Biological Mom Seeks Role In Brain-Damaged Girl's Case

This is a travesty of Justice!!!
BROCKTON, Mass. -- Lawyers for the biological mother of an 11-year-old girl still struggling for life months after allegedly being severely beaten by her adoptive parents said Wednesday they will ask a court for more input on the girl's medical care.
Attorneys for Haleigh Poutre's birth mother, Allison Avrett, said they plan to file motions in Hampden Juvenile Court to intervene in the case and get access to Haleigh's medical records.
Avrett said state Department of Social Services officials have repeatedly rebuffed her attempts to join them in deciding the girl's care. When Haleigh's condition recently improved, state officials dropped their plans to remove life support and placed her in a rehabilitation hospital.

A DSS spokesman declined to comment.

In 2001, when Avrett decided she could no longer care for Haleigh, she let the girl's biological aunt, Holli Strickland, adopt her. Prosecutors allege that Strickland and the girl's stepfather, Jason Strickland, beat Haleigh into a coma. About two weeks after their arrest, Holli Strickland was found dead alongside her grandmother in an apparent murder-suicide.
The state's request to remove Haleigh's feeding tube and ventilator sparked a legal battle between DSS and Jason Strickland, who could face a murder charge if Haleigh dies. A juvenile court judge ruled that Strickland did not have a say in his stepdaughter's medical care. The Supreme Judicial Court, the state's highest, agreed.
Murphy said Wednesday that Avrett was the first to notice that Haleigh appeared to be showing improvement. That happened during a Jan. 10 visit when the girl's eyes followed Avrett and she appeared to respond to commands, according to Murphy. Avrett was told by DSS officials that the reactions were just reflexive, Murphy said.
But within days the state agency was reporting improvements.
On Jan. 26, "Haleigh was so much better she was answering yes and no questions about her name and her gender ... she was correctly responding, not with language, but she was correctly responding with yes or no signals," Murphy said. "That's a pretty high level of cognitive functioning."
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