McHenry Times

Rep. Tom Weber (R-Lake Villa) took to podium Thursday to address the “deaths of children” who had been on the radar of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) before their deaths.

During a news event, Weber referred to the cases of Sophia Faye Davis and Zaraz Walker. He said the DCFS did nothing to help Sophia Faye and Zaraz.

“We as a state didn't just fail Sophia, we failed her mother, Cassy Needham, a mother who asked for a safety plan from DCFS and was instead told her concerns were unfounded,” Weber said. “She said ‘the system failed me’ and she is right. Zaraz Walker's body has still not been found.”

Weber sees the problems come from the top.

"Deaths of children in state care are on the rise. We have not seen tangible signs of progress only more problems and more excuses," he said.

WJBC reports that Kimberlee Burton has been charged by prosecutors with concealment of the death of her daughter, Zaraz Walker.

Weber isn’t the only Illinois politician upset by the lack of action from the state’s DCFS.

“It was bad enough to DCFS had to receive prior court orders in connection with many of these children who are being held in impossible situations, but a contempt citation means that court orders were ignored repeatedly, chronically,” Rep. Deanne Mazzochi (R-Westmont) said. “That the court believes that there was no other choice to get these kids some relief, and that is not acceptable.”

Illinois DCFS director Marc Smith has been held in contempt of court six times total now. The most recent order involves the agency sending a 16-year-old girl in foster care to nearly 25 different placements, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. The most recent contempt of court order is the fourth in six weeks. 

The State Journal-Register reported 19-month-old Sophia Faye Davis died on Feb. 8. In her final month of life, child abuse allegations were dismissed. Cierra Coker, the girlfriend of Davis’ father, was charged with first degrees of murder and aggravated battery to a child. She is accused of beating the toddler to death.

ABC7Chicago reported in 2020 that the two former DCFS workers who oversaw the case of AJ Freund, a 5-year-old beaten to death by his parents and hid in a shallow grave in Crystal Lake, were charged with endangering the child’s life. Their case is still going through the courts.