‘I think there is a bit of a conflict’
West Chester boy who was beaten and tortured has not seen 'one penny' from trust designated for him
WEST CHESTER—In 2014, people all around the world learned the horrifying news that a 3-year-old Chester County boy, Scott “Scotty” McMillan, and his older brother, had been beaten and tortured by their mother’s new boyfriend, abuse that their mother witnessed and participated in, to some degree.
Scotty died, with authorities noting that the abuse he suffered was so brutal and extensive that hospital personnel wept when they saw his body. His wide-eyed and innocent photograph appeared in news reports across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
But Scotty’s older brother survived. As people learned that the 6-year-old had escaped the fate of his sibling, they reached out to try to help him in whatever way they could and offer their support. They did so by mailing checks — said to be “thousands of dollars” — to authorities “to help (him) rebuild his life,” one official said
To deal with the money that flowed in, a financial trust was established to handle those donations and help the boy “on his journey to healing.”
“This child has been exposed to some things that no child should ever see or hear,” said Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan
as the trust was announced in November 2014. “He has lost his little brother. He was betrayed by the people who were supposed to care for him. The good people of this community cannot do anything to help Scotty except shed a tear and say a prayer, but we all can join together to help (his brother) rebuild his life.”
All the money that was sent from all over the world would be placed in care of the trust, so the funds would be protected and insure that “all donations are used for the direct benefit (of the surviving brother,)” Hogan’s press release stated.
It is now eight years and two months since news of the fund, called the Chester County Angel Trust, was announced. But as of today, the survivor of that abuse and target of that generosity has received nothing at all from the trust, despite entreaties from his adoptive parents, they say.
“Not one penny,” said the boy’s paternal aunt who, along with her husband, adopted him in 2017.
The Media News Group is withholding the name of Scotty’s older brother and agreeing to also not identify his adoptive mother or father by name or address. They live in northern Chester County, where the boy, now 13, is enrolled in middle school.
“(He) watched his brother die,” the aunt said in a recent interview. “He was extremely traumatized. We have tried our best to help him, but what frustrates me that that the public felt for him and wanted to help him. And now that money is just sitting there, and we don’t even know how much is in the trust. This is ridiculous. This isn’t right.”
The aunt said that attempts made by her and her husband, from whom she is now separated, to obtain funds for the boy have been consistently rebuffed by attorney Lawrence “Skip” Persick, one of the people who established the trust and then was named one of its co-trustees.
“He made it clear to us he was not going to give us any money for anything,” the aunt said in her interview, saying she and her husband had wanted at first to use the funds to send the boy to summer camp, but wound up using public funds available to adoptive parents for that purpose. “I think he thought we were going to use it for fancy vacations.” She said Persick told her on more than one occasion that the trust funds were to be used specifically for the boy’s college education.
“My understanding was the trust was going to be for his younger years, and to help him heal,” she said, noting that she did not know whether the boy would ever decide to attend college. “Healing a child is providing them with structure and activities that will help them improve themselves, help them socially. Sports. Boy Scouts. Camp.
“We are doing what we can without the trust,” she said.
Persick, who in 2014 was a partner at the West Chester firm of Lamb McErlane, where Hogan was also a partner before his election as D.A. in 2011, is now a partner with the King of Prussia law firm of Weber Gallagher, where he specializes in Family Court matters, including divorce and custody. On Monday, Media News Group sent him a series of questions about his stance regarding distribution of the trust’s funds to the boy.
They included how he came to be appointed as co-trustee; why he said the funds could only be used for the boy’s college expenses or when he becomes an adult; whether he believes that those among the public who sent donations understood that the funds were only for use as college costs; and when the last time was that he met with or spoke to the boy.
After first saying on Monday that he needed to get approval from his firm’s communications department to speak with a reporter and referencing a letter that had been addressed to the aunt that day, Persick later refused to answer any of the questions. He indicated that because the matter involved a child, it was “not appropriate for me to comment.”
Coincidentally, another attorney and former colleague of Persick’s at Lamb McErlane who helped legally establish the trust, Stacey Willits McConnell, also refused to answer a reporter’s questions about the trust. “That’s a matter for Orphans Court. Goodbye,” McConnell told a reporter in a telephone call Wednesday before abruptly hanging up.
It is unclear whether the Chester County Angel Trust has ever been certified by the court. A clerk at the Chester County Register of Willis Office, where Orphans Court records are kept, said trusts that involve juveniles are kept confidential.