Jor’Dynn Duncan’s Family Files $250M Suit Against Suffolk County, LI School District

MELVILLE, NY — The mother of 7-year-old Jor’Dynn Duncan and the child’s family legal team said Tuesday they have filed a $250 million notice of claim against Suffolk County, its child welfare agencies and the Bayport-Blue Point School District.

The notice of claim, filed by attorneys for Jor’Dynn’s estate, is the first step toward a potential lawsuit. It accuses Suffolk County, the Suffolk County Department of Social Services, Suffolk County Child Protective Services, the Bayport-Blue Point School District, its Board of Education, school officials and unidentified county and school employees of failures that the family’s attorneys say allowed Jor’Dynn to remain in danger before her death.

“I am supposed to protect my daughter, leaving her to be protected by Child Protective Services, and she wasn’t protected,” Portia Duncan said at her legal team’s office in Melville. “She wasn’t protected.”

The claim states that Jor’Dynn was negligently placed in the home of Emily Kelly, the fiancée of Jor’Dynn’s father, who was incarcerated at the time. Kelly, her mother Barbara Renner and Kelly’s daughter Elyssa Seymore were charged in May in connection with Jor’Dynn’s death. All three have pleaded not guilty.

Attorneys for Jor’Dynn’s estate said Tuesday that the filing marks the beginning of a broader fight over child welfare, school reporting obligations, racial bias and whether reforms promised after prior child deaths in Suffolk County were ever significantly carried out.

Heather Palmore, one of the attorneys for the family, invoked the names of Thomas Valva and Lisa Steinberg, two children whose deaths have long been associated with failures in child protection systems. Palmore said the evidence will show Portia Duncan loved her daughter and was involved in her life.

“There was no bond stronger than that of her and her daughter,” Palmore said.

Portia Duncan, speaking through tears, described Jor’Dynn — her only daughter — as a “beautiful, smart, fun, girly girl.”

“I am so thankful for the Lord, for giving me the chance to be in my daughter’s life the way that I was,” Duncan said. “There wasn’t a weekend that I missed.”

The notice of claim says Jor’Dynn was removed from Duncan’s physical custody and taken into the custody of Suffolk County before being placed with Kelly in or about December 2024.

Kelly is the fiancée of Jor’Dynn’s biological father, Derrick Dixon, who is currently in prison.

The filing says Kelly requested Jor’Dynn’s placement and that Kelly obtained full custody and guardianship around April 2025.

According to the claim, Jor’Dynn lived in Kelly’s home with Kelly, Renner and Seymore. The claim said beginning around January 2025 and continuing until Jor’Dynn’s death, Kelly, Renner and Seymore subjected the child to “a systematic and escalating pattern of physical and psychological abuse, torture, and neglect,” including prolonged restraint, serious physical injuries and denial of medical care.

According to the Suffolk County DA’s Office, Jor’Dynn died on Dec. 29, 2025, after Kelly called 911 at about 10:30 a.m. to report the child was in cardiac arrest. Jor’Dynn was taken to NYU Langone Hospital in East Patchogue, where she was pronounced dead, according to the investigation.

Prosecutors previously said Jor’Dynn died from a massive untreated infection caused by sharp force injuries and that the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s Office documented about 90 injuries on her body.

The notice of claim says the fatal infection was not a “single, sudden, and unforeseeable act,” but a survivable medical condition that became fatal because care was denied over time.

“There were 90 pieces of evidence on her body that showed that there was injury,” said Marjorie Mesidor, one of the attorneys representing the family. “Who bore witness to that?”

Mesidor said, in her view, the systems surrounding Jor’Dynn failed her.

“We are here to make sure that everybody sees Jor’Dynn today and every day thereafter,” she said.

The notice of claim accuses Suffolk County, DSS and CPS of failing to adequately investigate and vet Kelly, failing to monitor Jor’Dynn’s health and safety after the placement, and failing to conduct required reviews and proceedings.

The notice of claim also names the Bayport-Blue Point School District, its Board of Education, recently retired Superintendent Dr. Timothy Hearney, Assistant Superintendent Emily Eckstrum, Academy Street Elementary School Principal Lorie Beard, Elementary Assistant Principal Katy Ann Tirado, school social worker Michelle Muccio, school counselor Tiffany Morici, Jor’Dynn’s classroom teacher and unnamed district employees.

The claim said the school district and its employees failed as mandated reporters by not reporting outward signs of abuse and Jor’Dynn’s chronic absenteeism.

The Bayport-Blue Point School District and Board of Education declined to comment on the allegations.

“The district has been served with a notice of claim,” the district said in a statement to Patch. “As a standard practice, the district does not comment on pending legal matters.”

LaWanda Williams, one of the attorneys for Jor’Dynn’s estate, said school officials had training and policies meant to identify children in danger.

“If somebody had done something, maybe we would not be here, and Jor’Dynn would be enjoying her summer — but the system failed,” Williams said.

The family’s attorneys said Tuesday that Jor’Dynn missed about 40 days of school between January and June 2025.

