Judge Refuses to Seal Suit in Boy’s Death

A Superior Court commissioner has rebuffed Los Angeles County’s attempts to silence a Gardena mother who is suing the Department of Children and Family Services over the death last year of her 9-year-old son in foster care.

County attorneys had sought to seal from public view a lawsuit alleging that county social workers contributed to the boy’s death.

The county’s lawyers cited confidentiality rules concerning juveniles in asking Commissioner Emilie H. Elias to seal court files and close the courtroom during hearings on the death of Jonathan Reid.

But Elias rejected the request as “inappropriate.”

Jonathan had been taken from his home after county social workers determined that his mother, Debra Reid, 40, had a bad attitude toward them and was not taking adequate care of his medical needs. Six weeks later--and just 13 days after entering foster care--Jonathan died from an overdose of asthma medication, allegedly administered by an improperly trained foster parent.

Reid’s lawyer, Carl E. Douglas, contends that the Department of Children and Family Services improperly labeled Reid a bad mother and placed her son under inadequate care. He argued that the secrecy the county sought during the litigation was merely an attempt to hide the county’s abuses and silence his client.

Neither Douglas nor Reid could be reached, and a county attorney had no comment.

The commissioner said in a written ruling: “The court finds that the closing of the courtroom and/or file would be inappropriate and the court is denying that request. If individual documents, discovery responses or depositions need to be sealed, that can be considered as the need arises.”

The decision permits closer public scrutiny of the county Department of Children and Family Services and its role in the controversial death, which has received widespread publicity.

Earlier, the county lost an attempt to keep records relating to the death confidential when The Times was able to open court records showing the circumstances under which Jonathan entered the foster care system and the actions officials took before and after his death.

The records showed that allegations social workers made against Debra Reid to justify taking the boy from her later proved to be false or unsubstantiated, and were dismissed in Juvenile Court.

The records also showed that the official autopsy report was changed after county officials learned that the chief medical examiner’s wife had treated the boy. Reid alleges that the pediatrician, Vijay Lakshmanan, changed Jonathan’s prescription for asthma medication without examining him.

Chief Coroner Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran initially ruled the death a homicide due to an alleged overdose of Albuterol, an asthma medication. His assistant, however, later found the death to be of “undetermined cause” after another pathologist theorized that the high level of Albuterol in Jonathan’s bloodstream may have been the result of an hourlong attempt to revive him.

Debra Reid had sought a coroner’s inquest earlier this year, but was refused. She sued the county in June, a day short of the one-year anniversary of Jonathan’s death.