3 days Ago
Over the course of months, family members of Harmony Montgomery warned authorities the 5-year-old was in imminent danger, even going as far as to compare her to another little girl found dead in a plastic bag on the shore of an island in Boston Harbor, according to a lawsuit filed against the state by Harmony’s mother last week. HARMONY MONTGOMERY Harmony’s whereabouts were unknown for two years, and an investigation would later show she had been beaten to death by her father, Adam Montgomery, in December 2019. Three months before her death, an uncle claimed the Division for Children, Youth and Family was “turning a blind eye” to the alleged verbal and physical abuse that had been reported multiple times, according to the lawsuit.
A jury convicted Adam Montgomery of second-degree murder and a judge sentenced him to 56 years to life in prison for second-degree murder and additional charges related to Harmony’s death. While information on the reports to DCYF came to light during the murder trial, the lawsuit revealed that at least a half-dozen family, friends and neighbors alerted the agency about Harmony’s safety and living conditions between July 29 and Oct. 5, 2019.
DCYF exposed Harmony to “foreseeable harm” and failed to launch a thorough and competent investigation, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit comes three months after a probate court judge granted Crystal Sorey’s petition to have her daughter declared dead and to be named sole administrator of Harmony’s estate. Among the complaints mentioned in the suit: Adam’s grandmother, Helen Montgomery, reported to DCYF in August 2019 that she believed Harmony would end up like Bella Bond, a 2-year-old found dead on Deer Island in Boston Harbor in 2015.
The boyfriend of Bella’s mother was convicted of second-degree murder in 2017. A case worker responded in a report that he had spoken with Adam Montgomery’s drug counselor and had seen an injury to Harmony’s eye, which the family said came from her brother hitting her with a toy lightsaber. Adam Montgomery’s uncle, Kevin Montgomery, called DCYF several times on July 29, 2019, having just returned from Florida to find Harmony with a “shiner.
” He became frustrated and later, after being questioned on the accuracy of his dates, said, “This is why children die” and that “This child was punched clear in the eye socket with full force.” Kevin Montgomery reported that Adam had “beaten the dog s+++ out of her” and “bounced her off every f+++ing wall in this place” for covering her crying half-brother’s mouth with her hand. Others, including friends and neighbors, reported Harmony being left in her room for hours; seeing drug paraphernalia in the home; and a generator being used because the electricity had been shut off.
The house was in the process of being foreclosed on. The housing could have been considered “inadequate shelter,” especially with a lack of heat with temperatures dipping into the 40s, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit claims child protection social worker Demetrios Tsaros was assigned the case and visited the home on July 29, but only saw Harmony from a distance.
DCYF policy calls for face-to-face contact with an alleged victim within 24 hours, excluding weekends and holidays, the suit contends. Adam Montgomery’s wife, Kayla, had told Tsaros that Adam’s uncle had found drug paraphernalia belonging to a friend who was living in the home and had relapsed. “Tsaros made no notation in the Contact Log of observing or speaking with Harmony beyond briefly seeing her leaving the home with Adam,” the lawsuit reads.
DCYF was also made aware that Harmony had been left alone with the known drug abuser who was staying in the home. Tsaros later emailed the Manchester Police Department, “..
.I think you folks are all set. I saw the children and did not observe any bruises, marks, etc.
..” After another visit on Aug.
7, 2019, Tsaros noted he briefly spoke with Harmony while she watched a movie. She was not interviewed in “a private, quiet place that is free from interruptions,” the lawsuit reads. No steps were taken to determine whether the bruising was consistent with being hit with a plastic toy 10 days earlier, according to the lawsuit.
Another apparently glaring oversight appears to be when Tsaros checked in with a doctor in 2019 who said “the children” were up to date medically with no signs of abuse/neglect. However, two years later, the doctor stated she had never seen Harmony. The suit contends Tsaros never specifically asked about Harmony.
Another caller questioned “whether DCYF was waiting for children to die,” according to the lawsuit. The suit contends Sorey repeatedly tried to contact DCYF about her child’s whereabouts from Easter 2019 until 2021. No information was given because Adam Montgomery had been awarded custody of Harmony on Feb.
22, 2019, by a Massachusetts judge. Adam Montgomery told Tsaros that he had dropped Harmony off with Sorey. Tsaros didn’t speak to Sorey until Oct.
8. 2019, when she told him she had not been able to see or speak with Harmony. The case was closed out on March 23, 2020, with no sign of Harmony, even though Kayla Montogmery continued to collect benefits in her name.
Additional reports had come in after Harmony’s death, which allegedly were not followed up. Sorey called the Manchester Mayor’s Office in late December 2021, seeking help in finding Harmony. Manchester Police announced a massive search for the girl on New Year’s Eve 2021.
The suit also says Tsaros had known Adam Montgomery since Montgomery was 15 and serving time at the Youth Development Center, where Tsaros had been a counselor. The lawsuit alleges negligence, negligent supervision and training and breach of fiduciary duty. Sorey is seeking a jury trial.
“Crystal was unaware, and could not reasonably have known, that DCYF had been negligent in carrying out its statutory, regulatory and common-law duties towards Harmony, leading to Harmony’s abuse and neglect and, ultimately, to her death, until reading the records she received on or about January 7, 2022,” the lawsuit reads. The lawsuit says a report issued in February 2022 consists of “inaccuracies and omissions in its recitation of the facts which collude to downplay DCYF’s negligence and to mislead the public, but they also raise questions about the effectiveness of the ‘systemic improvements,’” the lawsuit says. Unlike Bella Bond, the girl found dead in Massachusetts, Harmony’s remains have never been found.
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