The Washington Post has reported that A 2 year old foster child in Prince George’s County, Maryland (Fort Washington area) was apparently beaten to death by a 12 year old boy. The child who was killed is named Aniyah Batchelor and her biological mother is Stephany Cunningham. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Stephany Cunningham, Aniyah’s father and the other friends and family of Aniyah.

This is one of the saddest stories I have ever heard. When a parent has to place their child in foster care, it is the responsibility of the State/County Officials and the foster parents to make sure that the child is in a safe and supervised environment. The foster parents were apparently not home at the time of the incident. Did they really live a 2 year old child unsupervised?? This makes no sense. Sometimes, in my opinion, County officials and judges are too quick to remove children from their natural parents and place them with foster parents. Sometimes removal can occur because of a crazy circumstance or a single accident which, quite frankly, can happen anywhere. But when a child is placed in foster care, County Officials better be darn sure that the foster family is going to provide a safe and loving environment for the child.

Aniyah’s biological parents should strongly consider hiring an attorney to investigate a civil lawsuit against county and state officials and possibly even the foster family. It is important that an INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION be done, and that Aniyah’s parents do not rely on State/County investigations because they could be biased in such a way so as to make it seem like County/State officials did nothing wrong. A  Silver Spring personal injury attorney would likely advance the cost of any such investigation to get to the bottom of what happened here. Aniyah’s biological parents also should know that there are strict notice deadlines for claims against counties, the state and local governments. Proper statutory notice would need to be given to the county/local governments within 180 days, and proper notice to the State within 1 year. These deadlines are in addition to the 3 year statute of limitations for wrongful death claims.

Those who were responsible for this incident should be held accountable, and if this was not a proper foster care placement then those who dropped the ball should lose their job and face criminal charges for neglect.

Our law firm, Goldberg Finnegan, LLC would take on a case like this on a contingent fee basis which means that there would be no attorney fee if there was no recovery, and our firm would advance the costs of the case. We can be reached at (888) 213-8140