Lawmaker refiles bill to pay $20M to son of former DCF foster parent who overdosed on his mom’s methadone

Next year, lawmakers will again have an opportunity to right a wrong by compensating a Fort Myers boy who suffered severe brain damage after the Department of Children and Families (DCF) repeatedly ignored complaints about his drug-addicted mother.

Doral Republican Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez has again filed legislation (SB 2) to pay $20 million to a 10-year-old referred to in the bill as C.C., who requires lifelong care due to injuries he sustained overdosing on his mother’s methadone supply.

The incident occurred in September 2015 after DCF failed to properly investigate seven serious complaints filed against the mother, Anna Highland, during the three years it licensed her as a foster parent, Rodriguez’s measure said.

“At the time C.C. was born, they had multiple prior abuse reports and knowledge that his mother was an addict, and that he was born addicted because of exposure to methadone and other drugs in-utero,” lawyer Stacie Schmerling, who represents C.C.’s interests, told Florida Politics.

“DCF’s responsibility is to take action to protect the child, to make sure the child does not suffer any further harm at the hands of a drug addict parent, whether it’s abuse or neglect, and certainly there were multiple opportunities for intervention. DCF got a report to protect this child the day he was born, and their obligation was to that. And they didn’t.”

SB 2 is classified as a claims bill or “relief act,” as it is intended to compensate a person or entity for injury or loss caused by the negligence or error of a public officer or agency. Claims bills arise when appropriate damages exceed what is allowable under Florida’s sovereign immunity laws, which protect government agencies from costly lawsuits.

In August 2017, a lawsuit was brought on behalf of C.C. against DCF in Lee County. But a Circuit Judge dismissed the case, granting DCF’s motion for summary judgment and accepting DCF’s argument that it wasn’t responsible for the boy’s injuries.

The 6th District Court of Appeal affirmed the lower court’s order this past March, leaving no further legal recourse.

As such, SB 2 falls into the subcategory of being an equitable claims bill, meaning that the case is at the mercy of the Legislature. In most circumstances, claims bills follow court judgments in which the award to plaintiffs against the state is larger than what can be paid under sovereign immunity strictures.

Schmerling said the $20 million amount isn’t arbitrary; it’s based on a life care plan that an expert on caring for people with C.C.’s conditions prepared in anticipation of the boy’s future needs.

When Rodriguez filed a substantively identical bill last year, the $20 million it sought was the largest sum among 10 claims bills lawmakers contemplated in the 2024 Legislative Session. It’s the second-largest this year, following a $28 million claims bill (SB 12) filed by Sarasota Republican Sen. Joe Gruters that also seeks recompense for DCF negligence that led to a minor being irreversibly hurt.

To responsible parents and those who care about the welfare of children, DCF’s inattention to the many signs that C.C.’s mother, Highland, was unfit to care for others is nothing short of maddening.

DCF licensed Highland as a foster parent in 2012, and it received little to no complaints about her in the two years after. But in the six months leading to C.C.’s birth on Aug. 12, 2014, the Department received three separate child abuse hotline reports against her, including allegations she was abusing drugs and physically harming children under her care.

C.C. was born Aug. 12, 2014, with significant injuries resulting from his mother abusing drugs, including opiates, cocaine and intravenous substances, while pregnant. He was also addicted to methadone, a narcotic that reduces opiate withdrawal symptoms.

DCF opened an investigation of Highland the day after a drug test came back positive. It was the fourth abuse report DCF received about Highland in just six months. And because of the drug abuse, C.C. began suffering severe withdrawals directly after his birth and was hospitalized for a month in the neonatal intensive care unit.

While the investigation was still underway and C.C. remained in intensive care, DCF received two additional hotline reports alleging the same misconduct.

Despite those calls, complaints that preceded them and C.C.’s condition at birth, the Department advised the hospital there were no holds on the boy and he was free to be released to Highland. The hospital did so three days later.

Roughly a month after, DCF closed the investigation with “unsubstantiated findings of substance misuse and a determination that Ms. Highland’s methadone use had no implications for child safety,” the bill says.

Things went quiet until June 3, 2015, and again on Aug. 6, 2015, when DCF got two new child abuse hotline reports about Highland alleging she was physically abusing a foster child in her care. The Department investigated neither claim.

Then on Sept. 12, 2015, C.C. overdosed on Highland’s methadone, which he found and drank while unsupervised. He was found “unresponsive and not breathing,” the bill says.

The boy, then 13 months old, was rushed to the hospital, where he remained for a month, half of which he was in a drug-induced coma and on a ventilator. He suffered an anoxic brain injury, which “impairs all aspects of his daily living,” a timeline of events Schmerling’s office shared with Florida Politics said.

C.C. today requires speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, psychiatric care and multiple medical specialists. He frequently requires a walker or wheelchair to assist with mobility.

Upon his discharge on Sept. 28, 2015, he was placed into medical foster care.

A DCF investigation found Highland and her mother, who was present at the time C.C. was found unresponsive, waited five hours before seeking medical attention for the boy. That included a three-hour nap Highland said she took with the baby after finding him on the floor with a methadone bottle. She called 911 after the boy didn’t wake up.

The Department finally removed C.C. from Highland’s care and gave him to his father. Lee County Sheriff personnel arrested her on charges of medical aggravated child neglect. She was 27.

Highland was sentenced in early February 2017 to 60 months in prison and two years of probation after her release. During that period, she must perform 120 hours of community service, adhere to a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew and undergo monthly consultations about at-home methadone use.

But C.C., who today lives with his father’s parents, is due compensation for the disregard DCF demonstrated for his safety, Rodriguez’s bill said.

“As the state agency charged with operating the child welfare system in this state, including conducting child protective investigations to ensure child safety and prevent further harm to children, (DCF) owed C.C. a duty to ensure his safety and protect him from further harm,” the bill says.

“The State of Florida recognizes an equitable obligation to redress the injuries and damages C.C. sustained as a result of the negligence of the Department and its failure to exercise its duties to ensure the safety of children in this state and protect them from harm.”

Florida Politics contacted DCF last year to ask whether anyone in the agency had been reprimanded, punished or terminated for their lack of oversight.

“A court has already made a ruling as a matter of law that the Department was not negligent in this case,” DCF Chief of Staff Mallory McManus said by email. “The Court also specifically found that the Department did not put the child at risk.”

By approving SB 2 in the 2025 Session, the Legislature would direct Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis to draw a warrant in favor of C.C., payable through DCF to an irrevocable trust created exclusively for his benefit, of $20 million from the state General Revenue Fund.

Attorneys fees, lobbying fees and other similar expenses relating to the claim would be paid through the trust, not the state fund. Those fees may not exceed $5 million.