(The Center Square) – With three changes to the Senate’s passage along party lines, the Dominique Moody Act advanced from North Carolina’s House of Representatives 113-0 on Wednesday.
The upper chamber is next up to consider two committee substitutes and a floor amendment to the bill championed by Sens. Steve Jarvis of Davidson County, Buck Newton of Wilson County and Brad Overcash of Gaston County. Senate Bill 280 carries the namesake of an underweight 27-pound Charlotte child just shy of her seventh birthday when found beaten, tortured and starved.
“I read the report on Dominique, and it’s enough to make the biggest, strongest man cry to know what that child endured,” said Rep. Brendan Jones, R-Columbus. “No child should ever, ever have to go through the torment that this blessed little soul went through.”
Senate passage on May 7, before the changes, was 29-18, with Democrats in favor and no Republicans against it.
The reform package on child welfare includes the creation of a child welfare escalation team at the Department of Health and Human Services; photographs taken during home assessments by Child Protective Services; training for recognizing child abuse and neglect; liability provisions for agencies failing to follow the law; a public child safety dashboard; and public disclosure provisions for child fatality and near-fatality cases involving the Department of Social Services.
Tonya McKnight, Tery'n McKnight, and Susan Robinson each face first-degree murder charges. Tonya McKnight was the legal guardian, and the suspect prosecutors believe led or directed the abuse. The other suspects are identified as caregivers and participants in abuse.
Ikea McKnight, the mother, left Moody in the care of a relative she says she believed was trustworthy.
Lawmakers in Raleigh have asked District Attorney Spencer Merriweather to criminally investigate the child welfare system in Mecklenburg County.
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