Read full lawsuit here: https://indepthnh.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/216-2024-CV-722-Complaint.pdf
By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org
New Hampshire’s Division for Children, Youth and Families failed Harmony Montgomery in the months before her death as an agency investigator ignored clear warning signs she was being abused, according to the lawsuit filed Friday.
Crystal Sorey, Harmony’s mother, filed the lawsuit in Hillsborough Superior Court — North in Manchester charging DCYF with repeated failures in the weeks and months before the five-year-old girl was murdered by her father, Adam Montgomery.
Adam Montgomery is now serving a 45-years to life sentence in prison for killing Harmony.
Sorey reported Harmony missing in late 2021 after not seeing her daughter for more than two years. Adam Montgomery, a convicted felon and known drug user, was given custody of the child in 2019 by a Massachusetts judge.
According to the lawsuit, family members and neighbors started repeatedly calling DCYF in July of 2019 to report Harmony being abused by Adam and Kayla Montgomery, according to the lawsuit. At nearly each turn, the DCYF investigator and other state employees failed to follow agency protocol.
Child Protection Social Worker Demetrios Tsaros failed to interview Harmony and Adam Montgomery for weeks after a report was made that the girl had been beaten and given a back eye, according to the lawsuit. Though he reported seeing faded bruising and redness around the girl’s eye, Tsaros didn’t speak to the girl, contact police, or take any other action to protect her, according to the lawsuit.
Tsaros found the Montgomerys living in a filthy house without heat or electricity, where food rotted, and littered with drug paraphernalia. Tsaros reported that both Kayla and Adam Montgomery claimed their house guest was in relapse, but they were clean.
Tsaros did speak to Kayla Montgomery a week after the alleged beating, but he did not speak to Harmony, or to Adam Montgomery. That did not stop Tsaros from telling Manchester Police there was nothing to worry about.
“Following this visit, Tsaros noted in the Contact Log that he sent an email to the Manchester Police Department stating that ‘…I think you folks are all set. I saw the children and did not observe any bruises, marks, etc…,’” the lawsuit states.
But relatives and neighbors, including Sorey, kept calling with their concerns about Harmony and her younger step-brothers. Uncle Kevin Montgomery, who reported the black eye, told DCYF the girl was regularly beaten, spanked, made to clean the bathroom with a toothbrush, and told she was “disgusting” by Kayla Montgomery. He also reported the drug paraphernalia in the house. But the lawsuit states the DCYF employee who first took his call did not seem that concerned.
“As noted in the Report, the DCYF worker who took the call questioned Kevin ‘on the accuracy of his dates,’ further frustrating Kevin, who said ‘…this is why children die’ and that ‘this child was punched clear in the eye socket with full force,’” the lawsuit states.
Tsaros never spoke to witnesses, and never had a conversation alone with Harmony, according to the lawsuit. During his investigation, there were numerous police calls to the Montgomerys for reported domestic disputes, and to remove the drug using friend from the house, but Tsaros never seemed to act on those incidents, according to the lawsuit.
At one point, Tsaros reportedly told Adam Montgomery’s family he should never have been assigned to the case. Tsaros was a youth counselor at the Sununu Youth Services Center (YDC) 15 years prior, and had been Adam Montgomery’s youth counselor there, according to the lawsuit.
When Kevin Montgomery called to report Adam Montgomery was back to using heroin, Tsaros did not believe it, the lawsuit states.
“Kevin [Montgomery] reported that Tsaros told him that he had known Adam since Adam was 15 and that Tsaros knew he was ‘not like this,’” the lawsuit states.
Tsaros also failed to do anything when he learned in October of 2019 that Harmony was not enrolled in school. Adam Montgomery claimed he was unable to provide any paperwork to prove she was a New Hampshire resident and could not get her registered.
Tsaros did not seem to think of asking for the Massachusetts custody order that would prove she was to live in New Hampshire. He also did not take any action when Sorey told him Adam Montgomery was refusing to follow the court order to let her co-parent the girl.
On Oct. 17, 2019, Tsaros closed the case as “unfounded.” Less than two months later, Harmony would be dead. Adam Montgomery beat her to death in the back of his car after he bought drugs, according to court records.
Sorey, who struggled with sobriety herself, would report Harmony missing in late 2021. A massive search was launched for the girl before it became evident she was dead. Adam Montgomery was charged in 2022 with killing her, and then covering it up by keeping her decomposing body hidden for months. Harmony’s remains have still not been found.
Gov. Chris Sununu commissioned a report on Harmony and the role DCYF played, with the intent of bringing about changes in the system. But the lawsuit states that the report is more about covering up the state’s failures.
“Unfortunately, not only does The Governor’s report contain inaccuracies and omissions in its recitation of the facts which collude to downplay DCYF’s negligence and to mislead the public, but they also raise questions about the effectiveness of the ‘systemic improvements,’” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit states the Attorney General’s Office has so far failed to provide Sorey and her legal team with Harmony’s complete and unreacted DCYF file as promised.
Sorey is being represented by Bedford attorney Rus Rilee, one of the lead attorneys suing the state over the Youth Development Center abuse scandal.
