Mom charged in death of disabled girl with $2.1M trust

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Two years after a severely disabled girl was found dead in her Yonkers, N.Y., apartment, her mother is facing criminal charges, accused of neglecting the girl despite having access to a nearly $2.1 million trust to take care of her.

Nicole Diggs, 31, of Yonkers, a Cornell University graduate and certified special education teacher in New York City, was charged with criminally negligent homicide and endangering the welfare of a child in the death of 8-year-old Alayah-Rose Savarese. Diggs was arraigned Wednesday in Westchester County Court, where the indictment was unsealed.

Alayah-Rose "was a severely disabled child who suffered from cerebral palsy as well as a very significant seizure disorder," prosecutor Audrey Stone said during the arraignment, adding that her mother at various times failed to feed her, bathe her or attend to her medical needs.

The child, who could not speak, walk or eat, was found dead the afternoon of June 25, 2012, in her mother's apartment with a ruptured stomach, a state child fatality report says. There had been a long history of neglect allegations against her mother.

Oscar Thomas, who at the time was Diggs' fiancé, told investigators he went to a probation appointment the morning Alayah-Rose died with a friend and left her with another friend who didn't know how to tube feed her and wouldn't recognize whether she was having medical issues. The friend also was watching the couple's 16-month-old twin sons.

Authorities said Wednesday that a warrant has been issued for the arrest of a man in the case, but would not say whether Thomas, 27, is the wanted man.

After her legal aid attorney Harvey Loeb entered a not guilty plea on her behalf, Diggs was ordered held at the Westchester County Jail on $25,000 bail and told to surrender her passport. Diggs did not display any emotion as court officers handcuffed her and led her away. Her aunt and uncle, who attended the hearing, declined to comment. Diggs' twins have been living with relatives and she supports them financially, Loeb said in court. He said Diggs had no prior arrests and surrendered Wednesday.

She's scheduled to return to court June 25. If convicted, she faces up to four years in prison.

Darryl Gibbs of Yonkers, a child abuse prevention advocate who has been fighting for justice for Alayah-Rose, said the system let her down by not removing her from her home, but he's glad people are being held accountable.

"I am overwhelmed with joy that the Westchester County District Attorney and her staff have once again shown that they are relentless in the pursuit of justice for innocent and defenseless children," he said. "Her mother and stepfather failed Alayah miserably and sadly Alayah was nothing more than a meal ticket for a life of riches for them."

Alayah-Rose, who required constant supervision and care, was dead an estimated four to six hours before EMS workers arrived at the apartment, despite the friend's claim that he checked on her twice that morning. A blunt — a cigar rolled with marijuana — was found in the apartment; Thomas and two friends who were there tested positive for marijuana later that day.

Alayah-Rose, who was fed through a stomach tube and had to be repositioned to prevent bed sores, was on the radar of state and local child welfare authorities when she died. Six earlier complaints had been made with the state regarding her care, including that she was filthy, underfed, frequently absent from school and missed physical therapy appointments.

Between ages 5 and 6, Alayah-Rose "had dropped off the growth chart substantially," according to medical records. A doctor who specializes in child abuse consulted after the death said her growth trend would be classified as "failure to thrive," a condition that means a child is not getting enough calories to grow.

A week before Alayah-Rose's death, Westchester County Department of Social Services workers responded to the apartment on reports that she had missed half the school year and had unexplained bruises. At that time, a caseworker suggested Diggs hire a health aide or explore other avenues of support, but Diggs said, "she did not want the government to try to recoup any money from the settlement," the state fatality report says. Diggs admitted she hadn't bathed her daughter in two weeks, claiming that she gave her a daily sponge bath. Officials at the girl's special-needs school got permission from Thomas to wash Alayah-Rose's hair and "the water was black" from dirt.

Three weeks after Alayah-Rose died, Diggs married Thomas. Diggs works as a special education teacher at an elementary school in the Bronx, and earns roughly $70,000 a year, according to the New York City Department of Education. School officials could not be reached for comment.

The trust was established after Diggs won a settlement in a 2006 lawsuit against Cayuga Medical Center in Ithaca, N.Y., where Alayah-Rose was born. Diggs and Alayah-Rose's father, 33-year-old Anthony Savarese of Yonkers, were set to inherit the money after the death. The charges against Diggs are not expected to have any effect on her portion of the estate.

Savarese was devastated last fall upon learning specific details about his daughter's death.

"She was my strength," Savarese told The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News at the time. "She could brighten up your day in a second. It doesn't matter what you were going through, you just had to look at that little girl. She would make the hardest, coldhearted person in the street into a sucker."