DCFS report shows litany of failures in death of 17-month-old Semaj Crosby

A new report describes a litany of failures by state child welfare investigators who opened at least 10 investigations into abuse and neglect in the home of 17-month-old Semaj Crosby before her death in April.As investigators for the Department of Children and Family Services walked through the filthy, bug-infested house in Joliet Township month after month, they failed to learn the names or identities of many of the adults caring for children there, according to the 22-page DCFS report.

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Tipsters reported open drug-dealing and violence in the home, but agency investigators closed cases when residents assured them the kids were safe and closely supervised, the report said.

Several of the adults in the home had allegedly abused youth numerous times, but DCFS put in place no safety plans to protect the children in their care— even as new allegations arose that children were molested, mistreated and left in squalor.

The report was completed by a psychologist and a social worker through the DCFS Office of Quality Enhancement. It was released late Friday afternoon.

“I think it lays out real failures in connecting the dots,” DCFS Director George Sheldon told the Tribune. “We’ve got to tie these cases together.”

Also Friday, Will County sheriff’s investigators said they have identified four “persons of interest,” in Semaj’s death, including her mother, Sheri Gordon; Semaj’s aunt, Lakerisha Crosby; and her grandmother, Darlene Crosby, Lt. Dan Jungles said.

A fourth person, a minor child who was at the home, also has been identified as a person of interest, Jungles said.

“All have attorneys and are not speaking with us,” Jungles said.

However, attorneys for the three adults told the Tribune that their clients are working with authorities.

Cosmo Tedone, who represents the Crosbys, said in a text message to a reporter that they spent “days with the police cooperating in full” after Semaj’s death and have not been asked to come in for additional interviews.

Gordon’s lawyer, Neil Patel, said: “We continue to work with the sheriff in any way that we can.”

The DCFS report describes previous abuse and neglect allegations made against several people, including Semaj’s father, James Crosby.

Crosby was “indicated” for hitting his then 5-year-old son with a belt “after he had gotten in trouble at school,” the report said. The beating left his son with bruises and other injuries.

DCFS also has an unresolved investigation into Lakerisha Crosby and Wesley Sykes Jr., Lakerisha’s former boyfriend, the report said.

That investigation involves a 1-year-old boy who stayed at the Joliet house in February and was returned to the mother several days later with bruises on his right leg and calf, according to the report.

Despite the multiple allegations of abuse and neglect in the home going back to April 2015, the report provides no indication that DCFS implemented a safety plan to protect Semaj, her siblings or other children in the home from further harm. DCFS deemed most of the investigations “unfounded due to insufficient evidence,” according to the report.

DCFS also received an anonymous tip in May 2016 that there were roughly 30 people living in the home. The “occupants openly sell drugs and they drink on the children’s playground that is by their house,” the tipster reported.

According to the tipster, the children were “sent to the playground to play all times of day and night.” The report said that the youngest child was “estimated to be one year of age.”

DCFS visited the home later that year following allegations that at least 15 children were in the home, and that a 1-year-old child wearing only a diaper was outside in traffic, according to the report.

In January, Semaj’s 7-year-old brother reported feeling unsafe after he alleged his mother hit him in the head with a shoe repeatedly, but he denied that statement when the caseworker interviewed him.

Two months later, DCFS investigated the suspected sexual abuse of a 3-year-old in the home but the allegation also was deemed to be unfounded.
DCFS and other authorities later found the home overrun with trash and infested by roaches. Residents were sleeping on broken beds and on the floor. Clothes were strewn everywhere, the report said.

Semaj’s death prompted the 11th investigation involving that Joliet Township address.

Days after Semaj was found dead under a couch, the house was condemned by authorities— and then burned to the ground in a suspected arson.

The report comes as Sheldon is deciding whether or not to leave the agency to become head of Our Kids, a large Florida nonprofit.

Sheldon, who said he will make his decision by the end of the month, has faced intense criticism about the recent deaths of youths who had been the subject of DCFS investigations as well as the agency’s failure to protect vulnerable children and their families.

In addition to headlines about child deaths, Sheldon is facing state ethics probes into DCFS contracts that benefited his friends and political associates in Florida, the Tribune has revealed.