TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Legal Newsline) - A six-month-old infant who died after being found unresponsive in a plastic container in a closet is the subject of a wrongful death lawsuit against the Florida Department of Children and Families.
The Estate of Scorpio Santana Sharp II filed a lawsuit Feb. 16 in Leon County Circuit Court against Brevard Family Partnership, Family Allies Inc., two agents of the DCF and two individuals who have been criminally charged.
The tragedy was discovered by a Brevard County sheriff's deputy who found three unsupervised children between the ages of two and four years old wandering the streets of Cape Canaveral.
Neighbors informed the deputies where the children lived. They entered an apartment where they found Tanya Galvin passed out.
Galvin told the deputies she had thought those children were with Ricky Nicole Tubbs, who had been assigned, along with Mario Joseph, by DCF as the caregivers for Scorpio, the suit says.
When deputies looked for diapers to change one of the children, they "discovered a nude and unresponsive infant in a plastic storage container," the suit says. During CPR, water came out of the child's mouth, and he died later that morning at Cape Canaveral Hospital.
The county medical examiner determined Scorpio died as a result of drowning. A synthetic stimulant called eutylone was found in his system.
The lawsuit is brought by the mother of Scorpio and one of the other children placed with Tubbs by foster care.
Galvin was charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child, while Tubbs was charged with neglect of a child with great bodily harm.
"This action seeks to hold accountable the individuals, professionals and private corporations charged with investigating, evaluating, vetting and conducting necessary thorough background checks and due diligence in the selection of appropriate foster parents and caregivers..." the suit says.