She began to cry on the witness stand as she recalled all the bruises on the body of 17-month-old Patrick Lerch when he died early this year inside a St. Leger Avenue drug house.
Heather Murphy, a Summit County Children Services caseworker who investigated an abuse complaint at the home 10 days before the toddler died, testified last week that she saw nothing that would have caused her to act immediately to remove the child from the home.
“He had one small bruise by his ear,” Murphy testified.
But when assistant county Prosecutor Greg Peacock asked Murphy whether Patrick looked virtually unscathed when she viewed his autopsy photo in Peacock’s office, she broke down and cried.
“No, he did not,” Murphy told the court last week, her voice barely audible.
Patrick died of poisoning from ingesting methamphetamine, according to autopsy results. He never regained consciousness when paramedics found him in the house and took him to Akron Children’s Hospital, where he died Feb. 26.
Murphy was one of the state’s final witnesses at the trial of the child’s mother, Heather Lerch, 21. The Akron woman was convicted Monday of one count of murder, two counts of involuntary manslaughter and three counts of child endangering.
Peacock said afterward that Patrick had bruises “from head to toe.”
Lerch will be sentenced Sept. 25 by Common Pleas Judge Tom Parker.
In the aftermath of the verdicts, the Beacon Journal requested the input of Murphy and John Saros, executive director of Children Services, on details of her Feb. 16 check of the boy and the St. Leger home.
Agency spokesman Chris Vasco said it was inappropriate to comment about the case while two co-defendants, Lerch’s boyfriend, Randy Legg, and his older brother, Ronald Legg, are awaiting trial.
Once those cases are resolved, Vasco said, the agency would be willing to discuss its involvement.
A review of Murphy’s court testimony provided some insights into what she did and did not see at the two-story home in Goodyear Heights.
Murphy testified that she is required by state law to give notice of a personal visit after Children Services receives a complaint about possible neglect and abuse.
She said she called Lerch on Feb. 14 and left a message about her visit, then talked to Lerch by phone the next day. She visited on the following day, Feb. 16.
Murphy said she did not go into the basement. Responding Akron police officers found a meth lab there on the night Patrick died. Another co- defendant, Allen Kostra, testified that the child spent much of his time in the basement, which was infested with rats.
Murphy told the jury that for safety reasons, Children Services guidelines do not require a caseworker to go into a home’s basement.
An Akron police officer had testified in a pretrial hearing that he also found drug evidence outside the home, as well as in the kitchen. When Murphy was on the stand, Peacock asked her about the other rooms, particularly the kitchen.
“It was clean, organized,” Murphy said.
“The house did not have any identifiable safety hazards that I would have identified as hazardous to a 17-month-old,” she told the court.
Murphy said she found no signs of drug activity, no exposed electrical wires and no items that were choking hazards lying around.
Patrick and his mother interacted suitably during the check, Murphy said, “and they hugged at one point.”
Caseworkers can take steps to remove a child immediately from a home, by first contacting a supervisor and Akron police, if they see signs of severe injury or abuse, Murphy said.
When Peacock asked her whether Patrick had any of those signs during her visit, she replied: “No, he did not.”
Lerch faces a sentence of life in prison, and Kostra’s plea bargain calls for a sentence of four to 11 years.
Ed Meyer can be reached at 330-996-3784 or at emeyer@thebeaconjournal.com.