EVANSVILLE – Three former employees of the Indiana Department of Child Services are suing the state agency, claiming their 2023 termination was due to racial and age discrimination.
The employees were all connected in various capacities to the “Doe case,” in which an infant was bitten more than 50 times by rats. The parents of the 6-month-old baby, David and Angel Schonabaum, were arrested for neglect.
Brandi Leavell and Chissa Madison, two black women over 40, and Rickey Mason, a black man over 40, filed suit against the Indiana Department of Child Services on August 9. All three say they were fired, while their white colleagues also involved in the case were not.
According to federal court documents, Madison served as a permanent position manager, where she oversaw six family case manager supervisors.
In March 2023, the Doe case was assigned to her department, court records show. A month later, another report was prepared on the case, but Madison claims it was not forwarded to her by another employee who processed the report. That employee is white.
On September 1, 2023, two more reports were received on the case, one given to Madison and the other to the same additional employee. According to the documents, Madison assigned the report to Leavell, a supervisor of the family case manager, and her subordinates.
Leavell then assigned the case to her subordinate, Rickey Mason, a family case manager. According to court records, Mason then scheduled an appointment for a family preservation service to conduct a home visit and a full on-site assessment.
Madison and the other two plaintiffs claim that the results of this on-site assessment were delivered while they were on vacation to the same additional employee who had previously processed one of the two reports.
The filing states that Mason’s report also includes photos from inside the house.
All three children were advised to stay home, the file states, adding that no further evaluation was necessary.
On September 6, a second on-site investigation was conducted by two different staff members, both of whom were white. Their findings were reported to the same supervisor who had previously recommended keeping the children home, and the supervisor made the same recommendation.
On September 13, Evansville police responded to the home after learning that the toddler had suffered severe rat bites and needed to be hospitalized. The children were removed from the home at that time.
According to Madison’s records, she was still on leave and at the time disciplinary action was taken against her for “failing to perform her duties in a manner that protects the child’s best interests.”
She claims that no similar action was taken against the other staff member who twice recommended that the children remain in the home.
Madison returned from vacation on Sept. 18. The next day, Leavell and Mason were fired for failing to get the children out of the house, the filing says. The two employees who conducted the Sept. 6 assessment were not fired, according to the filing.
On September 25, a hearing was held where a DCS regional director found that Madison was not properly supervising her employees. Madison was fired the next day.
Each of the filings describes additional situations similar to the Doe case in which the employees were not fired.
The plaintiffs are seeking a judgment against the Indiana Department of Child Services on all counts of “emotional and physical distress, suffering, inconvenience, mental anguish, loss of enjoyment of life, punitive damages, lost wages and income and other benefits,” to be determined at trial. They are also seeking reimbursement of their attorney fees and litigation costs.
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