HENDRICKS COUNTY, Ind. — A Hendricks County judge found the Indiana Department of Child Services in contempt of court for failing to produce documents related to the 2021 torture slaying of a 4-year-old boy.
Judge Robert Freese decided contempt would be the proper way for the court to consider DCS's failure to obey discovery orders that would have required them to produce a bevy of documents about Judah Morgan, who was killed by his parents in 2021 amid claims from his foster family and blood relatives that he was being abused in their home following a court-ordered return there.
Attorneys for his foster family claimed at a hearing last month that records that would be essential to the case, which DCS has in their possession, were not handed over.
Those records include internal text messages and emails regarding Judah's case, as well as records of mandated drug tests that should have been conducted for Judah's biological parents, attorneys representing the family claim they do not have.
Miller had previously testified in a hearing last Monday that DCS had not searched his mailbox for emails regarding Judah, even as previous documents showed Miller and the department's previous director both received email regarding Judah.
"Current Director Miller received emails regarding Judah Morgan nine months prior to his death. Thus, given that DCS did not even search the email mailboxes for former Director Stigdon and current Director Miller – and both email mailboxes contain responsive emails – leads this court to conclude that DCS is still not in full compliance with this court's order," Freese wrote.
In laying out the decision, Freese said DCS failed to timely comply with the court's order to produce all responsive documents regarding Judah and some about his biological parents by Aug. 15, 2023.
Representatives for DCS argued in court last week the documents they provided to the court were what they had, and that they should not be required to produce more documents just because the “plaintiff thinks they should."
DCS attorneys William Young and E. Ryan Chouse said the department had gone through 130,000 records with a team of 20 attorneys to gather up documents the court ordered them to provide.
But Freese said DCS’s own filings in this case show that prior to Aug. 15, 2023, DCS produced only 122 of the total 34,929 documents and emails eventually produced by DCS.
"In other words, DCS’s compliance with this court’s order – after multiple extensions – was statistically zero - 0.34%," Freese wrote. "There also is no question that DCS’s failure to comply with this Court’s Order has prevented and delayed Plaintiff’s investigation of facts related to the death of Judah Morgan as the limitations deadline approaches."
Accordingly, the Court found DCS in civil contempt and ordered that DCS immediately search and produce all responsive emails from former DCS director Terry Stidgon or current director Miller, who was chief of staff at that point.
DCS must produce all the requested documents by Oct. 19.