A lawsuit alleging systemic failures that led to the starvation death of an 11-year-old girl at the hands of her adoptive family has resolved with settlements tallying $31.5 million dollars — including $10 million each from the city and county of San Diego.
The neglect lawsuit was brought on behalf of Arabella McCormack’s two younger sisters, who were 6 and 7 years old when Arabella died in August 2022. The three children had been living with a Spring Valley couple who’d taken them in as foster children a few years earlier, eventually adopting them.
It accused several agencies, organizations and staffers of failing to report possible abuse of Arabella, who died in a state of malnutrition — weighing less at her death than she had when she was 5 years old — and had cuts, bruises and 13 bone fractures. The suit says Arabella’s younger sisters were found suffering from a syndrome that presents after prolonged starvation and had to be gradually renourished.
A surviving sister told a grand jury last year that they had been given limited food and water, forced to exercise, ordered to stay in their beds and not allowed to go to the bathroom when they needed to. Punishments included being struck with objects.
The suit, filed San Diego Superior Court, alleged that social workers closed complaints regarding Arabella as unfounded and that school teachers failed to report the emaciated child to law enforcement. It also alleges a San Diego police officer and family friend gave the family a wooden paddle they could use to strike the child — and supplied two more when the first one broke. The officer is also accused of not reporting suspected abuse.
The surviving sisters sued San Diego County, the San Diego Police Department, Pacific Coast Academy, where Arabella was enrolled for homeschooling, and Rock Church, where Arabella’s adoptive mother was an ordained elder and ministry leadership coordinator. The sisters also sued two teachers, two social workers, a church member and the police officer accused of supplying paddles.
Court documents indicate Pacific Coast Academy agreed to settle for $8.5 million, and Rock Church agreed to settle for $3 million. San Diego Superior Court Judge Richard Whitney approved both settlements last week.
The city of San Diego’s settlement does not cover the police officer alleged to have known of the abuse. The officer settled separately for $6,000, plus 20 hours of community service at a child advocacy-focused organization.
Leticia McCormack, left, and her parents, Stanley and Adella Tom, appear in El Cajon Superior Court. (Alejandro Tamayo / U-T file)
The girls’ adoptive mother, Leticia McCormack, and her parents, Adella and Stanley Tom, have pleaded not guilty to murder, conspiracy, child abuse and torture. The girls’ adoptive father, Brian McCormack, was a Border Patrol agent who killed himself in front of sheriff’s deputies the day Arabella died. Prosecutors say he, too, would have been charged.
Arabella, who went by Bella and whose name is also spelled Aarabella in court documents, was unresponsive when deputies and paramedics arrived at her family’s home about 2 a.m. on Aug. 30, 2022. She died at a hospital about 10 hours later.
She and her two younger sisters first moved into the McCormack home in 2017 while in foster care, and the couple later adopted them. The two older girls shared a room, according to grand jury testimony late last year.
The surviving sister told the grand jury she and Bella were not allowed to play or even talk to each other in the room. Instead, they were forced to lie still on their beds, hands at their sides, with cameras trained on them and alarms on their beds. She said they were punished for every movement — including for moving in their sleep.
The girl said neither she nor Bella were always allowed to go to the bathroom when they needed to, and when they cried about it, they were told to “shut up.” When they soiled themselves in bed, she said, they were forced to lie in it. It also brought punishments, according to her testimony.
The child testified they were struck at times with a belt, paddles and paint stirring sticks, and sometimes smacked with a ruler to the bottom of their feet.
She said they were forced to exercise by running up and down a flight of stairs 200 times. Food and water, she said, were restricted, and they were not allowed to drink until after they ate.