Michigan child protection workers sued for failing to save three-year-old boy who was found dead in freezer
Suit alleges state officials didn’t act despite being aware of ‘years of horrific abuse and neglect’
Michigan child protective officials ignored evidence of severe abuse against a toddler, culminating in their failure to stop the 3-year-old from being killed and stuffed in his mother’s freezer in 2022, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court this week.
The complaint, filed on Monday, is from Juwan Allen, father of Chayce Allen, whom Detroit police found stuffed in a laundry bag in a freezer in the boy’s mother’s home in 2022.
The boy’s mother, Azuradee France, confessed to killing Chayce and was in 2024 sentenced to 35 to 60 years in prison.
The lawsuit alleges the state also contributed to the boy’s death, failing to act despite obvious signs of abuse uncovered during investigations dating back to 2018.
The complaint names 13 employees of the state’s Health and Human Services agency within the Children’s Protective Services Division, saying the boy had been “face-to-face with each Defendant multiple times with allegations including but not limited to bruised ribs, nonaccidental blunt force trauma causing permanent blindness, black eyes, third degree burns, constant vomiting from blows to the chest area, and all other egregious injuries.”
The Independent has contacted the agency for comment.
Agency officials began looking into Chayce’s home conditions in November of 2018, when the boy was two months old, according to the suit.
Investigators noted he had visible signs of physical abuse including a black eye, a swollen lip, a contusion on his forehead, multiple bruises on his buttocks, and abrasions on his penis area, among other injuries, per court documents.
Chayce also appeared malnourished and smelled of urine, while a home visit showed he and his siblings lacked beds and played in an area with a rat infestation.
He was temporarily removed from France’s custody, but returned in November of 2020.
In early 2021, investigators returned to probe another abuse investigation, finding Chayce with skin peeling due to severe burns on his hands.
The state agency suspected medical neglect, and France admitted to lying about taking Chayce to urgent care for the burns. That year, when Chayce was brought to a hospital, doctors found an abscess in his ankle, requiring surgery.
The mother was then placed on a registry but maintained custody and remained under state monitoring until April 2021, according to the suit.
In September of that year, she “severely abused Chayce again,” per the suit, with relatives observing the boy had a black eye, a gash near his eyebrow, and bruised ribs.
Officials again interviewed Chayce and his family members, but closed their investigation in October, “ignoring evidence demonstrating obvious signs of abuse and neglect,” according to the suit.
During a welfare check in 2022 at the request of Chayce’s relatives, France admitted to killing the boy earlier that year. Prosecutors said the mother enlisted another sibling, a nine-year-old, to get the laundry bag his bloodied corpse was hidden inside.
Chayce’s body was left “decomposing in the basement while his other siblings lived upstairs,” according to the suit.
The suit accuses officials of deprivation of civil rights, state created danger, gross negligence, and wrongful death. It seeks compensatory damages above $75,000.