State child protection workers had nine days and multiple notices, but none of that saved Mitchell Robinson's life, an investigation has found.
The state Inspector General today released the report detailing his investigation into the death of Baton Rouge toddler Mitchell Robinson III. He was two years old when he died in 2022 of fentanyl poisoning.
His mother has been indicted on a charge of second-degree murder, and his father has pleaded guilty to federal drug charges, but it was the failures of the state systems set up to protect children from abuse and neglect that were the focus of the investigation. If you want to read the report for yourself, you can scroll down.
To read the story done by our media partners at The Advocate, who have covered this case from the start, click here.
Multiple people knew the toddler had tested positive for fentanyl, but did nothing to protect him during the nine days that followed - ending with his death from the drug, the report found.
The report comes to the conclusion that several actions or lack of action by the state Department of Children and Family Services were factors that contributed to the child's death.
Among them are:
• Multiple failures by DCFS Child Welfare management, especially the caseworker’s immediate supervisor, including: allowing the caseworker to be overburdened with assigned cases requiring prompt contact;
failing to assist with that caseload; failing to check on whether initial in-person contacts were made in newly-assigned cases; and failing to manage the caseworker’s assigned cases while she was out on sick leave for an entire week.
• DCFS intake personnel had not been trained on the medical use of Narcan, a drug used exclusively for opioid reversal, and thus did not initially recognize the significance of the child having been revived on two occasions with the drug;
• Law enforcement was not contacted by medical personnel on those two occasions;
• Toxicology screens used by the hospital did not test for synthetic opioids, leading to initial “negative” results that caused confusion among DCFS personnel not familiar with the medical use of Narcan;
• DCFS has no record of being contacted by law enforcement following the drug arrests of the child’s parents in May 2022;
• Poor and vague communication between medical personnel and DCFS on the first two hotline calls.
"Notwithstanding all of the above, there is no factor more significant than the critical nine-day period between June 17, 2022 and June 26, 2022, during which DCFS personnel, including the assigned case worker and supervisor, had specific knowledge that Mitchell Robinson III had tested positive for fentanyl at the time of his June 4 hospital admission. During those nine days, DCFS personnel took no action whatsoever to ensure the safety of the child," the report states.
Here's the full report:
