DCFS tells judge it will comply with records request in 2024 death of
foster child
[September 10, 2026]
By Ben Szalinski
SPRINGFIELD — The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services
plans to comply with a request for records about employees who were
responsible for monitoring a teenage girl who died in foster care.
Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Haas on Wednesday told Sangamon
County Judge Jack Davis II she believes DCFS has “substantially
complied” with the judge’s June 12 order and the department is working
to produce the personnel files request by Capitol News Illinois about
two caseworkers and one supervisor who were responsible for monitoring
Mackenzi Felmlee, a teenage girl who died in 2024.
Last month, Davis issued an order requiring DCFS Director Heidi Mueller
to appear at Wednesday’s hearing and explain why the agency has not
followed the judge’s orders or appeared in court on the case at all this
year.
Mueller’s appearance was waived during a status conference Wednesday,
but Davis made it clear she is still expected to show up at the next
hearing on the case Oct. 16.
DCFS blamed “significant miscommunications” for the oversight but said a
fuller explanation would be given in court. That explanation was not
given at Wednesday’s hearing, which was reduced to a status hearing to
give the department another month to comply with the judge’s order.
“I’m certain that if the communication process is improved, and that’s
what we’re looking to do, to make sure that they know when the court
hearing is, they will show up,” Gov. JB Pritzker said at a news
conference last month.
Capitol News Illinois sued the agency in March after it declined to
release the personnel files for the two caseworkers. The lawsuit filed
by Springfield attorney Don Craven in Sangamon County Court alleged DCFS
violated the Illinois Freedom of Information Act and asked a judge to
compel DCFS to produce the records.
Craven’s office served DCFS with a summons on March 23, but DCFS did not
respond to that lawsuit, leading CNI to file a motion for default
judgment.
On June 10, Davis issued an order finding DCFS “willfully and
intentionally violated” FOIA when it failed to release the requested
information. He ordered DCFS to produce the records within five days and
to pay CNI’s costs, attorneys fees and a $5,000 civil penalty. DCFS also
missed that hearing.
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Attorneys for Capitol News Illinois, left, and the Illinois Attorney
General’s office speak to Sangamon County Judge Jack Davis II during
a hearing on Sept. 9, 2026. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew
Campbell)
Davis ordered Mueller and the agency last month to appear on Wednesday
and threatened to begin assessing daily fines up to $1,000 to the agency
for its continued noncompliance.
It’s at least the second time in the last five years a judge has
threatened to impose daily fines against DCFS for ignoring court orders.
In 2022, then-Director Marc Smith was assessed contempt charges after
the agency failed to follow a Cook County judge’s order to place
children discharged from psychiatric hospitals into appropriate care
settings. Those charges were later overturned by an appellate court.
Mackenzi Felmlee’s care
CNI requested the documents while trying to learn more about the care
Felmlee, 18, received before she was found dead in her Fairview Heights
foster home in May 2024.
Her foster mother, Shemeka Williams, and foster grandmother, Cornelia
Reid, are charged with murder in connection with Mackenzi’s death. Both
are being held in the St. Clair County Jail. Williams was licensed
through Lutheran Children and Family Services, a nonprofit agency that
provides foster care services on contract for DCFS.
According to a timeline of the incident released by DCFS, Williams
purportedly told an LCFS caseworker during an in-person visit that
Mackenzi was “struggling” two days before her death.
The caseworker, however, did not document that conversation until five
days after Mackenzi’s death. LCFS later reported the visit was made by
phone, not in person.
Capitol News Illinois is
a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government
coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily
by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
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