3 Adams County Children and Youth workers charged with child endangerment

Mike Argento, York Daily Record
Updated ·4 min read
1

Iris Mummert was born prematurely, at just 27 weeks, with cocaine, opiates and THC in her system.

Fifteen months later, on May 31, 2020, she was dead, suffering a multitude of injuries at the hands of her mother, Felisha Ellis.

Now, three years after her death, three employees of Adams County Children and Youth Services have been charged with felony child endangerment charges for failing to prevent her death.

“The system let her down,” Adams County District Attorney Brian Sinnett said at a Tuesday morning news conference.

Iris Mummert was 15 months old when she died. Three Adams County Children and Youth workers have been charged with child endangerment in her death, which was described as preventable.
Iris Mummert was 15 months old when she died. Three Adams County Children and Youth workers have been charged with child endangerment in her death, which was described as preventable.

He said multiple people, including Iris’ foster parents and other service providers, expressed “grave concerns” about Ellis “over and over and over again,” and the three employees failed to investigate or report those concerns to the court. Iris’ death, the district attorney said, “could have been avoided.”

Those charged are Steven Murphy, 63, who, until July, was a caseworker with CYS; his supervisor, Clarissa Kiessling, 44; and the agency’s assistant administrator Sherri DePasqua, 46. Each was charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, a first-degree felony that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Grand jury presentment

The charges came at the recommendation of a statewide grand jury that had been empaneled to investigate the case.

The grand jury’s 16-page presentment describes failure after failure of the CYS employees to heed dire warnings about the danger Ellis posed to Iris and her other daughter, identified only as Z.M.

“On multiple occasions over a period of several months,” according to the presentment, the children’s foster mother and other service providers who contracted with CYS “all expressed their concerns about Ellis’ behavior and the safety of the children to these employees. They simply dismissed the concerns out-of-hand, failed to conduct any follow-up investigation, or minimized the concerns during court proceedings, with ACCYS ultimately recommending that the children be returned to Ellis and (the children’s father Cody) Mummert.”

Iris was born on Feb. 6, 2019, and because drugs had been found in her system, CYS began an investigation and obtained emergency custody of Iris and her sister. They were placed with Courtney and Kevin McCann of Mechanicsburg. Courtney McCann was well suited for the task, having previously been employed as a caseworker for Dauphin County’s Children and Youth Services and working as a trauma social worker at Penn State Hershey Medical Center.

McCann repeatedly reported to CYS that Ellis had “perceived limited cognitive functioning, anxiety, possible domestic abuse, an inability to manage both children at the same time without assistance” and other concerns.

"Shallow and mediocre" efforts

When she became frustrated with CYS’s lack of response, she wrote, in an Oct. 15, 2019, email to CYS, that she “struggled to describe (CYS’s) work as anything else but shallow and mediocre, setting these children up for failure.”

Others also expressed worry that CYS wasn’t responding to concerns they reported about the danger Ellis posed to her children. Nor did they report these concerns to the judge overseeing the case.

After a court hearing on the matter, Iris and Z.M. were returned to Ellis’ custody on Feb. 27, 2020.

While the children were in her custody, Ellis showed signs of abusing drugs and alcohol. On May 21, 2020, CYS received a referral from ChildLine, the anonymous caller reporting that she had been at a party with Ellis and her boyfriend and that in the presence of her children, Ellis drank moonshine until she became intoxicated and belligerent before vomiting and passing out. Her then-3-year-old daughter, Z.M., kept asking her mother what was wrong.

At a May 22, 2020, review hearing in court, DePasqua, Kiessling and Murphy did not share that information with the judge, according to the grand jury presentment. Nor did they request an order for an immediate drug and alcohol test for Ellis.

Previously: State police serve search warrant on Adams County Children and Youth Services: solicitor

Guilty plea to third degree murder

A week later, on May 29, 2020, Ellis shook Iris violently, causing a myriad of injuries. Iris was taken to Penn State Hershey Medical Center, where she died two days later.

Ellis, 29, was charged in her daughter’s death on June 2, 2020, and on Oct. 3, 2021 pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and was sentenced to 12 to 30 years in prison.

After the case against Ellis concluded, Ed Paskey, a former York County prosecutor brought in by Sinnett to handle the case, and state police reported that Iris’ death could have been prevented. Sinnett then opened an investigation, asking the state attorney general’s office in October 2022 to empanel a grand jury.

In April, the state police executed a search warrant at the CYS offices.

Murphy, Kiessling and DePasqua turned themselves in to face the charges Tuesday morning.

Glancing at the photo of Iris at his press conference, Sinnett said, “She’s obviously adorable. … It’s tragic.”

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Adams County Children & Youth staffers charged with child endangerment