© Video screenshotSocial worker Pam Knight was brutally beaten when she tried to remove a toddler from an abusive home. She died from her injuries six months later.
Pam Knight, an Illinois Department of Children and Family Services investigator, was brutally attacked, and left in a coma and permanently disabled, WBBM-TV reported.
Six months later, Pam died. She was 59.
Now, her husband is on a mission to change the system that put his wife in the vulnerable situation that led to her death.
"It's my goal now to help her co-workers," Don Knight told WBBM. "I do not ever want a co-worker of hers to end up this way."
What happened?
On Sept. 29, Pam went alone to a home in Sterling where she was going to take a 2-year-old into protective custody.
"She had been handed instructions to go get that baby because it was going to be abused," Don said, adding that her caseload was heavy.
Pam was investigating the child's father, Andrew Sucher, after he'd been charged with felony aggravated battery of a child in the beating of a 6-year-old boy and domestic violence for allegedly throwing his girlfriend against a wall, according to an earlier report by the Chicago Tribune.
When she arrived, Sucher ran up to Pam, reportedly attacked her and left her lying unconscious on the sidewalk.
Sucher's mother called 911 and told the dispatcher, "There is a lady on the ground. You need to get an ambulance here now!"
"Is she hurt anywhere?" the dispatcher asked.
"Her face," the woman responded.
Sucher had left the scene.
Pam suffered severe head trauma from the attack. She lived her last months disabled and in pain. "He had used a shoe to kick her in the head three times," Don said.
Where were the police when the social worker went to the suspect's home?
Don said his wife didn't have police backup that day because she was traveling across county lines to the home.
In Whiteside County, she could have police backup immediately, but the man's house was in Carroll County, and the authorities couldn't cross jurisdictions.
Do they use criminal background checks?
The agency uses a slow criminal background check system, according to Anne Irving, public policy director of AFSCME Local 31, the union that represents DCFS employees. Irving said DCFS should be using immediate background checks before sending workers into potentially dangerous homes.
What does DCFS say?
The agency said its taking action to ensure DCFS workers' safety.
"When Don Knight met with the DCFS director, he emphasized that he wants his family tragedy to be a force for change, and we share that desire," a DCFS spokesman said in a statement to WBBM. "The brutal beating Pam Knight suffered had an effect on all of us. We are very grateful for Mr. Knight's efforts on behalf of all the first responders at DCFS, including his support for the Senate bill increasing penalties on those who attack our workers."
The agency supplied field workers with direct phone numbers for police backup and hired more investigators. It said it's working on getting an immediate background check system. Other initiatives are being developed to keep workers safe.
What else?
Sucher's charges have been upgraded from aggravated battery to murder.
Reader Comments
Similarly the 'random person' you present her as, or at least the agency she worked for was well known to the killer because he claimed 'harassment' by them.
Don't get your nickers in a twist for the wrong reason; the woman is dead and the killer an angry asshole who beats children and kills women. Unless you feel sorry for him...
I know plenty of people that have had even false claims made to DCF that were constantly hounded by this agency.
Some had children removed for no good reason. See the recent story of children that are unaccounted for that were essentially handed over to abusers and traffickers by a similar agency?
Come into a home of a family that is not abusive and threaten their children with removal, some parents would justifiably come unglued.
I think that is the original point beau is making that you obviously missed.
Yet I MYSELF made numerous complaints to DCF about my first legal son (he isn't actually mine, but the state refuses to allow me to prove otherwise) being abused by his mother, had cigars put out on his arm, them doing drugs in his presence etc... THEY DID NOTHING.
My actual son has had his current family harassed over CHICKENS by DCF and vindictive people/schools.
This system and this agency is messed up. Fix it right or disband it.
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It was not the point of law I was commenting on, or was I? Cops had this guy, put him through the courts, apparently realized he was an angry nutcase that beat kids and women and that he should not be around children. I can't see a problem with that logic unless you are more worried about the writ of law than the health of the child, which is where this slippery slope begins.
Otherwise the state would be letting someone whom they suspect strongly of being abusive be around a helpless young individual who may become severely abused.
They tell you after your arraignment to stay away from kids. SMH.
I am afraid you are a special kind of biased which pretty much precludes objective reasoning in your case.
