Aunt of girl who starved to death sues state

Shaelynn Alohalani Haleaka Lehano-Stone died at Hilo Medical Center on June 28, 2016, a few hours after she was found unconscious in a Kinoole Street apartment.

First responders were called to the apartment on a report of an unresponsive child. They found the 9-year-old girl lying on the floor and said she appeared severely malnourished.

Henrietta Stone, Lehano-­Stone’s grandmother, who had custody of her granddaughter, and Lehano-­Stone’s parents, Tiffany Stone and Kevin Lehano, are in custody awaiting trial in state court for murder.

Tina Marie Kasten, Lehano-­Stone’s maternal aunt, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in state court Tuesday against the state, Lehano, her sister and her mother on behalf of her dead niece’s estate and siblings. The lawsuit claims that the state’s Child Welfare Services failed to protect Lehano-Stone and that Lehano, Tiffany and Henrietta Stone failed in their legal obligation to provide her shelter, food and sustenance, medical care, a safe home and reasonable supervision.

CWS is a division of the state Department of Human Services. DHS spokeswoman Keopu Reelitz said the department has not yet reviewed the lawsuit and does not comment on pending litigation.

According to CWS documents the Honolulu Star-Advertiser obtained under federal disclosure requirements involving fatal or near-fatal abuse cases, the state had placed Lehano-Stone in foster care four times, including right after her birth, because of safety concerns.

The lawsuit says Lehano-­Stone was developmentally disabled when she was born on Sept. 5, 2006, and that the state removed her from her parents’ home within a year because of allegations of violence. It says the state put Lehano-Stone and her siblings in Henrietta Stone’s care, even though she lived in the same apartment complex as Lehano-­Stone’s parents, and took no action when it received additional reports of abuse and neglect while Lehano-Stone was in her grandmother’s care.

Seven months before Lehano-­Stone died, her grandmother took her out of elementary school after filing a one-page home-school request form, greatly reducing the likelihood of someone else seeing evidence of abuse or neglect and reporting it to authorities.

Private investigator Steve Lane, who has served as a court-­appointed special master in high-profile child abuse and neglect cases, including that of “Peter Boy” Kema, said there’s a severe lack of regulation of home-schooled kids. Lane said he assisted in the preparation of Tuesday’s lawsuit.