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AP: SRS asks judge to deny grandparents' lawsuit

Published 3/12/2010 in Local News

WICHITA (AP) — The Kansas child welfare agency has asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by grandparents accusing a social worker of failing to protect a toddler who was beaten to death by her father's drug-addled girlfriend.

Court papers filed Wednesday by an attorney for the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services argue that social worker Linda Gillen had "no duty to intervene" after she investigated a report claiming abuse and neglect of a 23-month-old Coffeyville girl who was never in state custody.

"We think they are wrong, obviously," Randall Rathbun, the grandparents' attorney, said Thursday.

Agency attorney Danny Baumgartner also contended in his filing that Gillen is entitled to qualified immunity from legal action because she is a government worker, and said she did not violate the grandparents' constitutional rights while investigating the allegation of abuse.

Maternal grandparents Larry and Mary Crosetto sued Gillen in January, accusing her of gross negligence for not protecting their granddaughter, Brooklyn. The lawsuit said Gillen did not remove the girl and her older brother from the home despite repeated complaints alleging abuse. The suit does not name the agency as a defendant.

The Crosettos accuse Gillen of acting with "malice and animus" because of a grudge against them connected to their adoption of Brooklyn's mother, Angela Crosetto Coons, years earlier. The lawsuit does not explain the alleged rift from that time and their attorney said he could not talk about the facts of the case. Brooklyn's 24-year-old mother died in August 2007.

Rathbun said the agency's motion to dismiss the case is a common response from defendants in these types of cases.

"They raise some technical issues which we feel comfortable the court will set aside," Rathbun said.

Brooklyn died on Jan. 20, 2008 as a result of head injuries suffered three days earlier while she was living in the home of her father, Randy Coons, and his girlfriend, Melissa Wells.

The girlfriend, who later married Coons, was sentenced in December to life in prison for the girl's murder. The father has been charged with aggravated child endangerment.

The lawsuit says the grandparents first noticed bruises and injuries on the girl in the fall of 2007 and lists numerous dates when the Crosettos say they approached Gillen to voice concerns about the abuse and drugs at Brooklyn's father's home. The grandparents allege Gillen told them it was her duty "to try to protect the family and keep it together."

Police and school officials did not help because they believed the agency was handling the matter, the lawsuit contends.

Larry Crosetto told The Wichita Eagle in a January interview that Gillen had been aware of the problems but failed to investigate: "What we hope to do is get SRS to act in these situations ... and prevent it from happening to another family."

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