governor’s chief of staff Brian Abraham Story Archives

Death Of Kyneddi Miller Sparks Policy Conversations Around CPS And Homeschooling

Kyneddi Miller was found dead in her home in April. A police report said the 14-year-old girl was found deceased in what a police report described as a “near skeleton state.” Her grandparents and mother have been charged with abuse and neglect. Now officials are pointing fingers at what organizations and policies created the crack that Miller fell through. There is also a rally planned for Wednesday morning by community members.

Kyneddi Miller was found dead in her home in April. A police report said the 14-year-old girl was found deceased in what a police report described as a “near skeletal state.” Her grandparents and mother have been charged with abuse and neglect.

Now officials are pointing fingers at what organizations and policies created the crack that Miller fell through. There is also a rally planned for Wednesday morning by community members.

There are conflicting reports about the actions of state agencies involved in the case. Police officers claimed they saw the now deceased girl nearly a year before her death. They say they were concerned about her wellbeing so they went to Boone County’s Child Protective Services to file a referral in person.

Officials with CPS, which is a division of the Department of Human Services, say they have no record of that.

But GPS data, police reports, and audio obtained from the police officer who visited Kyneddi in 2023, all corroborate the police officer’s claim that they went to CPS to make a referral.

Brian Abraham, the governor’s chief of staff, said he interviewed the police officers and has come to the conclusion that they did visit CPS, but that the officers may have not followed the proper protocol.

“Based upon that information the troopers relayed to me, with cooperating evidence, I am with 100 percent certainty that they were present that day at the office and made an informal communication with the department,” Abraham said.

(left to right) Chief of Staff Brian Abraham, West Virginia Department of Human Services Secretary Dr. Cynthia Persily, West Virginia State Superintendent of Schools Michele Blatt, and West Virginia State Police Chief of Staff Maj. James Mitchell.

*Courtesy of WV Governor’s Office*

Department of Human Services Secretary Cynthia Persily said the police should have called a 1-800 number to officially make a report, instead of going to CPS and speaking with staff directly.

“So consequently, we won’t get into the situation where we have someone who says that they made a report, or a referral, or whatever we want to call it, of abuse and neglect without that actually happening,” Persily said.

A Call For Home School Reform

Police are mandatory reporters of abuse, meaning if they see abuse they have to report it. So are teachers, but because Miller had been pulled from school, teachers no longer had access to her.

Now many lawmakers, agency heads, and the governor are calling for changes to home school laws in the state.

They say public school classrooms are often where child abuse is discovered and have attributed Miller’s homeschooling status a factor in her death.

The pre pandemic national rate for home schooling is around 3 percent. A study in the Journal of Adolescent trauma notes that children are homeschooled in nearly half of all child abuse cases.

West Virginia State Superintendent of Schools Michele Blatt said she would like to strengthen homeschool requirements.

“The West Virginia Department of Education is eager to work with the legislature to really see how we can strengthen the guardrails around our homeschool reporting requirements,” Blatt said. “While we know that we have a great deal of homeschool parents that do things the right way and take care of their kids and it’s the best choice for those families, I think that our 7,000 foster kids in the system is proof that not all parents do what’s best for their children.”

The House passed Raylee’s law after hours of debate. It was never taken up by the Senate.

*Perry Bennett/West Virginia Legislature Photography*

Delegate Shawn Fluharty has been a proponent of homeschool policy reform ever since he received a call about a young girl in his district, Raylee Browning in 2018.

“I was contacted by her former teacher Carrie Caliberty years ago, about the situation with Raylee who was taken from a public school while a CPS report was being investigated by her abusive father,” Fluharty said. “And months later, Raylee was found dead in the home.”

He said Kyneddi Miller’s story is eerily similar. Fluharty wants to change the oversight laws for homeschooling in the state.

“We’re just saying this process of removing a child needs to be vetted properly,” Fluharty said. “And if there’s a mere hindrance, on the time period of removing a child from public school, to homeschool, so that we know that child is safe, then too damn bad!”

School Choice Advocates Push Back

On the other side of the debate, Advocates of school choice are saying that home schooling has become a scapegoat for other systemic failures.

