Lehigh Valley Health Network announced Friday that Dr. Debra Esernio-Jenssen, the former head of LVHN's Child Advocacy Center (CAC), will be stepping down at the end of the month.
We spoke with the attorney representing dozens of families in lawsuits against her. He said, in his opinion, retirement isn't enough.
"I think it's a whitewash and a soft landing to say that she's going into retirement. The only retirement she should have is in a jail cell," said attorney Francis Alexander Malofiy.
Malofiy told us he just filed another lawsuit late Friday afternoon with 27 new plaintiffs from 7 new families, all claiming wrongful abuse diagnoses. He expects that to be certified by the court on Monday.
We also learned Friday that Lehigh County plans to move the CAC to the County Government Center in Allentown for the time being, pulling it out of the LVHN building at the intersection of 17th and Chew Streets.
In a statement about the new CAC, Lehigh County did not mention the lawsuits, saying only "Recent transitions involving LVHN make this an appropriate time to evaluate how best to serve the community moving forward."
LVHN also responded to the decision to move the CAC, saying "We have been in continuous conversation with our partners in the Child Advocacy Center (CAC) and look forward to meeting with them on the evolution of the CAC. We remain focused on working with Lehigh County and all other jurisdictions to protect children."
In one lawsuit Malofiy filed representing 12 families, it claims the relationship between staff from Children and Youth Services (CYS) and LVHN was problematic, saying "LVHN leased office space in 2017 to Lehigh County so that CYS caseworkers could be physically stationed inside the CAC at 17th and Chew Streets in Allentown. Absurdly, CYS employees handling these cases literally worked across the hall from Dr. Esernio-Jenssen and deferred to her team on almost every issue."
Malofiy called the decision to move the CAC to the Government Center a step in the right direction.
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater's attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, "Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it's the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-12348801
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MORE VALUABLE WORDS: "As a former public defender, Texas' refusal to delay Ivan Cantu's execution to evaluate new evidence is deeply worrying for the state of our legal system. There should be no room for doubt in a death penalty case. The facts surrounding Cantu's execution should haunt all of us."
Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett; X March 1, 2024.
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