Kansas has reached a $1 million settlement Tuesday to resolve a lawsuit stemming from the 2015 murder of a 7-year-old, NBC News reported.
The death of Adrian Jones brought attention to the flaws in Kansas’ child welfare system, according to NBC News. It earned criticisms that the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) did not take him out of a situation where he faced severe abuse. Kansas Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and other legislative leaders agreed to pay the settlement amount.
Adrian’s ordeal took place in Kansas City, under the roof of his father, Michael Jones, and stepmother, Heather Jones. Both adults are now serving life sentences for their role in his murder, NBC News reported. Adrian’s abuse includes being beaten, starved and locked away. His final months were documented by surveillance cameras. The abuse led to his death and his body was reportedly fed to the pigs after.
Kansas will pay $1 million over the murder of a boy torture victim whose body was fed to pigs https://t.co/tcVaAaQnP9
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 14, 2024
The lawsuit was initiated by Adrian’s mother, grandmother and sister in 2017, the outlet stated. They accused the DCF of negligence and argued that the agency had ample opportunity to intervene before Adrian’s death. Despite several reports of abuse, the agency’s last in-person contact with Adrian occurred almost four years before his death. (RELATED: ‘Deepest Regret And Sorrow’: Mommy-Vlogger Pleads Guilty To Abusing, Starving Children, Video Shows)
“This has been a long journey for Adrian’s family,” Attorney representing the family members, Matt Birch, said in a statement, NBC News reported. “The most important thing for the family was to hopefully make a change and make this less likely to happen in the future.”
Democratic state Sen. and Minority Leader Dinah Sykes believed that the state could face legal problems from certain events, NBC News stated. Kelly claims that the primary concern was not the possible financial losses from a lawsuit, but rather that the legal proceedings could divert focus from the main objective, which is to enhance the child welfare system.
“It really had to do with wanting to get that settled and not spend time litigating in courts for what could be definitely months, maybe even years,” she said, according to NBC News.