LAPORTE COUNTY, Ind. — A civil suit filed against a man convicted of murdering his 4-year-old son also accused the Indiana Department of Child Services of failing to protect the child in the months leading up to his death.
Last September, 29-year-old Alan Morgan was found guilty in the October 2021 torture and murder of his son, Judah Morgan. Morgan will serve 70 years in prison for beating his son to death and will serve at least 75% of that sentence.
Now, two months after that murder conviction, the estate of Judah is seeking additional damages against the man who killed him.
But the lawsuit also took aim at the Indiana Department of Child Services, and accused the organization of dropping Judah's case file even as he remained “an endangered child” and “ward of the state.”
"From his birth on June 17, 2017, until the year of his death, Judah was a 'child in need of services' or CHINS, a ward of non-party Indiana Department of Child Services, the state agency responsible for the safety and well-being of Hoosier children who come into contact with the state's child welfare system," the suit read.
It further outlined how, under Indiana law, DCS's responsibilities included providing child protection services and providing child abuse and neglect prevention services for children like Judah.
The suit also said Judah, at the time of his birth on June 17, 2017, tested positive for drugs. Six weeks prior, the suit said allegations of physical abuse and neglect of Judah's older sibling by Judah's parents were substantiated.
“Three days after Judah’s birth, he was placed in a kinship placement and not allowed to go home with his parents from the hospital,” the suit read.
However, in April 2021, DCS removed Judah from foster care and placed him, "for the first time in his life," in the home of his parents.
The civil suit also pointed out that in November, the LaPorte County prosecutor amended criminal charges against Mary Yoder, his biological mother, to allege that Judah was an endangered and neglected child "from the moment that Judah was placed by DCS in his parents' home".
Judah was found beaten to death on the floor of Alan Morgan and Mary Yoder's northern Indiana home, which was littered with animal feces and had a lock on the refrigerator, seven months after a court ordered he return there.
“Despite that fact that Judah was a neglected and endangered child, in June of 2021, DCS closed its case involving Judah," the suit said.
The suit stopped short of naming the Department of Child Services as an actual party.
“As a direct and proximate result of the reckless, careless, negligent, and wrongful acts and omissions of other persons and the intentional acts of Alan Morgan, Judah Morgan was beaten, tortured, and eventually murdered on October 11, 2021,” the suit said.
The Department of Child Services declined to comment on the civil suit.
The suit is requesting an unspecified amount of money for hardships, including attorney fees.
A criminal case against Mary Yoder, Judah's biological mother, is still pending.
Jenna Hullett, Judah’s second cousin and foster mother who said Judah Morgan lived in her family’s home from his birth until a court ordered his return to his birth parents’ home in April 2021, is being represented by Mishawaka-based attorney Charles Rice.
The civil suit was filed Jan. 5.
