Cuyahoga County to settle lawsuit for $3 million with the father of murdered four-year-old Aniya Day -Garrett, the greater Clevelander who died while under the watch of Cuyahoga County Job and Family Services....By editor Kathy Wray Coleman of Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenenwsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest
 |
| Four-year-old murder greater Cleveland victim Aniya Day- Garrett and her father, Mickhal Garrett |
 |
| Sierra Day and Deonte Lewis |
 |
| Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish |
 |
| Cuyahoga County Job and Family Services Administrator David Merriman |
By editor Kathy Wray Coleman
CLEVELANDURBANNEWS.COM-CLEVELAND, Ohio-The father of four-year-old murder victim Aniya Day-Garrett, whose mother, Sierra Day, and the mother's boyfriend, Deonte Lewis, were both found guilty last year of aggravated murder, felonious assault, permitting child abuse, endangering children and tampering with evidence, will settle a wrongful death lawsuit with Cuyahoga County for $3 million, sources said Monday.
County Council is expected to approve the settlement of the lawsuit with the child's father, Mickhal Garrett, at its regular meeting on Tuesday.
The settlement comes as racial unrest and nationwide protests continue following the murder last month by a since fired Minneapolis White cop of 46-year-old George Floyd, an unarmed Black man whose killing has highlighted excessive force and institutionalized racism nationwide.
Cleveland joined more that two dozen other cities across the country in rioting during protests last month for justice for Floyd, more than 100 people arrested in Cleveland on charges ranging from disorderly conduct to resisting arrest, menacing and aggravated rioting, some of them felony arrests.
In addition to the county, Aniya's father's lawsuit, filed in April of 2019, also names two Euclid daycare centers as defendants, among others, the daycare centers officials accused of neglect and of ignoring signs and claims of abuse, which the daycare centers have denied.
Aniya was murdered March 11, 2018, partly in response to neglect and malfeasance by county officials and Job and Family Services, the lawsuit says, and this occurred, says the lawsuit, in spite of the fact that she was under the eyeful watch of Job and Family Services following claims of child abuse reported against the mother and boyfriend.
Both the mother and boyfriend were convicted by a county jury last year and were sentenced before Common Pleas Judge Timothy McCormick, who presided in the case and handed both of them a life sentence.
Neither Sierra Day, then 24, the dead girl's mother, nor Lewis, 27 at the time and the mother's boyfriend, took the stand during the five-day trial.
Their attorneys argued at trial that there was no direct evidence that links their clients to the crime and that neither delivered the alleged blow that allegedly killed the innocent Black child.
Prosecutors relied primarily on testimony from first responders, including police.
Cuyahoga County Job and Family Services social worker Lorra Greene testified and said Day was a good mother at first, but lost her way after she began dating Lewis.
Aniya died at an area hospital following a stroke, the county medical examiner ruled, and after police were summoned to her mother's home at Cultural Garden Apartments on Lake Shore Boulevard in suburban Euclid, Ohio for a report of an unresponsive child.
Euclid is a middle class Cleveland suburb,
The boyfriend lived there too with the mother, prosecutors said at trial, his attorneys saying otherwise, and his family saying the same thing, and that Lewis really was not the culprit in Aniya's death, and instead, an onlooker to Day's aggressive mothering, and child abuse and murder, a jury subsequently determined.
The child was not breathing and had marks on her feet and legs, trial court records reveal.
Led by Black Lives Matter Cleveland, Black on Black Crime Inc and the Inner City Republican Movement of Cleveland, activists immediately began protesting.
The dead girl's father testified at trial and told the jury he filed a complaint with Cuyahoga County Children and Family Services when he allegedly saw signs of abuse and that he also filed a report with East Cleveland police, but nothing substantive was done, he said.
Still, he said, Jobs and Family Services kept Aniya in the custody of her mother, and even after he sought and was denied custody.
At the time of Aniya's death, public records revealed that since 2015 more than 44 kids that have come through the office of child and protective services have been murdered and classified as homicide victims among 269 kids.
Most of the murder victims were Black and poor like Aniya, data show.
David Merriman, a former special assistant to former county executive Ed FitzGerald and a former deputy chief of staff for Health and Human Services under Cuyahoga County Executive Budish, is the administrator of Job and Family Services for the county.
A Democrat and former Beachwood councilman and state representative, and once the Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, Budish has taken heat behind the little girl's tragic murder.
There have been some improvements or recommendations from Job and Family Services authorities and county officials since Aniya's untimely death in 2018, including recommendations for more social workers and investigators, and a citizen's advisory board comprised of eight to 10 members of the greater Cleveland community.
Community activists complain the initiatives taken are minimal at best, and after the fact.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.
.jpeg)
Comments