The sisters of a 12-year-old girl who was starved and tortured until her death are appealing a federal judge’s decision that dismissed their lawsuit against two Pennsylvania counties and two school districts that allegedly failed to help her.
Attorney Tom Bosworth filed his notice of appeal to the Third Circuit on Tuesday after Philadelphia judge Mark Kearney dismissed the lawsuit of Emily Lee and Jamie and Abbey Hoagland, sisters of Malinda Hoagland.
No federal issues remained, Kearney wrote in December. The appeal encompasses “all prior orders,” including one from August that threw much of the case out an early stage.
While Cindy Warren faces the death penalty for her actions (her criminal trial has been postponed), Kearney wrote of the lawsuit against Chester and Monroe counties “Sad case, wrong defendants.”
Bosworth called that ruling “abominable” in previous reporting by Legal Newsline.
“It’s wrong,” he said then. “And I don’t just mean it’s wrong from a moral standpoint, though it is. It’s legally wrong.”
Hoagland had shown up for school with fresh cuts and bruises. She hoarded food in her locker and weighed only 50 pounds when she died in 2024. Video footage showed Warren, who was dating Malinda’s dad Rendell (he has pleaded guilty to murder), starving and beating Malinda.
She chained her to furniture while naked and covered in Vaseline. Malinda wasn’t the first child Warren abused, prosecutors say. A 2-year-old with traumatic injuries died in December 2000 after living with the woman. Monroe County had been monitoring the child’s wellbeing due to safety concerns.
In 2007, Warren was charged with abusing her 3-year-old son, who was locked in a bedroom for days. He was found with bruises, lacerations and a burn mark when detectives visited. She blamed the death of the 2-year-old on her then-husband before admitting she had also been at fault and pleading guilty to endangering the welfare of children.
She was sentenced to a maximum of seven years in prison. Years after her release, she began dating Malinda’s father. When she found out Malinda was stashing food in her school locker, she made her stand still while holding books over her head, the suit says.
The allegations of abuse show a young girl who would apologize while being tortured at home and called a “bitch.”
At North Brandywine Middle School, the unexcused absences piled up (25 in total) while the Coatesville Area School District sent warnings that it would initiate truancy proceedings but never did.
A March 14, 2023, call from the school nurse said Malinda wouldn’t be allowed to come back to school without a doctor’s note, which led Warren to suggest to Rendell that they pull Malinda from the school.
State truancy law required notifying a magisterial district judge, but that never happened, the lawsuit says. “Had CASD not employed the unlawful and unconstitutional policies, customs and practices… Malinda Hoagland would have been lawfully removed from the custody of Cindy Warren and Rendell Hoagland prior to her death and she would be alive today.”
All of this happened with a custody agreement on file in Monroe County that said Warren could only be left alone with Malinda for a maximum of one hour. It is alleged Chester County and CASD knew of the agreement and Warren’s past yet failed to ensure children under high risk for abuse were seen once a week.
At a parent/teacher conference at North Brandywine, Warren and Rendell demanded to search Malinda’s locker, which the teacher allowed. Finding food, the two “ragefully burst out in anger at Malinda and her teacher,” the suit says.
An employee did make a report to Chester County the next day, saying Malinda “often came to school hungry and asking for more food.” There was also “an unexplained black eye.”
Again, the county was notified Malinda was living with a convicted child abuser, the suit said. Warren blamed Malinda’s hunger on a decision to not give her breakfast, and no in-home visit occurred. She never went back to school after December 2023 but CASD ignored the fact she was now not enrolled anywhere, the lawsuit says.
Five months later she was admitted to Paoli Hospital and died. An autopsy showed blunt force injuries and starvation had killed her and revealed about 75 bruises on her body, plus ulcers and pressure sores.
The ensuing investigation showed Rendell and Warren had installed surveillance cameras around the house and they depicted the torture Malinda had faced when she got home from school, prosecutors say.
But Kearney wrote the lawsuit doesn’t plausibly allege anyone at the county read the agreement upon Malinda moving there. He threw out all claims against the school districts and left only a negligence argument related to Malinda’s sexual abuse against Chester County.
He was asked to let a “state-created danger” claim move forward and focused on the law’s ability to hold government entities responsible for what goes on inside a person’s home and whether they can be liable for inaction.
“The principles we apply today are not novel,” Kearney added. “They may be surprising to a layperson moved by Malinda’s tragedy. But governments are not guarantors of safety from crime (even as heinous as the abuse upon Malinda) absent specific conditions created by the government.”