Sen. Patricia Rucker, a Republican from Jefferson County, is a staunch advocate for home schooling and the chair of the newly created School Choice Committee in the State Senate. She said there were missed opportunities to intervene in the child’s life before she died.

“It is really interesting to me that this entire story is focusing on the fact that they put in a Notice of Intent (for homeschooling),” Rucker said. “Even though this is a family that had not been in a public school for over two years, and had already broken the law and already should have thrown red flags before they ever even put in their application.”

Sen. Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, is a home schoolteacher to her five children.

*Will Price/WV Legislative Photography*

Prior to homeschooling Miller was truant for an extended period. Then after two years of homeschooling her mother had failed to complete the required academic assessment. And the school failed to take action.

There are existing laws that require the school to follow up on a student who has failed to complete an academic assessment. However, those laws lack mandatory enforcement mechanisms.

Change Needed

Rucker said that there are multiple other factors that contributed to the girl’s death, including an overloaded and under-funded CPS system.

“There were clearly many, many ways in which folks dropped the ball. Home schooling was not the way that we might have been able to save this young girl,” Rucker said.

Multiple bills that would address CPS, absenteeism in schools, and child welfare in the state were introduced to the floor. None of those bills made it across the finish line in April.

“It’s very concerning to me that no one in current leadership is taking any responsibility for any of the things that have happened, or failed to happen,” Rucker said. “If we’re gonna have a system that the people of West Virginia are going to have faith in, it means that if things go wrong that someone needs to tell them what went wrong, and take responsibility, and say how they’re going to change it.”

Brian Abraham, the governor’s chief of staff, said it’s going to be up to policy makers to craft laws that balance protecting vulnerable children while also protecting West Virginians’ right to home school their children.

“The governor wholeheartedly supports school choice and the parents’ right to choose homeschool,” Abraham said. “But, you know, we can see it has potential ramifications. It’s a trade off. We have to find the sweet spot.”

On Wednesday, June 19 at 9 a.m. at the Boone County Courthouse there is a rally for accountability and action. The rally was planned by the group “Parents Against Child Abuse.”

Judge Finds Corrections Records ‘Intentionally’ Destroyed; Finds Justice Doesn’t Have To Sit For Deposition

Emails and other documents related to a lawsuit against the West Virginia Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (WVDCR) were “intentionally” destroyed by the state of West Virginia, and a federal magistrate has recommended that the case be resolved in favor of the plaintiffs suing the state.

Emails and other documents (ESI) related to a lawsuit against the West Virginia Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (WVDCR) were “intentionally” destroyed by the state of West Virginia, and a federal magistrate has recommended that the case be resolved in favor of the plaintiffs suing the state.

In a 39-page order, entered into the court record on Oct. 30, U.S. Magistrate Judge Omar J. Aboulhosn said:

“There are many notable instances in the record that demonstrate the WVDCR Defendants’ utter disregard for the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, let alone their own policies governing the preservation of discovery – to say the Court found the testimony elicited from these Defendants shocking is a gross understatement.”

The lawsuit was filed in September 2022 against Southern Regional Jail, the West Virginia Division of Corrections and every county commission that pays Southern Regional Jail to house inmates.

The suit names former Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation leaders Betsy Jividen, Brad Douglas and former Department of Homeland Security Commissioner Jeff Sandy as defendants. The suit alleges inhumane and unsanitary conditions exist for inmates at the Southern Regional Jail (SRJ) in Raleigh County.

In a separate ruling by Aboulhosn, Gov. Jim Justice and Chief of Staff Brian Abraham will not be compelled to sit for a deposition, but Justice is still required to disclose “any and all documentation concerning: the dismissal of the defendant Jividen; the dispatch of the defendant Sandy to inspect the SRJ on March 30, 2023; and either interested party’s involvement or knowledge of ESI preservation.”

Attorneys for the plaintiffs had wanted Justice and Abraham to testify because they noted “Defendant Jeff Sandy has previously testified that for several years his department requested of the governor’s office funding to address pervasive overcrowding, pervasive understaffing, over two hundred million dollars in deferred maintenance. These issues go to the heart of the plaintiffs’ claims in this action. Additionally, defendant Sandy also testified that the Chief of Staff tasked the Secretary of Homeland Security to personally drive to Beaver, West Virginia and investigate the situation at Southern Regional Jail (SRJ), specifically, issues concerning toilet paper, water, and mattresses.”

