Click For Home PageInclusion Daily Express Logo

International Disability Rights News Service
Click here for today's headlines


Keeping advocates informed, inspired and connected since 1999.
Daily or Weekly delivery . . .
Purchase this story for your website or newsletter . . .

Caseworker Pleads Guilty Of Falsifying Records In Norris Case
By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
November 8, 2004

ANDERSON, INDIANA--A former Indiana Division of Family and Children social worker pleaded guilty Monday to tampering with computer records in connection with the death of 8-year-old Mark A. Norris II.

Under a plea agreement, a felony neglect charge was dropped against Mike Warrum, who had worked as a Child Protective Services caseworker.

Warrum was sentenced to one-year probation with no jail time. He had faced up to 20 years in prison if convicted of felony neglect.

Mark Norris' body was found by firefighters on January 21, 2003 after the family's home in Elwood had been destroyed by fire. Autopsy results confirmed that Mark, who had cerebral palsy and epilepsy, died of pneumonia at least one day before the fire. Toxicology tests found evidence that he was malnourished and had not been given prescription medications he needed to treat his seizures.

His mother, Jennifer L. Norris, was sentenced in March of this year to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to neglecting to seek medical treatment or properly care for her son.

Investigators had suspected that the fire was set deliberately to cover up Mark's death, but no evidence was found for them to charge Ms. Norris with arson.

Warrum was supposed to supervise Mark and his siblings under an earlier court order. Prosecutors claimed that he only visited the family once, but falsified entries in the state's computer system after Mark died.

Related:
"The Death of Mark A. Norris, Jr: Was fire a cover-up for his death?" (Inclusion Daily Express Archives)

http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/crime/norris.htm

Click here for top of this page

Purchase this story for your website or newsletter . . .

Here's what subscribers say about Inclusion Daily Express. . .


Get your news here!

Inclusion Daily Express
3231 W. Boone Ave., # 711
Spokane, Washington 99201 USA
Phone: 509-326-5811


News@InclusionDaily.com
Copyright © 2005 Inonit Publishing