[A] father whose 2-year-old daughter was murdered in a case that sparked an overhaul of the state’s child protective services system has lost a case before the Vermont Supreme Court seeking to hold a man accountable he claimed could have helped prevent her death.
Willis Sheldon, the father of Dezirae Sheldon, had brought suit in February 2016 against Nicholas Ruggiero, an independent contractor serving as an administrative reviewer for the state Department for Children and Families.
The lawsuit alleged that Ruggiero was required by law to report to the department that Dezirae Sheldon’s mother, Sandra Eastman, alleged that her then-boyfriend, Dennis Duby, had broken the young girl’s legs in 2013.
The girl died in February 2014 after suffering severe head injuries. Dennis Duby, who had by then married Eastman and was Dezirae’s stepfather, has since pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the toddler’s death, with prosecutors saying he crushed the girl’s skull.
Duby was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison, with all but 13 years suspended.
Ruggiero became involved in the case in May 2013, when Eastman sought administrative review of a DCF report that she engaged in physical abuse and medical neglect by injuring the young girl’s legs.
In his position, according to Vermont Supreme Court decision issued Friday, Ruggiero was charged with determining whether to reject or accept DCF’s “substantiation” that Eastman was responsible for the girl’s injury or if more investigation was needed.
A month earlier, in April 2013, Eastman had been charged in criminal court with cruelty to a child and later pleaded guilty.
As part of the DCF administrative review process, Eastman offered various conflicting accounts of how the girl’s legs were injured, the Supreme Court decision stated, from not knowing how it happened to blaming Duby.
In a written decision issued Dec. 5, 2013, Ruggiero upheld DCF’s substantiation of abuse and medical neglect against Eastman.
“The decision noted mother’s position that she ‘did not know what happened to [Dezirae],’ and ‘[pled] guilty to the medical neglect,’ but, ‘[a]s far as the broken bones it was [her] boyfriend that dropped her not [mother],” the Supreme Court ruling stated.
DCF granted custody of Dezirae to her mother in early February 2014, and within a matter of weeks, the young girl was brought to the Rutland hospital with skull fractures to both sides of her head. She died two days later at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
Sheldon argued in his lawsuit that Ruggiero should have reported to the Department for Children and Families the claims by Eastman that Duby had caused the earlier leg injuries to the girl.
The Supreme Court, in its ruling throwing out Willis Sheldon’s lawsuit against Ruggiero, stated that Eastman provided a similar statement earlier to DCF so the department was already aware of her claims.
“Here, in the course of his duties as an administrative reviewer, defendant interviewed mother, who provided — as she had during DCF’s investigation — a litany of potential reasons for Dezirae’s injuries,” the ruling stated.
“The impact of mother’s accusation against Duby was greatly diluted by her myriad, alternate explanations for Dezirae’s injuries, as well as her admission to lying about the injuries to governmental authorities,” the high court added. “In this context, as a matter of law, defendant did not have reasonable cause to make a report.”
Vermont State Police conducted a criminal inquiry into DCF’s handling of Dezirae’s case, with then-Attorney General William Sorrell reviewing the case. He determined there had been no criminal wrongdoing on the part of the social workers involved.
The girl’s death did help lead to a legislative review and major changes in the Vermont’s child protection system.
Willis Sheldon, sued the state in 2014, alleging it failed to adequately protect his daughter. The state settled the lawsuit last year for $500,000, and did not admit to any wrongdoing.
Attorney Thomas Costello of Brattleboro, representing Willis Sheldon, could not be reached Monday for comment, Also, Sandra Strempel, a Burlington lawyer representing Ruggiero, could not be reached Monday for comment.