There is significant case law that keeps high-ranking officials from being forced to testify except under “exceptional circumstance” and the judge ruled against the efforts to make Justice and Abraham do so.

To establish “exceptional circumstances” are present, a party seeking to depose a non-party high-ranking government official must satisfy three conditions: (1) the party must “make an actual showing that the [government official] ‘possesses personal knowledge relevant to the litigation’ ”; (2) the deposition must be “essential to that party’s case”; and (3) the evidence the deposition will elicit “is not available through any alternative source or less burdensome means.”

Aboulhosn determined those conditions were not met because “…it would appear to the Court that the Governor and his Chief of Staff have made appropriate accommodations to the requests pursuant to the Plaintiffs’ subpoena without interfering with their immunities endorsed under the prevailing jurisprudence.”

Another statewide federal lawsuit filed this past August names Justice and Homeland Security Secretary Mark Sorsaia as defendants.

Also a class-action civil suit, it demands the state spend $330 million for deferred maintenance and worker vacancies in state corrections. The suit asks Justice to call for a special session and submit bills correcting a number of issues to the West Virginia Legislature to correct these issues.

The suit, filed by Beckley attorney Steve New, who represents the plaintiffs who are inmates of the state, asks the court to prohibit Justice and Sorsaia from housing inmates in what the suit calls “unconstitutional conditions.”

Three key corrections bills passed in an August special legislative session provide more than $25 million to increase the starting pay and change pay scales for correctional officers and offer retention payments to non-uniformed corrections workers.

Senate Bill 1005 earmarks $21.1 million to increase starting pay and change pay scales for correctional officers. Senate Bill 1003 and Senate Bill 1004 provide nearly $6 million for one-time bonuses for correctional support staff, divided into two payments that begin in October. The legislated fixes only cover a small percentage of the class action lawsuit demands.

In the case of the Southern Regional Jail and the missing documents, on Oct. 2, the federal magistrate judge held a hearing to compel the state to produce what is called “discovery.” That includes documents and information relevant to the case.

This hearing followed several attempts by the plaintiffs to get the documents.

On Oct. 13, at the judge’s instruction, the plaintiffs filed a “Motion for a Finding of Spoliation and for Sanctions Against Defendants Jeff Sandy, Brad Douglas, Betsy Jividen, and William Marshall, III.”

In his summation Aboulhosn noted that:

“Multiple witnesses took the stand and testified that the law and regulations governing the preservation of evidence were not followed. As detailed above, this the undersigned believes the failure to preserve the evidence that was destroyed in this case was intentionally done and not simply an oversight by the witnesses.”

In his ruling, Aboulhosn determined that a default judgment in the case is warranted. He said “while the Plaintiffs themselves acknowledge they have overwhelming evidence of the unconstitutional conditions of overcrowding, understaffing, and deferred maintenance, the undersigned refuses to ignore the Defendants’ willful blindness, or to put more succinctly, their intentional failure to preserve evidence they were obligated to preserve.”

Throughout the ruling, Aboulhosn expressed his frustration at the situation.

“[T]he undersigned is outraged…this Court spent numerous valuable hours holding hearings, video conferences, researching and drafting orders to facilitate discovery in this matter, and all for nought.

“With that said, the undersigned readily acknowledges that the recommendation of default judgment to the District Judge in this case, is extraordinary, but clearly warranted considering the intentional conduct in this case and other cases that came before the undersigned.”

Aboulhosn’s judgment will now go before District Judge Frank W. Volk to be confirmed. The defendants in the case have 14 days to object to the judgment and “modify or set aside any portion of the Order found clearly to be erroneous or contrary to law.”

The judge also ordered the court clerk to send a copy of the order to the United States Attorney to consider an investigation of the WVDCR.

Attorneys File Motion For Sanctions Against DHHR

In a class action lawsuit against the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR), attorneys filed a motion Wednesday morning asking U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin to grant a motion for sanctions.

