By Josh Hafenbrack
Tallahassee Bureau
11:45 PM EDT, April 24, 2008
Tallahassee
To those who know her, Marissa is a sweet, loving girl with a broad smile and a playful side.
But Marissa Amora, also known as Moesha, is forever marked by the cruelty she suffered as a 2-year-old living in Lake Worth. She had catastrophic brain injuries because of physical abuse at the hands of her mother and her mother's live-in boyfriend — abuse state child-welfare investigators suspected but didn't stop.
Today, the Legislature is scheduled to approve an $18.2 million settlement for Marissa, acknowledging the Department of Children & Families' culpability in her case. It's the largest claims bill approved by the Legislature in at least a decade.
Now 9, Marissa needs constant care, cannot walk on her own and eats through a feeding tube. She lives with her adoptive parents, Dawn and Ric Amora, in the Panhandle town of Marianna.
"I think I'm getting to the point where I can't breathe — it's been such a long journey we've taken trying to ensure Marissa received justice," said Dawn Amora, who until 2004 ran a children's home in Loxahatchee.
The House unanimously passed Marissa's claims bill Thursday, 114-0. Marissa and Amora are traveling to Tallahassee today for the Senate vote.
The state would give Marissa and her family $1.2 million this year and then $1.7 million installments the next 10 years, under the bill. A Palm Beach County jury in 2005 awarded Marissa $35 million for her injuries and suffering and found the state and DCF responsible for 75 percent of the damages.
But the Legislature is required to approve any civil judgments against government agencies of more than $100,000. To get court-ordered settlements, claims bills like the one for Marissa must be filed.
"When you think of the life she could have had, and the life that she now has, it seems so hard to believe," said House sponsor Marti Coley, R-Marianna. "There was so much negligence."
In November 2000, Marissa was admitted to the emergency room of Bethesda Memorial Hospital in Boynton Beach with an unexplained mass on her spine. Her condition quickly improved, but nurses noticed a disturbing trend: Marissa's mother seldom visited and, when she did, struck the child as she lay in her hospital bed, according to a special master's report.
At Marissa's scheduled release from the hospital a month later, her mother didn't show, instead helping her boyfriend get out of jail, according to the report.
That prompted a Palm Beach County state DCF investigator to visit the Lake Worth apartment where Marissa and her mother lived. There were no toys, clothes or crib. Yet two days after this investigation, Marissa was discharged from the hospital, "to the dismay of hospital employees, who begged DCF to reconsider, with several employees offering to adopt Marissa," the report said.
Less than one month after Marissa's release from the hospital, she suffered brain injuries as a result of abuse from her mother's boyfriend, who reportedly swung the child by her arms and legs into the wall and floor.
No one has been charged with a crime in connection with Marissa's abuse, but her birth mother lost her parental rights.
Seven years later, Marissa's ordeal continues. She's been dropped from Medicaid at least six times, with no reason, and federal authorities delayed so long in approving a wheelchair that she now has a surgery scheduled in a few weeks to fuse her spine in three places.
"After all this child endured, the broken bones and the beatings, she wakes up every morning and says, 'Hi, Mom,'" said Dawn Amora, who has taken out second mortgages to pay for Marissa's care.
"The needs are immediate and great," added Lance Block, the lawyer for Marissa and her family. "This is just one of those cases that screams for justice."
Staff Writer Mark Hollis contributed to this report.
Josh Hafenbrack can be reached at jhafenbrack@sun-sentinel.com or 850-224-6214.
Tallahassee Bureau
11:45 PM EDT, April 24, 2008
Tallahassee
To those who know her, Marissa is a sweet, loving girl with a broad smile and a playful side.
But Marissa Amora, also known as Moesha, is forever marked by the cruelty she suffered as a 2-year-old living in Lake Worth. She had catastrophic brain injuries because of physical abuse at the hands of her mother and her mother's live-in boyfriend — abuse state child-welfare investigators suspected but didn't stop.
Today, the Legislature is scheduled to approve an $18.2 million settlement for Marissa, acknowledging the Department of Children & Families' culpability in her case. It's the largest claims bill approved by the Legislature in at least a decade.
Now 9, Marissa needs constant care, cannot walk on her own and eats through a feeding tube. She lives with her adoptive parents, Dawn and Ric Amora, in the Panhandle town of Marianna.
"I think I'm getting to the point where I can't breathe — it's been such a long journey we've taken trying to ensure Marissa received justice," said Dawn Amora, who until 2004 ran a children's home in Loxahatchee.
The House unanimously passed Marissa's claims bill Thursday, 114-0. Marissa and Amora are traveling to Tallahassee today for the Senate vote.
The state would give Marissa and her family $1.2 million this year and then $1.7 million installments the next 10 years, under the bill. A Palm Beach County jury in 2005 awarded Marissa $35 million for her injuries and suffering and found the state and DCF responsible for 75 percent of the damages.
But the Legislature is required to approve any civil judgments against government agencies of more than $100,000. To get court-ordered settlements, claims bills like the one for Marissa must be filed.
"When you think of the life she could have had, and the life that she now has, it seems so hard to believe," said House sponsor Marti Coley, R-Marianna. "There was so much negligence."
In November 2000, Marissa was admitted to the emergency room of Bethesda Memorial Hospital in Boynton Beach with an unexplained mass on her spine. Her condition quickly improved, but nurses noticed a disturbing trend: Marissa's mother seldom visited and, when she did, struck the child as she lay in her hospital bed, according to a special master's report.
At Marissa's scheduled release from the hospital a month later, her mother didn't show, instead helping her boyfriend get out of jail, according to the report.
That prompted a Palm Beach County state DCF investigator to visit the Lake Worth apartment where Marissa and her mother lived. There were no toys, clothes or crib. Yet two days after this investigation, Marissa was discharged from the hospital, "to the dismay of hospital employees, who begged DCF to reconsider, with several employees offering to adopt Marissa," the report said.
Less than one month after Marissa's release from the hospital, she suffered brain injuries as a result of abuse from her mother's boyfriend, who reportedly swung the child by her arms and legs into the wall and floor.
No one has been charged with a crime in connection with Marissa's abuse, but her birth mother lost her parental rights.
Seven years later, Marissa's ordeal continues. She's been dropped from Medicaid at least six times, with no reason, and federal authorities delayed so long in approving a wheelchair that she now has a surgery scheduled in a few weeks to fuse her spine in three places.
"After all this child endured, the broken bones and the beatings, she wakes up every morning and says, 'Hi, Mom,'" said Dawn Amora, who has taken out second mortgages to pay for Marissa's care.
"The needs are immediate and great," added Lance Block, the lawyer for Marissa and her family. "This is just one of those cases that screams for justice."
Staff Writer Mark Hollis contributed to this report.
Josh Hafenbrack can be reached at jhafenbrack@sun-sentinel.com or 850-224-6214.
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