Shameless father of deceased toddler seeks to cash in
How does James Crosby, the biological father of a toddler found dead in a filthy Joliet home in 2017, get to play the victim?
It is bad enough that no one has been charged with murder more than a year after Semaj’s body was found under a couch that was flush to the floor.
But for the girl’s father to seek monetary damages for his loss is sickening.
The father of Semaj Crosby — the Joliet Township infant who was found dead under a couch in a squalid home last year — has filed a lawsuit against the child’s mother and an Illinois Department of Children and Family Services contractor, alleging negligence by both parties led to the death of the 17-month-old girl. Is there no shame? After all, where was he when his daughter was living in squalor?
Where was he when caseworkers were running back and forth chasing down allegations of child neglect and abuse against his daughter’s mother, Sheri Gordon?
Where was he when so-called squatters were taking over a dilapidated home where Semaj and her siblings lived?
Where was Crosby when someone killed his baby?
Two months prior to Semaj’s death, Crosby was locked up on theft and domestic battery charges, according to the Joliet Herald-News.
He told NBC5 even though he was behind bars, he’d “get to hug” his baby daughter, “kiss her,” and “she’d fall asleep” on him. Touching.
But he was in no position to protect his 17-month-old daughter from a lifestyle that he now blames for the toddler’s mysterious death.
Crosby is suing the Children’s Home & Aid Society of Illinois (CHA), and Gordon, in connection with the child’s death, alleging, among other things, that the mother “placed Semaj Crosby under the couch and allowed the child to become “asphyxiated.”
That’s a bombshell, given the mother has not been charged with the homicide.
The father is seeking judgment against Gordon and the social service agency “in excess of the jurisdictional limit.”
The social service agency declined to comment on the lawsuit on Wednesday. The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, the agency that contracted CHA to monitor Gordon, also declined to comment.
According to the lawsuit, while CHA was monitoring the Joliet home, there were “fifteen or more people living in the home inclusive of multiple families and other children . . . and many had open investigations of child abuse and neglect.”
A concerned father would never have left his four children in such a hellish situation. If Crosby claims he didn’t know his children were living in these squalid conditions, that’s even worse.
Obviously, there is enough blame to go around.
For instance, a caseworker who visited the home failed to notice anything troubling even though Joliet housing authorities declared the home uninhabitable only days after the visit.
Crosby’s lawsuit alleges that Gordon “had cognitive limitations and this interfered with coordinating the children’s medical appointments and care.”
The suit also alleges that from September 2016 through April 2017, the mother “had difficulty participating in the services, inability to comprehend directions, which significantly impacted her ability to identify and attend to her children’s developmental and wellbeing needs, and was a cause of continued abuse and neglect of the children.”
But why was the responsibility for caring for these children hers to bear alone?
And while it appears that the Children’s Home and Aid society of Illinois didn’t live up to its mission, why is this agency being held accountable while this father is not?
After Semaj’s death, Crosby filed a petition for custody of the three other children he has with Gordon, and that case is still pending.
Maybe this is a father who is remorseful and now wants to do right by his children.
Judging from what these children have been through, they desperately need someone to really care about them.
But Crosby’s interest in parenting these children looks exploitive, and that makes this lawsuit even more appalling.
We are a litigious society, and when stuff goes wrong, we are quick to look for someone to pay. But this is not justice.
What happened to Semaj was a terrible tragedy — not a lottery ticket.