The motion accuses the DHHR of “deliberate indifference” to due process claims brought by the attorneys representing 12 foster children against DHHR.

Gov. Jim Justice’s chief of staff, Brian Abraham, said the emails were deleted because of the Office of Technology’s protocol to delete the emails of employees who’d left their positions with the state.

“This administration was unaware that there was a policy in place at the Office of Technology to delete the emails of employees who left employment with the state of West Virginia,” Abraham said. “So there’s no basis whatsoever for any allegation that emails were intentionally deleted from any agency.”

Abraham added that the administration was not sure when the policy began or who enacted it, but said they are investigating this state-wide policy.

The lawsuit against the DHHR was originally filed in September 2019. The original complaint against West Virginia officials alleged that they violated the rights of a dozen foster care children.

Marcia Robinson Lowry is the lead plaintiff for the class and executive director of A Better Childhood (ABC). ABC is counsel for the children, along with Shaffer & Shaffer, a West Virginia law firm and the non-profit organization Disability Rights of West Virginia.

The group filed a complaint in federal court in October 2019, denouncing the Department of Health and Human Resource’s “over-reliance” on shelter care, shortages in case workers and a “failure to appropriately plan for the children in its custody.”

The following year, a motion for class action status was filed but left undecided when the case was dismissed in 2021. In 2022, that decision was reversed by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and the class action motion was renewed in May 2023.

According to the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) Child Welfare Dashboard, on October 26, 2023, there are 6,197 children in state care.

Governor Defends Using CARES Money For MU Stadium

During his weekly briefing Wednesday, Gov. Jim Justice said he had no regrets about his administration’s decision to use $10 million in CARES dollars to build a baseball stadium at Marshall University.

The West Virginia Senate Finance Committee has launched an investigation into the administration’s spending of COVID-19 relief money, including money earmarked to benefit the Division of Corrections.

“The only thing that I hate about this whole thing is just this, is people saying, ‘Well you know, he’s going to run for senate, and that’s why he is doing this,’” Justice said. “I mean really, really and truly, I mean look what we have accomplished since the day I walked in the door. Do you honest-to-goodness think I need anything else to be able to run for the senate, and why on earth would I want anything except more and more goodness for Marshall University, Huntington, the whole area. I mean absolutely, if there was a way to do it, absolutely I wanted to find a way to do it. In the CARES dollars that we administered here there was well over a billion dollars, and I think we handled those dollars correctly all the way through.”

The money for Marshall University’s baseball stadium was transferred to the governor’s Gifts, Grants and Donations Fund just before the federal deadline to allocate CARES money.

Justice defended his decision, saying CARES money was spent wisely as evidenced by West Virginia leading the nation in caring for the most vulnerable during the pandemic.

“We didn’t shut down all of our businesses and everything. We kept the state open for business,” he said. “We did the right thing, that you know, that I really believe if you’ve talked to the medical experts and everything, a catastrophe could have happened.”

Justice said his administration moved immediately when vaccines became available.

“We knew this was attacking our elderly and we moved immediately to get shots in the arms of our elders.”

Justice said he stands “rock solid” behind his administration, saying it’s not a one man show.

“This was a show of our people. We’re all together, our experts, the very best of the best of the best, you know, who stepped forward. At the end of the day, I’d really surprise you with what I thought is the best characteristic that I have. And that’s the ability to doubt myself. Because what I do is I check stuff. Then I double check stuff to make absolutely certain we’re doing the right thing. Nobody had a playbook. This was done very, very, very well. Only one can do something perfect. I’ll never be that. Literally this was done really good.”

The governor’s Chief of Staff Brian Abraham said early on in the pandemic the U.S. Department of Treasury “put out” the money for COVID-19 relief before they implemented any guidelines.

“The governor was the one that came out and said, make sure we get the best of the best when it comes to experts who can guide us through this,” Abraham said.

Abraham said the Justice administration has been transparent and confirmed the legality of the move with accounting firm BDO and the law firm Bailey Glasser. “Our BDO folks have reached out and provided all this information since the senate met the other day. Again the governor demands we are transparent. And we did that here. And now we’re going to show the senators that and I’m sure they’ll understand once we provide it.”