Jor'Dynn Duncan's mother to sue Suffolk, Bayport-Blue Point school district and others for $250M in death of 7-year-old girl, court document shows

The mother of Jor'Dynn Duncan, the 7-year-old Bayport girl who prosecutors said was tortured and killed by her legal guardian, is seeking $250 million in damages from Suffolk County, its child welfare agency, the Bayport-Blue Point school district and several other entities for allegedly failing to adequately monitor the girl before her death.

Jor'Dynn's mother, Portia Duncan, of Mastic Beach, filed a notice of claim, a precursor to a lawsuit, on Tuesday and alleges Suffolk County and the other parties acted with "negligence, gross negligence, recklessness, deliberate indifference, emotional distress, civil rights violations, and racial discrimination" in the monitoring and supervision of the second grader, who died Dec. 29.

Duncan lost custody of Jor'Dynn when she was about 14 months old after failing a drug test. The filing said Duncan plans to sue for $250 million, citing the placement of Jor'Dynn in the home of Emily Kelly, who was made her legal guardian, and "the failure” of various entities “to adequately investigate and vet the caregiver with whom they placed her, to monitor her health, safety, and general well-being during the approximately one year she remained in that placement, and to act upon the indicators of abuse she and others presented."

Michael Martino, a spokesman for Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine, acknowledged receiving the document but declined to comment on possible pending litigation.

The Bayport-Blue Point school district also acknowledged in a prepared statement it was served with a notice of claim.

"As a standard practice, the District does not comment on pending legal matters," the statement said.

Portia Duncan, at a news conference Tuesday morning at her lawyer’s office in Melville, recalled Jor’Dynn as her “best friend.”

"I might have been an addict, but I was a damn good mother,” Duncan said, adding: “Here I am, supposed to protect my daughter, and leaving her to be protected by Child Protective Services and she wasn’t protected.”

Her lead attorney, Heather M. Palmore, said both the school system and CPS failed in their legally mandated duties to provide safety to Jor’Dynn.

"When we turn our children over to our schools, for most of the day, they’re entitled to be protected, to be safe, and everyone should be, at every turn, and doing their job,” Palmore said. “And we believe that, coupled with CPS’ failures to properly vet Emily Kelly and her home …to do a proper background check, those things led us to this moment.”

Suffolk County was obligated, under the law, to "conduct periodic monitoring and casework review" while Jor’Dynn was in foster care — her mother had not surrendered her parental rights nor had they been terminated, the court document said. Suffolk was also tasked with ensuring that required permanency hearings were held to review Jor’Dynn’s "safety, well-being, and permanency status and the continued appropriateness of her placement" every six months, the court document, filed by attorney Derek S. Sells, of The Cochran Firm in Manhattan, said.

The alleged inaction was part of a pattern in Suffolk, the court document said, citing the 2020 killing of 8-year-old Thomas Valva, whose allegations of abuse were repeatedly ruled unfounded in the years before he died of hypothermia after his father and father’s fiancee forced Thomas to sleep in a freezing garage. His death resulted in a series of reforms at Suffolk County Child Protective Services.

The court document lists Suffolk County, the Suffolk County Department of Social Services, Child Protective Services, the Bayport-Blue Point school district and its board of education and school administrators as defendants.

Three generations of a Bayport family who lived under the same roof — Kelly, 50, who was engaged to Jor'Dynn's incarcerated father and was granted custody of Jor’Dynn, her mother Barbara Renner, 75, and Kelly's daughter Elyssa Seymore, 24 — have been indicted on charges in connection with Jor'Dynn's abuse and death. They have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Kelly’s attorney, John LoTurco, has called Jor’Dynn’s death a "tragic accident." He previously told Newsday that CPS stopped monitoring Jor’Dynn after a Suffolk Family Court judge awarded full custody of Jor’Dynn to Kelly in April 2025. 

In a statement Tuesday, LoTurco said: "We are deeply concerned that the filing of this lawsuit, together with the extensive media coverage surrounding it, will further prejudice the public against Ms. Kelly and make it increasingly difficult to seat a fair and impartial jury.”

Suffolk prosecutors have said an autopsy revealed Jor’Dynn suffered nine sharp-forced wounds to her backside and a perforated colon from additional internal sharp-force wounds that led to a "massive infection." She had at least 90 injuries on her body inflicted in the final 48 hours of her life, and 20 older injuries, including some that suggested she had been whipped by a folded cord in the past, prosecutors have said.

The notice of claim alleges the Bayport-Blue Point school district and its personnel, “in their capacity as mandated reporters, to report the outwardly observable indicia of abuse and Jor'Dynn's chronic school absenteeism."

Jor'Dynn missed about 40 days of school in the months before her death, prosecutors have said. Kelly was "extremely communicative" and provided "detailed excuses about illnesses, sicknesses, a death in the family, a trip to Disneyworld and so on," school officials said, according to prosecutors.

While schools must track attendance and report suspected educational neglect, there is no requirement to notify CPS when a child misses a specific number of days of school, Newsday has reported.

The court document says Jor’Dynn was sent to school in "significant and age-inappropriate amounts of makeup" in an effort to conceal "bruises, welts, contusions, lacerations" and other physical injuries. 

Sellers and his co-counsel said they “absolutely” believed race was a factor in Jor’Dynn’s case, saying Kelly, who is white, didn’t face the same scrutiny from school and CPS officials as Jor’Dynn’s family, who is Black.

A state child fatality report issued last month said Suffolk Child Protective Services did not conduct any investigations into Jor’Dynn’s care in the year before her death, Newsday has reported.

After Portia Duncan failed a drug test administered by probation officers, Newsday previously reported, Jor’Dynn was placed in 2019 with Kim Jackson, who was previously married to Jor’Dynn’s father, Derrick Dixon, who is incarcerated at Sing Sing Correctional Facility.