Father of 5-year-old Elijah Lewis sues N.H. child protection agency over son’s death - The Boston Globe (2024)

This case and a forthcoming wrongful death lawsuit from the mother of Harmony Montgomery, whose disappearance went largely unnoticed for nearly two years after her father beat her to death in late 2019, could shine an unnerving spotlight on New Hampshire’s child welfare system, which struggled to protect kids long before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The newly filed lawsuit over Elijah’s death faults DCYF for allowing the boy to remain in the home in Merrimack, N.H., despite documenting clear concerns and acknowledging a need for someone other than his parents to step in and care for him. It alleges DCYF failed to follow its own protocols for safety reviews and risk assessments.

“Despite any reasonable person recognizing Elijah had severe psychiatric needs and parents who were unable to manage those needs, DCYF failed to do what it is actually charged with doing under the law — protect Elijah,” the lawsuit states.

A spokesperson for DHHS referred questions to the New Hampshire Department of Justice, and a DOJ spokesperson said attorneys for the state will review the lawsuit “and respond as appropriate in due course.”

Dauphinais, 37, was accused of killing her son through violence and neglect after an autopsy on the emaciated boy’s body found signs of head trauma and fentanyl in his system. Her boyfriend at the time of Elijah’s death, Joseph B. Stapf, 32, is now in prison, having pleaded guilty to manslaughter for his role in the ordeal.

The couple and a younger daughter were living in Merrimack with Stapf’s mother, Joanne Stapf, when 4-year-old Elijah, who had been living with his father in Arizona, came for an extended visit in late May 2020, according to the lawsuit.

Elijah was exhibiting “developmental challenges and a difficult behavior pattern” that exasperated his mother and her boyfriend as the 30-day visit they had initially planned stretched on for months, according to the lawsuit.

“By mid-September 2020, Danielle and Joseph’s ability to manage Elijah’s behavioral and emotional limitations unraveled to the point where Danielle wanted Elijah to return to Arizona,” the lawsuit states, adding that Timothy Lewis was not financially able at that time to come to New Hampshire to retrieve his son.

The lawsuit says Dauphinais contacted Merrimack police in September 2020 regarding Elijah’s behavior, told Timothy Lewis she wanted Elijah “out now,” and warned she was on the verge of a mental breakdown as Elijah sometimes “acts like he’s possessed.”

Timothy Lewis called DCYF in October 2020 to report concerns about Elijah’s well-being in his mother’s care, and the agency’s intake assessment from that report identified several risk factors in the home, including substance abuse and mental health concerns, according to the lawsuit.

The agency conducted another intake assessment in November 2020 after an Elliot Hospital nurse reported potential neglect and physical abuse. Dauphinais had brought Elijah with visible bruises to the hospital close to midnight, according to the lawsuit. She allegedly said she found him eating his own feces, and reported that he had tortured the dog, thrown razor blades at his sibling, and hidden knives and thumbtacks under his bed.

“He’s absolutely nuts, he’s absolutely crazy,” she said, according to the lawsuit, which recounted reports that the boy had frequently urinated and defecated in his bedroom.

Dauphinais and her boyfriend went home while Elijah stayed at the hospital overnight, according to the lawsuit. Before discharging him the next morning, a hospital social worker spoke with a DCYF representative who allegedly said it would be OK to send him home with his mother.

Despite a “plethora” of information showing Elijah was not safe and Dauphinais was not capable of caring for him, the DCYF closed the case as “unfounded” in late December 2020, sending him back to live with two adults who “beat him, tortured him, starved him, and eventually, killed him” in 2021, the lawsuit states.

All three adults — Dauphinais, Joseph Stapf, and Joanne Stapf — who lived in the Merrimack home at the time of Elijah’s death are named alongside DCYF as defendants in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary and punitive damages severe enough to deter similar conduct by other child protection agencies. It also says Timothy Lewis waives the confidentiality provisions that govern child abuse case records under New Hampshire state law “for the express purpose of publicly exposing DCYF’s failures” that caused his son to suffer.

Dauphinais is awaiting trial on charges that include first-degree murder, second-degree murder, and witness tampering for urging others to help conceal Elijah’s disappearance, according to court records. Jury selection in that case is slated to begin in October.

Authorities concluded Elijah died in the home on or about Sept. 24, 2021, but an investigation into Elijah’s disappearance didn’t begin until weeks later, according to court records.

Dauphinais gave birth at home to another baby boy, Joseph Stapf’s son, on Oct. 7, 2021; then Stapf took the drug-dependent infant to Catholic Medical Center in Manchester and surrendered him under New Hampshire’s “safe haven” law on Oct. 10, 2021; that led DCYF to investigate and alert Merrimack police to Elijah’s disappearance on Oct. 14, 2021, according to a police affidavit.

Dauphinais and Stapf were arrested in New York City on Oct. 17, 2021. After a days-long search, Elijah’s remains were found Oct. 23, 2021.

An attorney for Timothy Lewis in this lawsuit, Neil B. Nicholson, did not respond to a request for comment.

It was not immediately clear whether Dauphinais, Joseph Stapf, or Joanne Stapf had retained counsel to defend them against the lawsuit.

An attorney representing Dauphinais in her pending criminal case, Benjamin L. Falkner, declined to comment. A public defender who represented Joseph Stapf in his criminal case did not immediately respond. Efforts to reach Joanne Stapf were not immediately successful.

Steven Porter can be reached at steven.porter@globe.com. Follow him @reporterporter.