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Proposed $10M Massachusetts settlement would support David Almond’s brothers and neurodivergent community
Massachusetts has agreed to a proposed $10 million settlement over the Department of Children and Families’ handling of David Almond’s case. The deal, which still needs court approval, would provide lifelong trusts for his surviving brothers and fund programs for neurodivergent people.
Massachusetts has agreed to a proposed $10 million settlement with the estate of David Almond and his two surviving brothers, resolving claims that the state Department of Children and Families failed to protect the autistic teenager before his death in Fall River in 2020. A judge must approve the agreement before it takes effect.
Almond was 14 when he was found emaciated, bruised and unresponsive at his father’s apartment in October 2020. The Office of the Child Advocate later described the home as being in “deplorable condition.” His death was ruled a homicide caused by malnutrition from starvation and neglect. His father, John Almond, and his father’s girlfriend, Jaclyn Coleman, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and were sentenced to life in prison in 2023.
A 2021 review by the Office of the Child Advocate found that DCF missed warning signs and made a decision it said was not clinically justified when Almond and one of his brothers were returned to the home about three years after they had been removed. The report prompted changes at agencies serving children, according to the settlement filing.
The estate and David Almond’s brothers, who are also autistic, sued the state in Suffolk Superior Court last year. A judge denied the state’s request to dismiss the case. On Oct. 21, attorneys for the estate and the state attorney general’s office jointly asked the court to approve the settlement.
Under the proposed terms, independently managed lifelong special-needs trusts would receive about $2.9 million each for the two brothers. The agreement would also direct $150,000 to a memorial scholarship, prioritizing neurodivergent children in Massachusetts foster care, and $600,000 to a memorial fund supporting Massachusetts nonprofits and schools serving neurodivergent people. Nearly $3.5 million is slated for the attorneys representing the estate.
“This settlement ensures David’s brothers have the resources they need to build a full and productive life, and it creates a lasting legacy in David’s name for other children like him who depend on the state to keep them safe,” said Kimberly Dougherty of Justice Law Collaborative, which represents the estate.