(The Center Square) – Lawmakers in Raleigh on Thursday remained in a waiting pattern for their request of the district attorney in Mecklenburg County to criminally investigate the child welfare system.
District Attorney Spencer Merriweather on Monday acknowledged the request and said the state’s district prosecutors “are not vested with investigative authority under state law” but he is reviewing for possible “appropriate actions.” An oversight committee in the General Assembly says the Department of Social Services failed 6-year-old Dominique Moody, who was found dead in circumstances believed to include extreme abuse and neglect.
Merriweather’s statement released earlier in the week said in part, “We are reviewing available materials to determine what – if any – legally appropriate actions should follow. In the meantime, this office has active criminal prosecutions against three defendants for the murder of Dominique Moody. As such, this office will have no further comment on this or any related matter.”
Tonya McKnight, Tery’n McKnight, and Susan Robinson each face first-degree murder charges. Tonya McKnight was the legal guardian, and the suspect prosecutors believe led or directed the abuse. The other suspects are identified as caregivers and participants in abuse.
Ikea McKnight, the mother, left Moody in the care of a relative she says she believed was trustworthy.
The investigation by lawmen concluded Moody was beaten, tortured and starved and, at 27 pounds, weighed 13 pounds below the minimum acceptable for a child her age. She was just shy of turning 7 years old. Lawmen said other children in the home said she was kept in a cage, tied with duct tape, and lived in a space with rats and feces.
Monday’s email from Cochairmen Jake Johnson, Brenden Jones and Harry Warren of the Oversight Committee in the House of Representatives encouraged Merriweather to consider four state laws and charges against any Mecklenburg County Social Services employee, supervisor, manager, director or county official “who handled, supervised, approved, screened out, documented, failed to document, escalated, or failed to escalate any report involving Dominique Moody, her household, or any other child in the home.”
Charlotte broadcaster WBTV investigated and found a dozen calls to Social Services related to Moody prior to the 13th reporting her death.
In an oversight committee hearing in Raleigh, Rep. Allen Chesser, R-Nash, leads the probe into Moody’s death.
“We cannot accept a system where a child can be reported repeatedly, where warning signs are documented, where state investigators find systemic failures, and then simply move on to the next case,” Chesser told the panel. “Dominque deserved better. Every child in North Carolina deserves better.”