I had, by that time, quit doing criminal defense cases when it became too obvious that I could ‘walk’ or ‘plead-out’ ‘attempted’ murderers and ‘real’ rapists for far, far less time than those who bought crack from the police.
The case I describe far below was the final straw as to why I stopped doing child dependency cases, (where the state shows up on one’s door and claims a right to tell you that you’re a bad parent, and ‘Let me see the brat now!” etc.)
Despite what I've written, (immaterially modified to protect client confidences), I still, as you should too, rightly aspire to anonymity here, and in general. (Of course, given the old news from such as Binney, and much less and later, Snowden, I realize that my words here might well wrongfully and ‘surreptitiously’- via paths ne’er to be declared - be especially - i.e., worse than normal - monitored, and thus ultimately come back to haunt me. (I do not waive any objections!) This somewhat abstract threat (as it appears to most) is far more concrete than they realize, especially how the highest levels of privacy-intrusive-technology of the NSA has long since been given to the lowest level ‘Deputy Dawg’/ ‘Barney Fife’ AND their scumbag snitches who are these days, their longstanding partners in crime.
My glimpse at the below comments reveals that still, far, far too many people have a media inculcated view of 'our' justice system. (E.g., every cop and attorney and judge (except the few ‘flawed’ ones) is as they appear on NYPD -SVU, etc. And that simply ain’t the case. If you wish to see my points in action, call your local courts and ask to see the criminal Motions to Dismiss; particularly those that are expected to be ‘evidentiary hearings.’ )
You will walk away from there with a higher respect for any criminal defense attorneys who deserve it, along with being awoken to the illegal, yet ubiquitous way that prosecutors and cops completely orchestrate their testimony, and then agree to lie about the facts of the preparation they worked on together (which is legal unless a judge says they can’t) but the lies show up when you try to ask them what was spoken about - they have no attorney client privilege as they both are agents of the state..)
(In the comments here, someone (“B”) got angry and added that since some person (“A”) noted that they, A, had suffered the ‘'pleasure' of dealing with DCF, that they, (A) must have been guilty, anyway. Last I recall, in America, one is innocent until proven guilty. And I’d put money down that the accuser there (B) would expect to have that presumption exist at their trial, should they ever find themselves framed by DCF. Check infra.)
Folks in general, and SOTTites in particular, should realize that beyond the media’s misportrayal, from the inside, the system behaves like all bureaucracies behave; to wit: Like living organisms, which intend to thrive and grow, even when they are created for expressly limited terms and purposes, and yet they always come up with some other emergency purpose to keep their budgets up. (E.g., if you find out your local Police Department's fiscal year, you will see that they 'need' to use all sorts of overtime, 2x, 3x pay ONLY at the end of fiscal months, quarters, and, a fortiori , fiscal years. (Then, at the next congressional budget session, they'll argue: "Look at these figures! At the end of last year we barely made payroll"! ) Then, of course, they get more money the next year. (Wash, rinse, repeat.)
This basic self interest that humans - and bureaucracies - possess, controls each’s efforts. As government gets larger, it has to infringe on the rights of individuals - there's no place else to take it from. My father wrote a poem (he was a true poet and I hate trying to paraphrase him, but it's not available and I forget its other specifics.) Anyway, it had/has something like this in it: R.C.
P.s., Per Voltaire?, I say, once again: "That which governs best, governs least."
RC
People already view this agency with hostility.
So it is no shocker that this happened.
Fix their policy, correctly handle abusive homes starting with truth and facts all the way to police escorts regardless of some arbitrary boundary of jurisdiction.
That she died from a beating is tragic. That she went out of jurisdiction to meddle and got her reward is karma.
If you lived in the same reality as the one most of us live in, and you proudly proclaimed ANYONE deserved to be beat to death, besides a rapist or woman beater, you would find YOURSELF in the hospital with brain damage. I hope you enjoy being a worthless piece of trash pretending to be an actual human.
Do yourself a favor and keep your opinions to yourself. If you cannot manage that, keep them behind the keyboard or you aint gonna like the consequences you will get from the people around you.
Now go piss off.
I hope they actually took your kids away so they won't become as angry and fucked up as yourself.
If you can't agree on that one then there is no reason to discuss parenting and child safety with you.
Otherwise if something happened to the 2 year old the state could be held liable.
That is why the woman went to either collect the child, or tell the family that the piece of garbage woman beater/murder had to permanently leave the presence until the trial.
