A settlement was reached in a case involving the wrongful death of a developmentally disabled Missouri man. Back in April 2017, the body of Carl DeBrodie was found “encased in concrete after he went missing from a supported living home.” The suit itself was filed by DeBrodie's mother and sister-in-law and their attorney, Rudy Veit, said the details of the settlement are being kept confidential. However, Veit did reveal that it “provides enough money to care for DeBrodie's mother, Carolyn Summers, and to allow her to make donations to organizations that helped DeBrodie during his lifetime.”In the lawsuit, DeBrodie's mother and sister-in-law accused the Second Chance Homes, “state mental health agency's employees, the Callaway County public administrator and the home's employees” of failing to “provide proper care or properly oversee DeBrodie's care.” It should be noted, however, that a judge “removed the state agencies and their employees from the lawsuit in late September.”

Mental Health Graphic; image courtesy of
Wokandapix via Pixabay, www.pixabay.com

In addition to providing financial compensation to DeBrodie's mother, Viet believes the settlement will go a long way towards protecting “parents and guardians of developmentally disabled people because it has made public administrators, owners, and employees of supported-living homes, and others involved in that care aware that they will face economic and criminal consequences if they don't live up to their obligations.” He added:“In this case, everybody said it was somebody else's duty (to provide care). We make clear with this litigation, you have to do your job...You don't do the minimum required by law, you don't just rubberstamp what someone tells you.”What happened, though? How did DeBrodie end up encased in concrete?According to the lawsuit, his mother believes DeBrodie was “left to die at a Second Chance employee's home near the end of October 2016 but his disappearance wasn't reported until April, according to the lawsuit.” The suit argued that employees of the agencies named in the suit were “legally required to meet with DeBrodie and file reports confirming that he was healthy and being properly cared for.” However, Summers claimed those meetings didn't happen in the months leading up to his body's discovery. Instead, Summer's claimed “that the employees filed fraudulent reports saying they had seen DeBrodie.”To make matters worse, Summer's also claimed that “caseworkers and employees of Second Chance Homes prevented herself and others from visiting DeBrodie in the months preceding his death.”Earlier this year, nurse Melissa Denise DeLap pleaded guilty to “health care fraud and admitted that she signed false reports saying she had met with DeBrodie during the months between his death and the discovery of his body.”Additionally, Sherry Paulo and Anthony Flores, the owners of the Second Chance Home, were charged back in June with involuntary manslaughter in connection to DeBrodie's death. Additionally, they were also charged with “client neglect, felony abandonment of a corpse, and two misdemeanors of making a false report of a missing person.”

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Settlement reached in case of disabled man's body found encased in concreteSettlement reached in case of Missouri man whose body was found encased in concrete