The Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) took custody of an infant from a hospital, placing it with foster caregivers Kevin and Tiffany Herrman of Milton. The boy died while in their care in 2023, and a related lawsuit was recently settled.
No news of the infant’s death happened when it occured; however, a March 18, 2026 legal ad announcing the settlement was published, revealing DCF settled a $150,000 tort claim, which will be paid by the State of Florida.
Escambia County Clerk of Court records show the lawsuit against DCF was filed by Tallahassee Attorney Karen Gievers, a former Florida Circuit Judge, on behalf of the estate of Baby “J.A.” Those documents show the names of the Plaintiffs were replaced with pseudonyms to protect their privacy. Other defendants in the original lawsuit included Northwest Florida Health Network, the Hermanns and Families First Network (FFN).
Per court documents, Escambia DCF investigator LaShay Lettingham, was accused of “trying to protray the birth parents as evil people who should never be allowed to bring their baby home from the hospital.” The lawsuit stated Lettingham “spread inaccurate information” about the parents and even portrayed the child in a “very negative light.”
According to the Plantiffs, Lettingham’s breaches of duty included:
- fabricating incorrect information about field drug tests reported as positives that were not real positives;
- putting untrue information in sworn court paperwork;
- having investigative staff spread untrue information about private confidential matters to persons with no right to the information;
- telling people with whom staff interact that they could ignore court orders and laws and do what they wanted;
- choosing not to give the Birth Parents notice of meetings they were entitled to attend.
Back on or about June 8, 2023, the foster system operators reportedly conducted a meeting to assess the infant’s placement, and the infant’s parents were not included.
The infant was subsequently placed with the foster caregivers who, per the lawsuit, had multiple children “living in an overcrowded, unclean situation with the foster father not wanting any more children, and the foster mother too overloaded to provide proper care to J. A.”
FFN, per the lawsuit, was also accused of breach of duty in re-licensing the Herrmans as foster caregivers because “the Herrmans had demonstrated they would not follow requirements, did not keep a properly safe home and allowed children entrusted to them to wander away.”
Additionally, FFN was accused of not conducting the required family functioning assessment.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Did your child die or sustain great bodily harm while in foster care after DCF removal? Do you have documented evidence that a DCF or FFN employee lied about your case? If so, pls send details to info@ssrnews.com.
