CHARLOTTE — Three people are currently facing criminal charges in the death of six-year-old Dominque Moody. Her legal guardian and two others associated with her direct care.
Members of the North Carolina House Oversight Committee are now asking if there should be more, including the DSS employees who worked the case.
“I cannot think of any good reason to not hold people accountable if they are not acting in good faith,” said Rep. Allen Chesser, R-Nash County.
Chesser has been strongly involved in the case since the six-year-old’s death in December. He says he is on board with a letter asking Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather to conduct a criminal review into all Mecklenburg County DSS employees who handled reports involving the child.
“We’re not going after good actors who did the best they could with the information available to them at the time,” Chesser said. “We’re looking at what we believe are people who intentionally refused to take action in this case.”
The letter says members of the oversight committee are partially concerned about a North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services review that found four reports taken on Moody by Mecklenburg County DSS, that NCDHHS believes showed abuse and neglect, did not have further action taken on them by the county.
“They even had recommendations at some point, we believe based on testimony that we received, that action needed to be taken and they chose no to act in light of the evidence,” said Chesser.
At an oversight hearing in Raleigh last week, county officials said 12 employees that were involved in the case were disciplined. Chesser asked those officials if they would refer those employees for criminal review. Attorneys for those officials advised them not to answer that question.
Merriweather responded to the committees request saying in part, “We are reviewing available materials to determine what--if any--legal appropriate actions should follow. In the meantime, this Office has active criminal prosecutions against three defendants for the murder of Dominque Moody.”
We reached out to officials with the county for a comment on that request.
We are waiting to hear back.