System under scrutiny

Summer Phelps soon may join the ranks of Washington child abuse victims whose deaths demanded urgent review – and action – a state investigator said Tuesday.

The Spokane 4-year-old, who died March 10 of severe abuse, allegedly at the hands of her father and stepmother, likely will be the subject of a full fatality report by the Office of the Family and Children’s Ombudsman.

“I think it does rise to that level of public scrutiny,” Director Mary Meinig said.

Although the agency reviews deaths of all children who die unexpectedly within a year of contact with state Child Protective Service workers, few are the subject of individual reports.

But Meinig said the egregiousness of Summer’s abuse – police said she was beaten, bitten, burned, smothered with urine-soaked towels and outfitted with a dog’s shock collar – mirrors other recent high-profile Washington cases that prompted more intensive examination.

“In reviewing that case, I’ll take a look at the questions that are being begged,” said Meinig, who has not yet received the files on circumstances surrounding Summer’s death.

She expects to have the files within the next several weeks.

Once she does, she’ll decide whether to examine if individual state agencies or the system as a whole contributed to the death of the child.

“The question is, was there any state opportunity to do anything different?” she said.

In 2004 and 2005, Meinig’s office conducted full reviews of the deaths of Justice and Raiden Robinson, a toddler and an infant found starved and dehydrated in their home, and Sirita Sotelo, a 4-year-old beaten to death by her stepmother.

Those reviews led to changes in laws governing Washington’s child welfare system, including the Justice and Raiden Act, which allowed greater ability to intervene in cases of neglect.

Legislators this session are considering changes related to Sirita’s Law, including a bill that requires increased monitoring of non-parent caregivers when a child is returned to a home.

It’s not yet clear whether similar changes will be demanded in the wake of Summer Phelps’ death.

Her father, Jonathan Lytle, 28, and stepmother, Adriana Lytle, 32, are awaiting a May trial on charges of homicide by abuse.

Meinig said she expects to review case files in the next several weeks to determine how involved state workers were with the girl and her family.

Child Protective Services staff members received at least one report of neglect involving Summer in January 2006, a spokeswoman said.

Adriana Lytle was enrolled in the state-run First Steps program for pregnant and postpartum women when she was expecting the couple’s son, Jonny, now 8 months old.

Two local agencies, the Spokane Regional Health District and Family Home Care and Hospice Corp., sent health workers to visit Lytle starting last April. She refused services from the health district nurse in July, but apparently started services with Family Home Care.

A nurse from that agency visited the family’s Monroe Street apartment on March 10, the day Summer died.

A full report could take two months to complete, said Meing, whose agency reviewed 87 deaths in 2004, the most recent year for which data is available.

The ombudsman’s office was created in 1996 in the wake of several high-profile child abuse incidents. The independent office investigates citizen complaints about state agencies and also reviews larger problems in the state child welfare system.

“We look at where the system had an opportunity, where it missed an opportunity and how do we make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Meinig said.