A lawsuit accuses the city of Antioch, Contra Costa County, a daycare center and the parents of an 18-month-old child of negligence in the child’s death in 2022.

The lawsuit was filed last week in federal court in San Francisco on behalf of the girl’s two older siblings, a four-year-old boy and a two-year-old girl who have since been adopted.

The lawsuit names the city of Antioch, the Antioch Police Department, Contra Costa County Child Protective Services, Contra Costa Regional Health Foundation, The Learning Experience daycare center and the toddler’s biological parents, Jessika Fulcher and Worren Young Sr.

The plaintiffs’ lawyers said in a statement that the child died on August 26, 2022, “from trauma so severe that it severed her pancreas and caused a brain hemorrhage.”

The lawsuit alleges that the child was removed from her parents’ care within weeks of her birth in February 2021 because she was at risk of neglect and abuse.

Brett Schreiber, a lawyer for the plaintiffs and a partner at the law firm Singleton Schreiber, said both mother and child had methamphetamine in their systems when the girl was born and that both parents have arrest warrants in Georgia. Their children have been placed in foster care.

Schreiber said within weeks of the judge’s decision, Child Protective Services began the process of reuniting the children with their parents, starting with a case plan that included strict monitoring of the parents. The plan required the parents to take drug tests, half of which Schreiber said they failed. They failed other tests, he said.

But the children ended up back with their parents. The lawsuit states that over the next 16 months, “the same people and institutions that were supposed to protect the toddler and her siblings failed to report obvious signs of abuse and/or take steps to prevent further trauma for the girl.”

“This child – who was still learning to walk – was brutally tortured and died a gruesome death, all because the entire system that was supposed to protect her failed this innocent 18-month-old child,” Schreiber said in a statement. “While her parents committed the physical abuse that killed her, their abuse was completely enabled and abetted by social workers, police, hospitals and daycare centers that should have stopped it.”

A Contra Costa County spokesman said Tuesday morning that the county had not been served with the lawsuit and could not comment.

Schreiber said a doctor at the Pittsburg Health Center found injuries on the toddler but did not notify child welfare services, which also did not request hospital records.

“Nevertheless, CPS soon allowed the children to have overnight visits with their parents and, in September 2021, enabled the parents to regain custody by concealing these and other facts from the judge,” the statement said.

Antioch police reportedly visited the home at least three times in 2022. Still, the children remained in the home and no referral to child welfare was made, although the father was eventually arrested on domestic violence and assault charges, the lawsuit says.

Antioch Acting Police Chief Brian Addington said Tuesday morning that the department could not comment on pending litigation.

The lawsuit also alleges that the child’s daycare, The Learning Experience in Antioch, also alerted the mother to the toddler’s significant bruising but failed to make the required referral to child welfare.

The Learning Experience did not respond to a message seeking comment Tuesday.

Schrieber said Antioch police and paramedics were called to the girl’s home on Aug. 25, 2022, by the girl’s mother, who said the girl was having trouble breathing. First responders took her to a hospital, where doctors reportedly determined she had suffered serious, intentionally inflicted injuries.

The parents reportedly left the hospital at night, saying they were going to smoke, but never returned. The girl died the next morning; a trial in April 2023 concluded that one or both parents were responsible for the fatal injuries.

A spokesman for the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office said Tuesday that no charges were pending against either parent.

Plaintiffs spokesman Sam Singer said Young is currently incarcerated at Valley State Prison in Chowchilla, Madera County, after being convicted of assault. He did not know Fulcher’s whereabouts.

“This was a complete dereliction of duty that resulted in the death of a young child and lifelong loss and trauma for two more,” Schreiber said. “On behalf of these siblings, we ask the court not only to compensate them for the lifelong emotional scars they will bear, but also to punish those who failed to prevent this terrible tragedy from ever happening again.”

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, including punitive damages, from the authorities and persons named in the lawsuit as responsible.