While the settlement allows the county not to admit fault, Wright said the agreement does show the county is taking responsibility.
“The administrator for the estate of Takoda and other family are happy we have come to a financial resolution with the county,” Wright said.
The attorney for the county, Tom Mannion, and a spokesperson for Montgomery County Children Services both declined to comment Tuesday because the parties are in the process of finalizing the resolution and therefore the case is ongoing.
“I have not yet presented anything to our commissioners in terms of an agreement, and until we have Board of County Commissioners approval, this is an ongoing legal matter,” Montgomery County Administrator Michael Colbert said in a statement Tuesday.
Takoda was a 10-year-old boy who authorities found unresponsive at his Kensington Drive home in December. Takoda later died at Children’s Hospital. Three people are charged in connection to the case, including Takoda’s father, Al-Mutahan McLean, his father’s girlfriend Amanda Hinze and the girlfriend’s sister Jennifer Ebert.
Authorities say Takoda was tortured by his father, including being locked naked in an attic, beaten and emotionally and physically abused. In court records, police say Takoda was forced to stand bent over and cross-legged for long periods of time and received a beating by McLean if he stopped. The records say Takoda ate his own feces and was either forced to drink a lot of water or was held underwater prior to his death.
A Dayton Daily News investigation uncovered that police were called to Takoda’s home multiple times before his death. School employees also told the Dayton Daily News that they made multiple calls to Children Services before Takoda was ultimately pulled from school by his father.
McLean and Hinze are due back in court in September for a jury trial.
The estate has also sued Dayton Children’s Hospital alleging that it didn’t do enough to help Takoda. That lawsuit is pending in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court.
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