Parents charged in starvation death sue city

updated 6:18 p.m. ET Aug. 12, 2008

PHILADELPHIA - The parents charged in the starvation death of their bedridden daughter have sued the city, alleging that dangerous and reckless actions by several municipal employees and contract workers contributed to the girl's death.

The lawsuit outraged prosecutors, who have charged Andrea Kelly, 39, with murder in the death of 14-year-old Danieal Kelly, who had cerebral palsy and died two years ago from malnutrition and maggot-infested bedsores.

Danieal's father, Daniel Kelly, did not live with the girl but is charged with child endangerment.

The wrongful death suit, filed earlier this month, seeks reimbursement for medical bills, funeral costs and other expenses.

Prosecutors angered by lawsuit
Lawyers said they filed the suit to protect the interests of the victim's siblings.

"The parents are not seeking any money from this," attorney Brian Mildenberg said. "The potential beneficiaries are the brothers and sisters and the parents, but the parents may be disqualified by a conviction or a civil finding of abandonment."

Prosecutors were angered.

"I think it's an obscenity. I cannot imagine that people in that situation who did what they did to their own daughter are attempting to profit from it," Assistant District Attorney Ed McCann, head of the city's homicide unit, told the Philadelphia Daily News.

Defendants include the city Department of Human Services, the state Department of Public Welfare, a behavioral health contractor and two now-fired city caseworkers who have been criminally charged in the case.

It was not immediately clear if the lawsuit was on behalf of all nine of Danieal's siblings. A separate suit filed on behalf of her oldest sibling, 19-year-old Troy Washington, names similar defendants and claims he suffered "substantial mental pain" from his sister's death.

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