SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Dori: Toddler removed from foster family, placed with criminal who paralyzed her

Oct 26, 2018, 2:13 PM

Sidney Walton, Carols at the Capitol...

(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

I want to thank one of my listeners, John, who wrote about this on his blog and tipped me off. The Seattle Times did a story on an 18-month-old girl in our state’s foster home system. She had been taken in by a loving foster family who wanted to adopt her. Then, seemingly out of nowhere in 2015, she was ripped out of this loving family’s arms because a man in Texas, Bryant Davis, claimed he was her father. The State of Washington, allegedly with no adequate investigation or vetting of this guy, took this 18-month old girl and placed her with this man.

Now, if the State of Washington had simply done a Google search of Bryant Davis before they tuned the 18-month-old girl over to him, they would have found out about his background. He has a long string of jail sentences for assault, drug possession, and robbery. Over a 10-year period, he spent nearly half of that time behind bars, including two times for assault.

RELATED: State pays $19.3M to settle foster abuse case

One day, when the girl was 21 months old, she peed on the living room carpet. The lawsuit alleges Bryant grabbed her, punched her in the rib cage, took her into the bathroom, and slammed her down on the toilet, then went to clean up the mess. When he came back into the bathroom, he saw her standing in the toilet, which, according to police reports, really set him off. He slammed her back on the toilet, hitting her head on the toilet in the process. He took her back into the living room to “teach her a lesson.” He hit her on the back of the head again. The little girl started having a seizure. He pulled out a mouthpiece she needed for a breathing issue, ripping out a tooth in the process.

This 21-month-old girl was taken to the hospital, where she went into cardiac arrest, had 16 rib fractures, a liver laceration, a spleen laceration, a collapsed lung, bruising, a brain bleed, and a missing front tooth.

She is now a quadriplegic. She will most likely never be able to eat independently or communicate.

If the State of Washington had checked out this guy — and by the way, he only “proved” he was her father with a DNA test known as a ‘strip mall DNA test,’ which is not legally recognized — they would have seen how dangerous he was. She is going to be in the prison of quadriplegia for the rest of her life. He has been sentenced to 23 years behind bars.

You and I get to pay for it. The State of Washington ripped this little girl from a loving foster family who wanted to adopt her, and take care of her, and protect her, and love her. They sent her to an abusive monster with a long criminal history. And because of that, the State Department of Children Youth and Families has agreed to pay $19 million of our tax dollars to take care of this little girl for the rest of her life.

Hey State of Washington, are you going to hold any of these case workers who ripped this girl away from a caring foster family and sent her to this abusive felon accountable? It’s just $19 million from you and me, the taxpayers.

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Dori: Toddler removed from foster family, placed with criminal who paralyzed her