Ex-DCS worker agrees to $6M payout to family she separated — but wants state to pay

An ex-Department of Child Services case manager who was accused of lying to remove children from a home has agreed to a $6 million settlement with the family she separated.

But she says the state, and not her, should be the one who pays.

Former case manager Sandra Sell was targeted in a 2022 lawsuit by Wabash County residents Jason and Myka Kelly because they said she lied in court to get their 6-year-old child removed from their home in 2020. Sell’s intent, according to the lawsuit, was to get that child placed with the child’s biological father, Larry Noland, who was also Sell’s sexual partner.

Previously:Child services worker lied about abuse to separate 6-year-old from family, lawsuit says

Sell says everything she did was “the result of instructions she received from others and that the State is ultimately responsible” for the child’s removal, according to a February settlement agreement she signed.

IndyStar has reached out to Sell’s attorney, and the Indiana Attorney General's Office, for comment.

Noland did end up receiving custody of the 6-year-old child in December 2020, the Kellys' lawsuit states, which was shortly after he got out of prison. Noland had been incarcerated for a felony conviction of neglect of a dependent resulting in serious injury.

He was prosecuted in 2015 after medical personnel found a 2-and-a-half-month-old infant in his care that was suffering from a brain hemorrhage and symptoms of shaken baby syndrome, according to the lawsuit.

Five of the Kellys' other children were placed in foster homes because of Sell's falsified court affidavit, which made claims of abuse and neglect in the Kelly household. But after the DCS Wabash County director learned of the relationship between Sell and Noland, Sell was fired, and all of the Kellys' six children were returned, more than four months after they'd been taken away.

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Kellys file their second lawsuit — but not against Sell

Sell was later hit with criminal charges of falsifying child abuse or neglect records, a misdemeanor, and two felonies of obstruction of justice and official misconduct. She pleaded guilty to the obstruction of justice charge and was sentenced in June 2022 to half a year of probation.

An investigation by the Office of the Inspector General corroborated the allegations that Sell had attempted to manipulate the removal of the 6-year-old because of Noland.

The lawsuit over Sell's actions, which also targets other DCS employees involved in the case, is still ongoing, but now the Kellys have launched another one. This time, the state is the only defendant.

In a new lawsuit filed February 17, the Kellys say Indiana, through the Indiana Attorney General’s Office, should have represented Sell in court.

They point to a mediation that occurred back in January 2022, when the Kellys and their attorney discussed their claims against Sell with a deputy attorney general. The deputy attorney general signed a document saying the state would pay $2.75 million to resolve the Kellys’ claims. By participating in that mediation, the Kellys argue, the state was in effect representing Sell.

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But after that, the agreement fell apart. The Kellys say they were never paid.

No specific reason was given for why it didn’t go through, but both Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita and Governor Eric Holcomb had to sign off on the agreement before it could take effect. Neither did, according to the Kellys’ attorney, Brad Catlin.

“Why? I don’t know,” Catlin told IndyStar Feb. 21. “I am currently trying to discover that information from the other side.”

The Kellys now warn that the new, greater settlement amount — $6 million – could possibly be just a fraction of what they’d get if their lawsuit ended up going in front of a jury.

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“The parties acknowledge that the wrongful removal of children from their home can be extremely damaging,” a February settlement agreement between Sell and the Kellys states. “This fact means that jury awards in such cases are large.”

They cite a 2008 case in which a jury awarded a family $31 million against DCS employees after the parents were falsely accused of killing one of their children. After that accusation, all of their other children were removed from the home, according to the agreement.

More detail on what happened between Sell and the Kellys

According to the Kellys' first lawsuit, DCS originally designated their six children as children in need of services, or CHINS, following a January 2020 report of a domestic dispute between Jason and Myka Kelly. DCS was concerned that the Kellys may have been using illegal substances in front of the kids. The Kellys say DCS violated their constitutional rights when, days later, they removed the children without a court order.

The children were given back in May 2020. Sell was assigned to be their case manager.

Five months later, Sell entered into a sexual relationship with Noland after she supervised a visit between him and the 6-year-old child, according to the lawsuit.

Because of that relationship, the lawsuit states, Sell "undertook efforts to undermine (the 6-year-old child's) placement with the Kellys." She pushed Noland to ask his attorney — and spoke with her DCS supervisor — about a change in placement. She claimed that Jason Kelly had sexually abused the child.

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She also allegedly lied in an affidavit she submitted to court in December 2020. The affidavit said the Kellys had engaged in abuse and neglect of the children earlier that month.

The day after that affidavit was submitted, all of the Kellys' children were removed. They were returned to the parents in April 2021, after the relationship between Sell and Noland was discovered by DCS.

Call IndyStar courts reporter Johnny Magdaleno at 317-273-3188 or email him at jmagdaleno@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @IndyStarJohnny

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Ex-DCS employee says state should pay $6M to family she separated