If you have a problem with that logic you obviously have a problem.
Furthermore CPS does not get called on people for no reason. Those of you complaining about this, you are just trying to make it seem like you are not a horrible parent that got protective services called on them.
After they are called on you they do suck shit a lot of times, but they DON"T get sicked on a family for absolutely no reason.
Go ahead and try to rationalize your shit parenting skills some more.
They let people who sell their foodstamps and WIC for dope (whos kids have failure to thrive from lack of good nutrition) keep their kids.
If anyone that commented here got CPS called on them for some reason it has to be a pretty shitty one. Tell the truth.
Do you know how traumatic it is for kids to be removed from their home with police officers surrounding them? Ever watched videos of children screaming because they do not want to leave home? These CPS laws (or are they protocols?) function like a trawl net, so lots of parents get caught up in them. And any idiot can pick up the phone and report someone. Ever heard of false accusations?
But when children are really being tortured and abused you don't see CPS, like in the Victoria Climbié case in the UK or the case of that lesbian couple that adopted six kids and drove their family off the cliff a few weeks ago.
Like I said, the state should stay out of the private affairs of families until there's been a conviciton of a criminal offense. I'm not a parent, but wow that is some messed up logic. You are incredibly naive to think that CPS doesn't get called on parents for bogus reasons. You don't even have the knowledge to make such a statement, it's just an assumption. But if you did follow this problem close enough, you'd know that false accusations made to CPS is not uncommon, especially in bitter divorce battles where the custody of the children is contested. On the merits of accusations alone a parent can lose their child. They have no right to see the evidence presented to them and are forced to prove their innocence, all of which goes against centuries of English common law. Do you really think this is about rationalizing shitty parenting? Cmon man.
It sounds like they are approaching in in Illinois like they used to approach it here in the early 1990's. Read below and see how bad it can be. (P.s., I have had to change some details for client confidentiality.)
A social worker would make up their mind that for whatever reason that they wanted to see a citizen's child.
(The reason the DCF Asshole wanted to was because she'd written a letter to the editor of the newspaper about how industrial hemp should be legalized, etc. THAT was WHY they wanted to steal her child and make her pay. (She was confident - i.e., from his body language made clear that a little sex on her part could make it so he wouldn't have to see her daughter... I guess if he got to see where her daughter came from.)
(My client simply said, That got that sorry sack of shit angry. He got an angry cop, and she said the same to the cop. He asked her "Are you going to assist me in my investigation?" She said, "No. Why should I?"
He then arrested her for 'interfering with an investigation."
She was hogtied in the back of an unairconditioned police car in August (animals die daily from that) for about 95 minutes while they tried to figure out what law she had violated. (She hadn't. They found one that requires psychiatrists to report child abuse and charged her under that. She wasn't a psychiatrist and there had been no child abuse whatsoever.)
I won her Criminal Case with the cops - AND the State Attorney - getting SO BUSTED FOR LYING UNDER OATH IT WAS WONDERFUL - second most fun cross examination I ever had. But if you or I did had gotten caught, lying on the record like that, then we'd get charged with perjury; but not the cops.
Meanwhile,DCF wanted to steal her child. A different legal proceeding. Once the cops had falsely arrested her, there was no one at home to take care of the kid who was then 'officially stolen.'
Then the DCF Scumbag drafted a backdated warrant which was a standard form used and the process was always the same. The child would get seized, the DCF person would go back and fill out the form, he would backdate the warrant to appear that it was issued before the seizure, and the Judge would ALWAYS sign it. etc. etc. THIS WAS THE SYSTEM ACROSS THE BOARD. (It sounds like Illinois has the same kind of institutionalized illegality.)
That judge refused to recuse self. At the state's trial for custody, they had NO evidence and for no reason, the worst legal decision I ever saw in my life, the judge ruled the state had the right to take her child. INSANE AND EVIL!*
I appealed that bit of insanity which was dealt with by an 'Appellate P.C.A." which is a three word opinion: "Per curiam Affirmed.") Legal meaning... 'Just because we don't like your client and just because we say so and don't ask us again, or we'll fine you about $10K.
R.C.
*That holier than thou judge later got busted for watching porn at work on the court's internet system.and yet still is ruling who gets to keep their kids.)
RC