An Illinois Department of Children and Family Services caseworker assigned to protect a baby boy refused to read the family's case file because she didn't want to "prejudge" the mother, according to a report.
The infant, 3-month-old Jesse James Law, died Dec. 17, 2002, of undetermined causes, although Morgan County Coroner Jeff Lair said it was probably Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
The case file, which workers new to an ongoing case are required to review, contained a recent parent assessment evaluation by the DCFS that stated it was too dangerous to leave any child in the care of the mother, Amiemay Daniels.
"The (parent assessment team) concluded the mother was unable to effectively care for her children and did not possess the skills to do so in the near future. The assessment determined the mother's children would be at high risk," according to a child death report.
The file also said that Daniels' two older children were placed in foster homes and gave the reasons why they were taken into protective custody.
The caseworker, the second assigned to the family, allowed the boy to remain with Daniels because she was complying with services, a fact later contradicted by the investigator from the Inspector General's Office for the DCFS.
The case file said that Daniels refused to follow earlier warnings about allowing baby Jesse to sleep on his stomach. The caseworker worried the baby might die from SIDS.
When Daniels became pregnant with Jesse, her third child, she failed to seek medical care, refused to participate in anger management or parenting classes and continued to smoke, the investigative report stated.
Because the mother already had two children who were removed to protective custody, the DCFS worker or someone on the hospital staff should have called the state child abuse hot line when Jesse was born. But the child death investigator reported the hospital staff thought DCFS should have called, and the DCFS worker thought it was the hospital's duty. No one called.
The parent assessment evaluation that went unread by the second caseworker also urged that Daniels be placed in a "structured living environment," and warned that even if she accepted services, her children should not be returned to her.
However, the state placed Daniels in an independent living environment with Jesse, which provided little monitoring, the investigative report stated.
While making an unannounced visit, the caseworker found the baby sleeping face down near a wall, according to the report. Warned about this practice, Daniels became "belligerent," the report stated.
Jesse died on Dec. 17, 2002, lying face down in his bed.
An autopsy showed a small indentation on his forehead. Lair, the coroner, said he thought the indentation came from a pacifier underneath the child's forehead. No criminal charges were filed.
The report recommended no discipline for the DCFS caseworker and did not address why the caseworker failed to read the file or press to have the infant taken into protective custody.
Jesse James Law was buried in the back corner of a Jacksonville cemetery. Only a simple metal plate with his name stamped on it, provided by the funeral home, marks the grave.
