In Maine, a committee of lawmakers has voted to sue the state’s Department of Health and Human Services after four deaths of young children in 2021.
In an 8-1 decision, the bipartisan Government Oversight Committee of Maine’s legislature made up of members from both the state’s House of Representatives and Senate moved to pursue legal action after the agency said it could not comply with a subpoena for what it says are confidential case records of the children for the lawmakers to examine.
The vote comes a day after a unanimous verdict by a Maine jury to convict the mother of Maddox Williams, a 3-year-old boy whose death is one of the four that prompted the committee’s deeper look at the child welfare issue, which follows reforms at Maine DHHS prompted by previous child deaths.
On Wednesday, members of the committee were insistent that they need to understand what happened to all four cases inside the agency to understand if there is a systemic problem to resolve.
The committee’s Republican and Democratic leaders also said that they would act regardless of a competitive governor’s race in the state.
They would also consider putting forward legislation to accomplish the goal of obtaining the documents and looking into the cases.
“I don’t think the outcome of the governor’s race will determine the need for the Government Oversight Committee to have these records,” said Rep. Holly Stover, a Democrat from Maine House District 89.
“We’re going to move forward with this regardless,” said Sen. Lisa Keim, a Republican, from Maine Senate District 18.
In a statement to NECN/NBC 10 Boston affiliate, NEWS CENTER Maine, a spokesperson for Maine DHHS said the following in response to the committee vote:
“The Office of the Attorney General’s Chief of Child Protection advised the Department of Health and Human Services in June that it would be impermissible to release these confidential records to Government Oversight Committee members directly. Instead, the Department shared these records with the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability (OPEGA), pursuant to State law, on October 7, 2022, following the Committee’s September 21 vote. We look forward to OPEGA’s review and the Court's resolution of this issue so we can advance our vital work to protect Maine children.”
Attending the vote, a day after the guilty verdict for Williams’s mother Jessica Trefethen was his paternal grandmother, Victoria Vose.
Following the proceeding, she told NECN/NBC 10 Boston that the most difficult part of the committee meeting was “when they started talking about my grandson, Maddox, and why they weren’t releasing his files now that the trial is over.”
Vose’s biggest concern as the lawmakers move forward is time.
She is worried about a long wait for answers on Williams’ case file and for other children who could be in a similar situation.
“It’s very frustrating,” she explained, adding that she believes “there needs to be change and [Maine] DHHS needs to be held accountable.”
