Local News | $6M settlement for starved Everett boy | Seattle Times Newspaper 3/26/09 8:09 PM

Wednesday, March 25, 2009 - Page updated at 10:59 AM

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$6M settlement for starved Everett

boy
By Steve Miletich
Seattle Times staff reporter
The state and three other parties have agreed to pay $6 million to
settle a lawsuit brought on behalf of a boy who was intentionally
Shayne Abegg, in a pre-2007 photo.
starved by his father and the man's girlfriend.
Recent DSHS settlements
The settlement, reached early Tuesday during mediation, stemmed
from the case of Shayne Abegg, who weighed only 22 pounds at December 2008: $320,000 in the death of Robley Carr Jr.
in foster care. Carr had received part of a $4 million
age 4 when authorities rescued him on March 7, 2007, from his settlement in 2003.
June 2007: $6.2 million to four foster children for failing to
Everett home. A year earlier, when Shayne came to live with his detect or prevent over five years of physical and sexual
father, he had weighed 38 pounds. abuse.

April 2005: $1.52 million to two brothers who were

Under the settlement, which requires approval by a judge, the
state Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) agreed to
pay $5 million, with the remainder to be split between state-
contracted therapist Brad Simkins and two social-service agencies
that hired him.
The boy, through his guardian, originally sought $22 million in a
tort claim filed with the state.
The lawsuit, filed in Snohomish County Superior Court, alleged
DSHS, Simkins and the others failed to protect Shayne, who
couldn't sit or walk when he was found. In addition, the boy's
temperature had reached the dangerously low level of 87 degrees
molested by their foster father for three years in Bellingham.
December 2003: $180,000 to the family of 3-year-old
Zy'Nyia Nobles, a Tacoma girl who was beaten to death in
May 2000 after state social workers returned the child to her
mother's care.
November 2003: $8.8 million to Aba Sheikh, finding that
negligence by state social workers contributed to a savage
assault by a gang of teens living in a West Seattle foster
home.
November 2003: $4 million to three siblings who were
abused in a Seattle foster home.
February 2003: $4 million to four neglected children who
were repeatedly beaten at a foster home on the Nooksack
Indian reservation near Bellingham.
Compiled by Seattle Times news researcher Gene Balk

and his muscles were wasting.

The settlement comes at a time when state legislators are considering privatizing some social services to fix what
critics call a broken child-welfare system. The Children's Administration, which is part of DSHS, has been plagued by
problems for years, including dozens of child fatalities.

Shayne's father, Danny Abegg, and his girlfriend, Marilea Mitchell, were each sentenced to eight years in prison last
year after being found guilty of criminal mistreatment in a bench trial. His mother lost her parental rights years ago.

The father and girlfriend claimed during the trial that they just thought Shayne was skinny. That defense incensed the
Snohomish County judge, who likened photographs of the emaciated boy to those of concentration-camp victims.

Before Shayne's rescue, DSHS had received numerous complaints during the previous nine months that Shayne and
his older brother were being abused by Abegg and Mitchell, according to state records.

The lawsuit alleged that the work of DSHS employees was slipshod. It contended not everyone who filed a complaint
was interviewed; other times there was no record that anyone spoke with Shayne or his brother outside the presence
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Local News | $6M settlement for starved Everett boy | Seattle Times Newspaper 3/26/09 8:09 PM

was interviewed; other times there was no record that anyone spoke with Shayne or his brother outside the presence
of family; still other times, investigators accepted Danny Abegg's and Mitchell's explanations.

Even when one caseworker saw "extreme bruising" on both sides of the brother's head, she did not act to protect the
boys, according to the lawsuit. Shortly after the caseworker noted the bruising, Abegg sent the brother to live with
relatives in California.

According to the lawsuit, DSHS dismissed some of the complaints as "unfounded." But the agency nonetheless
enlisted Simkins to help the family — particularly with "food issues."

Simkins reported troubling patterns, the lawsuit said. The boys had a "fear of starvation," he wrote in one report. They
"have to scavenge for every meal that they can get," he wrote in another. Yet, Abegg and Mitchell seemed "less than
enthusiastic" about working on that problem.

Instead, the couple continued to withhold food as a form of discipline, and complained to Simkins that the boys would
"steal" food from the kitchen.

As Simkins worked with the family, another complaint came in, and the warning signs continued, according to the
lawsuit. Yet Shayne was left in the home.

The boy's attorney, David Moody, said Tuesday that the "evidence was crystal-clear that DSHS failed to act."

The settlement will provide adequate compensation for Shayne, now 6, to receive care he will need the rest of his life,
Moody said.

Shayne suffered significant permanent cognitive delays as a result of being neglected and starved, Moody said.

Steve Williams, a DSHS spokesman, said Shayne is now living in foster care and is in good health.

"Any child who endured what Shayne did may well face challenges throughout the rest of his life," Williams said.
"We're pleased that the state can provide some financial assistance to help him."

After Shayne was rescued, DSHS hired an outside expert to retrain workers on how to recognize malnutrition and two
social workers involved in the case resigned.

Moody said the state has to do more than change policies and must require "effective and meaningful" social work.

In Olympia, Senate Bill 5943 would radically transform the state's child-welfare system by requiring the state to hire
private contractors to work with children and troubled families after verified complaints of abuse or neglect and the first
dependency court hearing. The new contracts could leave about 1,000 social workers and support staffers out of work.

The bill, which has bipartisan support, passed the Senate on March 11, and the House Committee on Early Learning &
Children's Services held a hearing on it Tuesday.

Information from Seattle Times staff reporter Jennifer Sullivan and Times archives is included in this report.

Steve Miletich: 206-464-3302 or smiletich@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2009 The Seattle Times Company

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