PORTLAND (NEWS CENTER Maine) - The situation is simple: 10-year-old Marissa Kennedy was murdered, allegedly by her mother and stepfather after years of abuse. Multiple people say they reported that abuse to DHHS. Mainers want to know where the system failed Marissa, but DHHS is choosing to hide behind privacy laws.
Michael Petit was the commissioner of DHHS from 1979 to 1987, and recently wrote an op-ed in the Portland Press Herald about his experience with a child's murder in 1982, and the overhaul of DHHS policies and practices that followed.
He says DHHS Commissioner Ricker Hamilton can and should tell Mainers what he knows about Marissa Kennedy's case. "He should be releasing a lot of information," he said. "Absolutely, unequivocally, [Hamilton] should be releasing information."
"It erodes public confidence if he doesn't [release information]," he said. "Everybody thinks the department has something to hide. That's one thing. It also denies the public understanding of what resources maybe needed to do the job [of child protective services]."
He says releasing information is how to properly educate the public to prevent another child from dying. "Not hiding behind a confidentiality shield," he said. "The commissioner has broad latitude in deciding what information to release. I don't know what forced him to be holding him back on this thing legally. I don't believe there is anything."
Commissioner Ricker Hamilton has been hiding behind Maine statute, saying it prevents him from releasing details of DHHS involvement with Marissa because it might interfere with a criminal investigation. Attorney General Janet Mills, however, says releasing that information would not jeopardize the homicide case against Marissa's mother and stepfather.
"No one wants a child to be hurt, and the public broadly supports all efforts to help children," Petit said. "[The people] can't commit resources [to DHHS] unless they understand the problem." This is why he says Ricker Hamilton needs to come forward and tell the people what they want to know.