were referred to the County Manager, Steve Nevada.
Nevada referred us to a press release sent out by the Adams County Commissioners.
In the press release, County Solicitor, Molly Mudd is quoted:
"We ask the public to keep in mind that these staff members are entitled to a presumption of innocence and that a grand jury does not necessarily see exculpatory evidence or hear the other side of the story during its deliberations."
The press release also notes the CYS staff members have been placed on administrative leave.
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