Jor'Dynn Duncan's mother files $250M lawsuit against Suffolk, CPS and school officials in death of 7-year-old

Jor'Dynn Duncan told the nurse at her Bayport elementary school not to call her foster mother about marks on the girl's face, which appeared to be swollen, because "mom will get mad at her," an episode that occurred 10 months before Jor'Dynn died, allegedly at the hands of the foster mother, a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday says.

The episode was not reported to child welfare officials, court papers show.

The $250 million lawsuit against Suffolk County and the Bayport-Blue Point Union Free School District, as well as individual county Child Protective Services workers and school officials, contains new public allegations of abuse of Jor’Dynn and another child, and Jor’Dynn’s attempts to alert adults in her life, as well as more details on previously reported abuse allegations.

Jor’Dynn was 7 years old when she died on Dec. 29, 2025 from a massive infection caused by sharp-force injuries to her backside and a perforated colon. Prosecutors have charged Emily Kelly, 50, Jor’Dynn’s legal guardian at the time of her death, as well as Kelly’s mother, Barbara Renner, 75, and Kelly’s daughter, Elyssa Seymore, 24, in connection with Jor’Dynn’s death. Each have pleaded no guilty to the charges.

The lawsuit provides more details about allegations that Jor'Dynn made to school officials 11 months before she died that Kelly struck her. It also said that Jor'Dynn reported that Kelly threw food at her and struck another child. But school officials and Child Protective Services failed to alert a statewide child abuse hotline, in violation of state law and school policy, and a county caseworker cleared the foster mother, who is now charged with torturing and killing the girl, court records show.

Jor'Dynn's mother, Portia Duncan, is scheduled to speak at a news conference announcing the lawsuit at her lawyer's Melville office Tuesday. 

Prosecutors have also said that Jor’Dynn had trace levels of the controlled substance ketamine in her system when she was autopsied. Prosecutors recently exhumed Jor’Dynn’s body for further investigation, Newsday has reported. Jor'Dynn missed nearly 60 days of school in the year that she attended Academy Street Elementary School in Bayport while living with Kelly and her co-defendants, raising questions about why the school district didn't do more to questions the absences. 

The lawsuit names as defendants Suffolk County, the Bayport-Blue Point Union Free School District, the three criminal defendants Kelly, Renner and Seymore, as well as CPS employees Melissa Plescia, up to 20 CPS employees who have not yet been identified and school district employees Lorie Beard, Tiffany Morici, Michelle Muccio and up to 20 school district employees who have not been identified.

The parties could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.

Plescia was the case manager for the family services stage of Jor’Dynn’s CPS case, which the Department of Social Services opened on May 16, 2019 and closed on April 10, 2025, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit identified Beard as the principal of Academy Street Elementary School, where Jor'Dynn was a student, Morici as the school counselor, and Muccio as the school social worker.

According to the lawsuit, on Feb. 5, 2025, Jor’Dynn was examined by the school nurse because she had marks on her face, including a “small, darker-pigmented mark, about the size of a pencil eraser, near her left cheek, and a linear vertical mark, that was a few inches long, lower on the left side of her face toward her mouth,” the lawsuit said.

A teacher’s aide, according to the lawsuit, “thought maybe” the left side of Jor’Dynn’s face was “a little swollen,” but Jor’Dynn said “I don’t know,” when asked whether anything had happened.

Jor’Dynn asked the school nurse “not to call mom because she already knows about it” and did not want the nurse to call because “mom will get mad at her,” the lawsuit said, adding that Jor’Dynn then “refused to speak to [the nurse] any further.”

Later that day Jor’Dynn told Morici that she “did not bang it or get hit,” the lawsuit said, and no one reported the marks or Jor’Dynn’s “fear of Kelly” to authorities.

Jor’Dynn’s teacher told Kelly that Jor’Dynn was “really upset at lunch,” the lawsuit said, and Kelly wrote to the teacher on Feb. 25, 2025, “now that I stand firm that she will eat what I cooked or go to bed hungry she eats what I give her." Kelly added that Jor’Dynn “would make herself throw up,” and that “I started sending her to bed if she made herself throw up," the lawsuit said.

The teacher replied to Kelly, according to the lawsuit: “Jor’Dynn has been such a wonderful addition to our class! Thank you for sharing her with us!” 

The previous month, Jor’Dynn had gone to the school nurse’s office to be treated for “anxiety,” on Jan. 21, 2025, the lawsuit said. The following day, Jor’Dynn told Morici that Kelly, who she referred to as her “stepmother” had “slapped her on the shoulder and thrown food at her at home on January 17.” She also told Morici that a three-year-old child in the home was being hit by Kelly and by that child’s mother, the lawsuit states.

Morici called Jor’Dynn’s caseworker, the lawsuit said, but neither Morici nor the caseworker called the New York State Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment (SCR), which would have prompted an investigation, including an interview of Jor’Dynn.

Five days later, according to the lawsuit, Morici, Beard, Muccio, as well as Jor’Dynn’s teacher and another staff member met to discuss Jor’Dynn and put her on a “handle with care” list, the lawsuit said, with Morici endeavoring to “follow up with case worker.”

Morici later spoke with Plescia, the lawsuit said. Kelly told Plescia that she had been “smacking [Jor’Dynn’s] arm out of her mouth” because Jor’Dynn “was attempting to make herself vomit.” Plescia referred Kelly and Jor’Dynn for outside counseling.

“The caseworker accepted Kelly’s explanation and left Jor’Dynn in Kelly’s home without further action,” the lawsuit said.