The Case of Carl DeBrodie: One year later, what’s changed?

ABC 17 News has been investigating the efforts to keep the family of Carl DeBrodie in the dark about what really happened to him, and whether state agencies responsible for his care have responded to calls for change.

ABC 17’s Deborah Kendrick has been investigating DeBrodie’s death since days after the disabled man’s body was found encased in concrete.

Throughout the investigation, ABC 17 News learned that others are also struggling to find out what really happened to DeBrodie.

The attorney representing DeBrodie’s family, Rudy Veit, told Kendrick their court subpoenas were completely ignored after the Callaway County Public Administrator’s office refused to hand over DeBrodie’s case files for the wrongful death lawsuit.

Since the wrongful death lawsuit was filed in January, Veit told Kendrick the lawsuit was the best and perhaps only option to get answers for family members.

“We can now say the prosecutors are working with our deadlines, and the attorney general has,” Veit said. “We can already see, though, that if we didn’t file a lawsuit, some of these things were never going to happen.”

Yet, even this push for justice has been a slow process. Veit tells ABC 17 News one person in charge of DeBrodie’s care hasn’t been served in the wrongful death lawsuit. That person is Second Chance’s group home manager, Sherry Paulo.

Kendrick contacted the Callaway County Sheriff’s Office Thursday, Sheriff Clay Chism told us they have received two documents to serve Paulo, but both were returned due to bad addresses.

Right now, no dollar amount has been determined in the wrongful death lawsuit. Veit said they are more focused on making sure state and local agencies have the proper checks and balances in place to assure this doesn’t happen again.

“The family could at least have the peace of knowing that this was horrible, but that the state agencies, if they are violating their own policies, have put in a plan to correct them,” Veit said.

Kendrick searched for answers for weeks. First on the list was trying to talk with Callaway County Special Services’ Executive Director, Julia Kauffman, about the agency’s policies and if any changes have been made since a case worker under Kauffman’s direction lied on documents, making up meetings with Carl.

Kendrick was denied any interviews or sunshine requests made in regards to CCSS policies. An attempt was also made to talk to Missouri Department of Mental Health Departmental Disabilities, but Kendrick was also denied an interview or policies. Both agencies cited similar reasoning for denying the requests, saying it was “due to pending litigation.”

CCSS’s attorney sent a letter to Kendrick. You can read the entire letter below:

“The records you request, if they exist at all, would be directly relevant to the unfounded claims by Ms. Summers against CCSS and Ms. Kaufmann. Because of pending litigation, those documents, if they exist at all, would be produced to the Plaintiffs in the normal course of litigation and governed only by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.”

Attorneys for ABC 17 News say since the request is not specific to Carl DeBrodie, the agency should have been able to hand them over. ABC 17 News is continuing to pursue those policies and any related documents.