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The Indiana Department of Child Services produced discovery in a civil case that shows the department’s director received emails about a 4-year-old killed by his parents, but the agency and plaintiff disagree about the implications of the messages.
In a supplement to a rule to show cause filed Sept. 27, the plaintiff in the case said DCS Director Eric Miller received emails regarding Judah Morgan in December 2020, about nine months before the child was tortured and killed. Miller was the agency’s chief of staff at the time.
In the filing, the plaintiff paints the revelation as being contrary to Miller’s testimony in Hendricks Superior Court during a contempt hearing Sept. 25.
DCS is a nonparty to the case — Estate of Judah Morgan, by Jenna Hullett, Personal Representative v. Alan Morgan, 32D01-2301-CT-000004 — that involves Judah’s father, who was sentenced to 70 years in prison.
The plaintiff, represented by Mishawaka attorney Charlie Rice, alleged DCS has not been forthcoming with documents related to the child and parents.
At the contempt hearing, Miller said his email was not included in a batch of documents DCS produced, but he repeated that discovery production was complete as of Sept. 22.
In a notice filed the Friday before the hearing, DCS said it produced 130,316 pages of records, an effort that took “hundreds of hours” with more than 20 attorneys reviewing more than 1.3 million pages of documents.
The plaintiff’s filed response says Rice wasn’t able to review all emails before the hearing.
DCS’s response noted the plaintiff conceded that the agency produced emails involving Miller — despite the argument that DCS acted in bad faith — and that Miller’s testimony was consistent with production, which encompassed more than six years.
Also part of the continued back-and-forth is former DCS director Terry Stigdon, who left in May and was replaced by Miller.
The plaintiff’s filing says emails show Stigdon was “involved in damage control efforts” for Judah’s death in October 2021.
DCS called the portion involving Stigdon a “gross mischaracterization … to which we strongly object.”
“DCS’s broad searches encompassed emails that were sent, received, and archived,” the filing says. “Thus, even if Director Miller was not included in the nearly 50 custodians that were searched, the results of the search encompassed emails involving both Director Miller and former Director Stigdon.”
The agency has also accused the plaintiff of acting in bad faith by not providing search terms for discovery production.
The judge, Robert Freese, had not issued a ruling following the contempt hearing as of Tuesday afternoon.
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