CNHI
5-18-10 — A Franklin Circuit Court Judge has ruled that there was no legal reason
for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to deny two different
newspapers access to the records of a 20-month old Monticello boy who was in
the foster care system when he drank drain cleaner.
According to an article in the Lexington Herald-Leader, one of the
publications that had requested records in regard to Kayden Daniels, Circuit
Judge Phillip Shepherd said the records were withheld unlawfully.
Six people have been charged in connection with Daniels' death,
including the boy's parents.
Both the toddler and his mother, who was 14 at the time of the boy's
death, had been placed in the state foster care program, according to the
Herald-Leader article.
Shepherd stated that the toddler's death might have been a tragic
accident that was unavoidable even if the child welfare system worked
perfectly or it might have resulted from a failure in the system.
Either way, Shepherd said the public has the right to know the facts.
³While it should go without saying, it perhaps must be spelled out in
the context of this case: It is not unwarranted for the public, and the
press, to want to know what happened when a 20-month-old child in the care
and legal custody of the Commonwealth of Kentucky winds up dead after
drinking toxic substances in a meth lab,² Shepherd stated in the ruling.
The Herald-Leader asked the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services
to release any records it had on the boy and his mother last June.
The cabinet declined the request and the state attorney general's office
upheld that decision.
In his ruling, Shepherd said that legal arguments by both agencies were
wrong.
The cabinet has issued a statement saying officials are reviewing the
ruling by Shepherd and will decide whether to appeal.