Tragic Case of Malnutrition: Family Suing Child Welfare Agency
The aunt of a 4-year-old boy who tragically starved to death in his parents’ Harlem apartment is taking legal action against the city’s child-welfare agency. This lawsuit, announced by her lawyers on Thursday, accuses the Administration for Children’s Services (A.C.S.) of negligence, claiming that the agency was aware of the family’s situation and failed to intervene adequately to protect the children.
The boy, Jahmeik Modlin, had been under the agency’s observation for several years. Despite multiple contacts with the family, the A.C.S. closed its most recent case involving them in 2022. Jahmeik’s parents, Nytavia Ragsdale, 26, and Laron Modlin, 25, are currently facing serious charges, including second-degree manslaughter in connection with their son’s death, which occurred on October 14. They are also charged with endangering the welfare of Jahmeik’s three older siblings, who were found to be severely malnourished and subsequently hospitalized.
Prosecutors revealed last week that in 2022, when Jahmeik was just 2½ years old, a medical examination indicated that he weighed only 23 pounds—significantly lower than the average weight of boys his age, according to government health statistics. Unfortunately, it remains unclear whether the A.C.S. was aware of Jahmeik’s alarming weight at that time. When he passed away, his weight had plummeted to just 19 pounds, a weight typically seen in a healthy 1-year-old boy.
The lawsuit, filed by Nyisha Ragsdale, the sister of Jahmeik’s mother and a resident of Brooklyn, contends that the A.C.S. “failed in its duty to monitor the safety of Jahmeik Modlin.” The suit cites multiple reports of domestic violence, malnutrition, and unsafe living conditions within the household as evidence of the agency’s failure to act.