Williams said the Bayport-Blue Point policy refers to 10 percent of absences as a trigger for contacting the home and CPS.

Mesidor said the school issue is not only about written policy, but about the responsibility educators have when children are in their care.

“She was missing school almost every week,” Mesidor said. “Every week, a 7-year-old was not in the class. And when she was in class, she had makeup.”

Derek Sells, chairman of The Cochran Firm and one of the attorneys for the estate, said the legal team learned through its investigation that Jor’Dynn came to school with heavy makeup. He said the attorneys believe it was used to conceal abuse.

The legal team said Child Protective Services removed Jor’Dynn from a stable setting and placed her somewhere the legal team says she was not protected.

“Child Protective Services took her from the place where she never missed school, took her from the place where she was getting swimming lessons, where she had a relationship with her church, and put her into a house of horror,” Williams said.

The attorneys also pushed back against any suggestion that a state report cleared CPS. Palmore said the report did not say CPS was not at fault, but instead said there had been no open investigation for a period of time.

“Nowhere in that report does it say that CPS is not at fault,” Palmore said. “What that report says is that there was, for a year period of time, no open investigation. Those are two totally different things.”

The notice of claim also says, “upon information and belief,” that Kelly had a prior history involving the death of a child in her care, and that a CPS investigation concerning maltreatment in Kelly’s home was opened within about one month of Jor’Dynn’s December 2024 placement and before Kelly obtained full custody and guardianship in April 2025.

The team added that other relatives had applied to care for Jor’Dynn and were rejected.

“We’re going to be looking into that as well,” Palmore said. “And suffice it to say, all of those women were Black women, and she was subsequently placed with Emily Kelly.”

Sells alleged that proper vetting would have uncovered what he characterized as “two deaths under her watch,” referring to prior tragedies involving Kelly’s biological children.

Palmore said one prior death involved an infant and another involved a child who was allegedly killed by Kelly’s then-boyfriend, who served time. Palmore also said the team believes Kelly had a DWI and a history of alcohol abuse.

Those claims were made by the family’s attorneys and have not been proven in court.

John LoTurco, the attorney representing Kelly in the criminal case, responded in a statement to Patch, saying the civil claims are separate from the criminal case and should not be linked to the charges against his client.

"Our sole focus remains protecting Ms. Kelly's constitutional right to a fair trial before an impartial jury. That fundamental right is jeopardized when allegations outside the criminal case are repeatedly publicized in a manner that encourages the public to form conclusions before any evidence is presented in a courtroom," LoTurco said.

"We are deeply concerned that the filing of this civil lawsuit, together with the extensive media coverage surrounding it, will further prejudice the public against Ms. Kelly and make it increasingly difficult to seat a fair and impartial jury. Criminal cases must be decided solely upon competent, admissible evidence presented in court, not upon allegations contained in separate civil proceedings or narratives repeated through media coverage."

He added: "Particularly troubling are the repeated references in the civil lawsuit and related media reports to two devastating and wholly unrelated tragedies involving Ms. Kelly's biological children. Those heartbreaking events have been presented in a manner that improperly suggests a pattern of conduct where none exists."

Kelly, LoTurco said, "experienced a profound personal loss at 18 years old, when her infant daughter, Kayla Ann Kelly, was stillborn at Mercy Hospital in Rockville Centre. No criminal charges were filed in connection with that tragic event. Then, in 1997, Ms. Kelly suffered the unimaginable loss of her infant son, Tyler Kelly, who was tragically killed by her then-boyfriend, Joseph Thomas, after he forcibly threw the child to the ground. Mr. Thomas was prosecuted, convicted, and ultimately served more than two decades in prison for that crime."

Kelly, who was 21 years old at the time, LoTurco said, "was not present during the incident, was never charged with any offense, and had absolutely no involvement in her son's tragic death. Together, these unforeseen losses have caused Ms. Kelly immeasurable grief and lasting emotional trauma. They are personal tragedies, not evidence of criminal conduct. The continued public repetition of these deeply personal events serves only to inflame public opinion and unfairly portray Ms. Kelly through the lens of unrelated misfortune, rather than the evidence that will ultimately be presented at trial."

And, he said: "Introducing these tragedies into the public discourse surrounding this prosecution risks encouraging improper character inferences that have no bearing on the issues the jury will be asked to decide.We extend our sincere sympathy to everyone affected by this tragedy, especially Jor’Dynn Duncan’s family. At the same time, our system of justice demands that every individual accused of a crime be presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt based solely upon the evidence admitted in court. We respectfully ask that the public and the media allow the criminal justice process to proceed free from undue prejudice and in a manner that safeguards Ms. Kelly's constitutional right to a fair and impartial trial."

Kelly, Renner and Seymore remain criminal defendants in the case. Kelly was charged with second-degree murder and other charges, Renner with second-degree manslaughter and other charges, and Seymore with first-degree unlawful imprisonment and other charges, prosecutors said. All three have pleaded not guilty.

“I just want justice for my daughter and for the children that are out there that are suffering,” Duncan said. “We need justice for our kids who are out in the system.”