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A Hendricks Superior Court judge has ordered Indiana Department of Child Services Director Eric Miller to appear in person at a hearing next week to make a case for why the department shouldn’t be held in contempt for failing to obey court orders to produce documents in an underlying civil case.
DCS is a nonparty to the case — Estate of Judah Morgan, by Jenna Hullett, Personal Representative v. Alan Morgan, 32D01-2301-CT-000004 — that involves a father who was sentenced to 70 years in prison for the torture death of his 4-year-old son.
A civil lawsuit was filed by the estate of Judah Morgan against the child’s father, Alan Morgan, in January.
According to a plaintiff’s motion for rule to show cause filed Aug. 21, DCS placed the child in his parents’ home in April 2021, and he was subsequently “neglected, starved and tortured” at a time when DCS was “supposedly” supervising his care.
The Associated Press reported that Alan repeatedly abused Judah in the days leading up to the discovery of his body in October 2021. The Court of Appeals of Indiana affirmed Morgan’s sentence in July.
The statute of limitations for claims against those responsible for Judah’s death is up on Oct. 11, the plaintiff’s motion says — the two-year anniversary of the child’s death. The motion also notes that DCS was served a nonparty request and subpoena in the civil case in February.
But DCS has not been forthcoming with documents related to the Judah and the parents, according to the motion.
Court documents show DCS filed a motion to quash the nonparty request and subpoena in March, which the court denied. DCS was ordered to produce responsive documents by June 15, but requested and received an extension until July 15.
On July 14, DCS requested that a protective order be entered prior to production, which the court granted five days later.
DCS produced “a few documents” to the plaintiff on Aug. 11, the show-cause motion says, then asked the court for another extension to run past the statute of limitations. The court denied the motion for an extension of time.
Many of the documents DCS did produce were incomplete and had material redacted even though the court had already entered a protective order, according to the motion.
Now, Miller, who was appointed as the department’s director in May, has been ordered to appear in person at 10 a.m. Sept. 6 to “show cause why DCS should not be held in contempt for failing to obey this Court’s Orders,” according to an order signed by Hendricks Superior Judge Robert Freese.
DCS declined to comment on the order and upcoming hearing.
The order to appear was issued Aug. 22, about a week after Miller and the department were named as defendants in a federal lawsuit that alleges DCS is failing to keep foster children safe by not correcting systemic failures that have been known to state officials for decades.
The class-action lawsuit, filed in the Indiana Northern District Court, also names Gov. Eric Holcomb as a defendant.
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