Activists demand investigation into county child and family services following Aniya Day-Garrett's death

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Aniya Day-Garrett's father led about two dozen activists in chants and marches along Euclid Avenue in front of the home of the Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services to call for an investigation into the agency after the 4-year-old girl's death.

"We want [the agency] held accountable," Mickhal Garrett told a group of reporters as he cried. "They failed me. They failed all of us. Nobody should have to go through what we went through."

The rally came eight days after Aniya died of a stroke triggered by what investigators say was blunt force trauma delivered to the emaciated and scarred girl's head while in the care of her mother Sierra Day, and her boyfriend, Deonte Lewis.

Both Day and Lewis appeared in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Monday on charges of aggravated murder. They have pleaded not guilty and are being held in jail on $1 million bond.

Garrett's comments also came three months after he first told court officials that he suspected his daughter was being abused, and that he feared for her life, according to records obtained by cleveland.com.

Garrett petitioned the Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court in December to get custody of his daughter from Day, who had obtained a restraining order against him in November. Garrett denied her claims of domestic abuse, and records show he never received notice of the Nov. 14 court hearing so he was unable to defend himself against the charges.

Garrett wrote in the affidavit, signed Dec. 14 and filed on Dec. 20, that Day had refused to let him see Aniya since September, when he noticed scars on the girl. He also said he only recently learned that the Department of Children and Family Services had received reports of abuse.

"I truly, truly, truly feel as though my daughter is being abused at home physically/mentally and that her life could possibly be in danger," Garrett wrote.

The affidavit triggered a court process that stretched out over three months.

The court held its first hearing on Garrett's Dec. 20 application on Feb. 26, where a magistrate ordered the Department of Children and Family Services to visit the homes of both Garrett and Day. Two days later, the same magistrate appointed a guardian ad litem to investigate the case and report back to the court, and set the next hearing in the case for 2:30 p.m. Monday.

While that case was going on, Garrett also filed paperwork to amend the restraining order that Day had obtained against him. That case was set to go to trial in Domestic Relations Court on Thursday, March 15, according to court records.

Cuyahoga County Children and Family Services investigated three reports alleging abuse against Aniya in 2017, but the agency did not find cause to remove her from Day's home, Cuyahoga County spokeswoman Mary Louise Madigan told cleveland.com after the girl's death.

Aniya's relatives told cleveland.com they called the agency to report injuries on the girl's body, such as rug burns and black eyes, and Harbor Crest Child Care of Euclid contacted the police department last year to report a series of suspicious injuries that happened over a year-and-a-half period, according to a police report.

Garrett petitioned the court to get custody of Aniya, but that case was still open when the girl died on March 11.

On March 11, at about 11:15 a.m., police were called to Day's house after Aniya had gone unresponsive. She was rushed to Euclid Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

She had scald marks on her feet and legs, a large bruise near her left eye and a cut on her face when paramedics found her, and appeared so emaciated that investigators could clearly make out the individual joints in her fingers and each of her ribs, according to a police report.

Garrett, dressed in a pink vest with a pink corsage to commemorate his daughter's favorite color, said Aniya's death has devastated him. He wondered what more he could have done to save her.

"I hope and pray a difference is made today," he said Monday. "I don't want this to happen to any other children on this Earth. We have to come together and make a change."

Madigan told cleveland.com that the agency is conducting an internal review into its handling of the case.

"We know that we are expected to see and recognize patterns of abuse and neglect and if the internal investigation determines we did something wrong there will be discipline," Madigan said in a written statement issued after Monday's rally.

The rally was organized by Black Lives Matter Cleveland. That group's co-founder Latonya Goldsby, said Aniya's death is the latest in a string of cases that, together, show the agency is systemically failing the children it is meant to protect.

Goldsby and other activists pointed to the deaths of Aniya, Ta'Naejah McCloud, Jordan Rodriguez and Alexandria Hamilton, whose families had all been investigated by social workers.

The group called upon county leaders to probe the department's policies and practices to determine its shortfalls, whether it be a lack of funding, social services workers bogged down by high caseloads or whether some don't act with urgency.

"Something is wrong here," Goldsby said. "How is a system that is supposed to protect children letting them die under their supervision?"

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