A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed by the family of an Alabama foster child who was abandoned to perish in a closed car with temperatures above 140 degrees.
Three-year-old foster child Ketorrius KJ Starkes Jr. passed away on July 22 while in the custody of a DHR transport driver who had picked him up for a weekly visit with his father.
Kela Stanford, 54, the driver, is accused of committing a Class B felony—leaving a child unattended in a motor vehicle. Following KJ’s passing, Stanford, who was employed by Covenant Services, was let go right away.
Stanford, Covenant Services, and other employees of the Alabama Department of Human Resources and the Jefferson County Department of Human Resources are named as defendants in the complaint, which was filed in Jefferson County Circuit Court.
Birmingham lawyer Courtney French of Petway, French and Ford filed the case on the family’s behalf.
A request for comment regarding the lawsuit was not immediately answered by DHR.
KJ was picked up by Stanford at 9 a.m. on the Tuesday of his death in order to visit his biological father at DHR in Bessemer. Around 11:30 a.m., the visit came to a close.
The lawsuit claims that instead of promptly dropping KJ off at daycare, Stanford drove out on a number of personal errands while KJ was securely strapped into a car seat in the rear.
After stopping to get food for her family, Stanford left KJ in her car and delivered the goods to her house.
Then, with KJ still in his car seat, she left her house once more to go shopping at a tobacco store.
The lawsuit claims that around 12:30 p.m., Stanford went back to her house, leaving KJ in the car parked in her driveway. The doors were locked, the windows were closed, and the engine was off.
The lawsuit claims that KJ was stuck in (Stanford’s) parked car for almost five hours.
In defiance of Alabama law, (Stanford’s) car had heavy black tinted windows.
According to the lawsuit, the Birmingham National Weather Service issued a heat advisory for the day, citing temperatures above 96 degrees and a heat index between 105 and 109.
According to the lawsuit, the defendants failed to ask KJ where he was during the five hours that he was absent from his daycare.
Stanford got a call at around 5:30 p.m. inquiring as to why the youngster hadn’t been sent back to daycare. Then she remembered that she had left KJ in her sexy car, only a few steps from her house.
According to earlier reports from attorneys, Stanford dragged KJ out of the car right away, brought him inside her house, and showered him with cold water.
At 6:03 p.m., KJ was declared deceased.
According to the lawsuit, KJ died because the defendants failed to fulfill their mandatory responsibility to him by keeping him in a dangerous setting where he was subjected to constant abuse and/or neglect.
According to the lawsuit, the defendants acted carelessly.
According to French, the mother, father, and entire family are saddened by the murder of their son, particularly because of how tragic and brutal his death was.
In the days after KJ’s passing, Stanford apologized to the boy’s father over the phone.
Stanford was told, “Baby, you got us sick over here,” by a woman who was with KJ’s father at the time of the call. We are unable to breathe. A three-year-old was left in the car by you. He was unable to protect himself. When you knew there was a youngster present from the beginning, you were supposed to check the back seat, she added.
“There’s nothing you can say to cheer him up,” she remarked.
I’m not attempting to cheer him up. “I am not,” said Stanford.
I can’t say anything that will cheer him up. I’m so sorry. I apologize; words cannot begin to describe how sorry I am.
With KJ in the backseat, she drove about for more than an hour, from 11:30 until around 12:30, before returning home, where she claimed to have forgotten he was in the car, according to French.
Picking KJ up from the daycare and returning him to her place was her only responsibility.
Lawmakers and the public are furious over KJ’s passing and are demanding responsibility and openness from DHR. The child’s death, according to Governor Kay Ivey, was caused by abhorrent and egregious neglect.
We must explore the difficult questions, such as how this occurred under the supervision of those tasked with KJ’s care, because this tragedy has exposed obvious flaws in the system that cost a child his life, said State Representative Patrick Sellers.
Where did the oversight occur? Which procedures were violated? Or worse, never happened?
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