Jor'Dynn Duncan's mother files $250M lawsuit against Suffolk, CPS and school officials in death of 7-year-old

Jor'Dynn Duncan told the nurse at her Bayport elementary school not to call her foster mother about marks on the girl's face, which appeared to be swollen, because "mom will get mad at her," an episode that occurred 10 months before Jor'Dynn died while in the woman's care, a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday said.

School officials failed to report the injuries and Jor'Dynn's fear of her foster mother to child welfare officials, lawyers for Jor'Dynn's biological mother Portia Duncan said, calling the failure to act "grossly negligent, reckless and in willful disregard of Jor'Dynn's safety."

The $250 million lawsuit filed in federal court in the Eastern District of New York against Suffolk County and the Bayport-Blue Point Union Free School District, as well as individual county Child Protective Services workers and school officials, contains new allegations of abuse of Jor’Dynn and another child, and Jor’Dynn’s attempts to alert adults in her life, as well as more details on previously reported abuse allegations.

"Our client, Jor’Dynn Duncan, as a 6-year-old knew, that the home environment she had been placed into was not safe; It was not safe for her, not safe for any child that lived in that house," Manhattan-based attorney Derek S. Sells said at a news conference Tuesday. "The school failed her. The school spoke to CPS and CPS failed her. ...This was an egregious failure." 

The lawsuit contends  the school district had no policy requiring staff to report abuse disclosures from children to CPS or the child abuse hotline rather than a child's caseworker, failed to provided training and provide written information to mandated reporters on their reporting obligations, had no policy that forbade staff from revealing a child's abuse report to the person accused and failed to enforce its attendance policy. 

The lawsuit also faults CPS for allegedly failing to inform the Family Court judge overseeing Jor'Dynn's case and her attorney of the allegations of abuse made by Jor'Dynn, for failing to report the alleged abuse to the hotline, which would have prompted an investigation, and also for allegedly failing to properly vet Emily Kelly and her home before Jor'Dynn moved in.  

The alleged failures of CPS were not just in Jor'Dynn's case, said the lawsuit, which cited an Office of Children and Family Services report that said Suffolk County for violated state child protective regulations at least 124 times between 2017 and 2024. 

"Through this lawsuit ….we hope to change the way that these cases are investigated," Sellers said. "We hope that Jor’Dynn’s voice — she complained about being abused — is not going to be in vain."

Jor’Dynn was 7 years old when she died on Dec. 29, 2025, from a massive infection caused by sharp-force injuries to her backside and a perforated colon. Prosecutors have charged Kelly, 50, Jor’Dynn’s legal guardian at the time of her death, as well as Kelly’s mother, Barbara Renner, 75, and Kelly’s daughter, Elyssa Seymore, 24, in connection with Jor’Dynn’s death. Each have pleaded not guilty to the charges and have contended through their lawyers the   second grader's injuries were due to self-harm.

The lawsuit details an allegation made by Jor'Dynn to school officials that Kelly struck her 11 months before she died. It also said Jor'Dynn reported Kelly threw food at her and struck another child. But school officials and Child Protective Services caseworker failed to alert a statewide child abuse hotline, in violation of state law and school policy, the lawsuit alleges.

Jor'Dynn's mother, Portia Duncan, said Tuesday she's angry that stronger action wasn't taken by school and CPS officials when Jor'Dynn told school staff about her mistreatment. Duncan said she was never made aware of Jor'Dynn's allegations. 

Prosecutors have also said Jor’Dynn had trace levels of the controlled substance ketamine in her system when she was autopsied. Prosecutors recently exhumed Jor’Dynn’s body for further investigation, Newsday has reported. Jor'Dynn missed nearly 60 days of school in the year she attended Academy Street Elementary School in Bayport while living with Kelly and her co-defendants, raising questions about why the school district didn't do more to question the absences. 

The lawsuit names as defendants the county, school district,  Kelly, Renner and Seymore, as well as CPS employee Melissa Plescia, up to 20 CPS employees who have not yet been identified, school district employees Lorie Beard, Tiffany Morici and Michelle Muccio, and up to 20 school district employees who have not been identified.

The county and school district declined to comment Tuesday, citing the pending litigation. Lawyers for Kelly, Renner and Seymore declined to comment for this story.

Plescia was the case manager for the family services stage of Jor’Dynn’s CPS case, which the Department of Social Services opened on May 16, 2019, and closed on April 10, 2025, the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit identified Beard as the principal of Academy Street Elementary School, where Jor'Dynn was a student, Morici as the school counselor and Muccio as the school social worker.

According to the lawsuit, on Feb. 5, 2025, Jor’Dynn was examined by the school nurse because she had marks on her face, including a “small, darker-pigmented mark, about the size of a pencil eraser, near her left cheek, and a linear vertical mark, that was a few inches long, lower on the left side of her face toward her mouth,” the lawsuit states.

A teacher’s aide, according to the lawsuit, “thought maybe” the left side of Jor’Dynn’s face was “a little swollen,” but Jor’Dynn said, “I don’t know,” when asked whether anything had happened.

Jor’Dynn asked the school nurse “not to call mom because she already knows about it” and did not want the nurse to call because “mom will get mad at her,” the lawsuit says, adding Jor’Dynn then “refused to speak to [the nurse] any further.”

Later that day Jor’Dynn told Morici she “did not bang it or get hit,” the lawsuit says, and no one reported the marks or Jor’Dynn’s “fear of Kelly” to authorities.

Jor’Dynn’s teacher told Kelly that Jor’Dynn was “really upset at lunch,” the lawsuit reads, and Kelly wrote to the teacher on Feb. 25, 2025, “now that I stand firm that she will eat what I cooked or go to bed hungry she eats what I give her." Kelly added Jor’Dynn “would make herself throw up,” and that “I started sending her to bed if she made herself throw up," the lawsuit contends.

The teacher replied to Kelly, according to the lawsuit: “Jor’Dynn has been such a wonderful addition to our class! Thank you for sharing her with us!” 

Jor’Dynn had gone to the school nurse’s office to be treated for “anxiety" on Jan. 21, 2025, the lawsuit says. The following day, Jor’Dynn told Morici that Kelly, who she referred to as her “stepmother” had “slapped her on the shoulder and thrown food at her at home on January 17.” She also told Morici that a 3-year-old child in the home was being hit by Kelly and by that child’s mother, the lawsuit states.

Morici called Jor’Dynn’s caseworker, the lawsuit says, but neither Morici nor the caseworker called the New York State Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment, which would have prompted an investigation, including an interview of Jor’Dynn.

Morici later spoke with Plescia, the lawsuit says. Kelly told Plescia that she had been “smacking [Jor’Dynn’s] arm out of her mouth” because Jor’Dynn “was attempting to make herself vomit.” Plescia referred Kelly and Jor’Dynn for outside counseling.

“The caseworker accepted Kelly’s explanation and left Jor’Dynn in Kelly’s home without further action,” the lawsuit states.