Malinda Hoagland’s half-sisters have filed lawsuits against a number of authorities for failing to protect the child while she was allegedly tortured by her father and his girlfriend, a convicted child abuser, according to a press release from their lawyers.
A federal lawsuit was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia against the Chester County Department of Children, Youth & Families, the Coatesville Area School District and other agencies. The suit accuses the defendants of involuntary manslaughter and general negligence and recklessness.
A separate lawsuit was also filed Wednesday in Philadelphia County Common Pleas Court against Commonwealth Charter Academy, a cyber charter school that Malinda attended during the final months of her life. That lawsuit also accuses the plaintiff of wrongful death, negligence and recklessness.
Attorneys Tom Bosworth of Philadelphia and Alexandria Crouthamel of Bensalem, who represent Hoagland’s half-sisters Emily Lee and Jamie and Abbey Hoagland, said in their press release about the lawsuits that they want to hold the groups accountable and bring about a change in the law.
Malinda Hoagland died May 4 at Paoli Hospital after allegedly suffering months of physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her father, Rendell Hoagland, and his partner, Cindy Marie Warren. Authorities say she was chained to a pool table, starved and forced to perform strenuous gymnastics exercises in the family’s West Caln home.
When she was admitted to the hospital, the 12-year-old girl weighed only 50 pounds. The girl’s father, Hoagland, told a 911 operator that Malinda had ridden her bike into a tree earlier in the day. However, staff at Paoli Hospital, where the girl was taken, reported that she had numerous injuries and ailments very typical of physical abuse. She died in the hospital because trauma surgeons there were unable to save her life.
According to a criminal complaint, hospital staff told investigators that the girl’s emaciated physical condition “worried them and that (her) appearance ‘should not exist in this country.'” Investigators managed to secure videos from Blink cameras that had been installed to monitor Malinda’s behavior and which reportedly show Hoagland and Warren abusing the girl.
Hoagland, 53, and Warren, 46, were charged with first-degree murder, aggravated assault, conspiracy, forced labor, child abduction, endangering the welfare of a child and related charges. A preliminary hearing on the charges is scheduled for Aug. 29.
Courtesy of the Chester County District Attorney’s Office
Rendell Hoagland (left) and his girlfriend Cindy Warren were charged with molesting Hoagland’s daughter Malinda, 12. (Courtesy of Chester County District Attorney’s Office)
Chester County District Attorney Chris de Barrena-Sarobe said his office would seek the death penalty against the duo in the trial.
The combined lawsuits seek millions of dollars in punitive and compensatory damages “because the missed warning signs and signals are astonishing and demonstrate an absolute failure of the system that must never happen again,” Bosworth and Crouthamel said in their press release.
The lawsuits note that the district’s CYF was notified of suspicions about Malinda’s welfare but closed the case without a full investigation. In the days following her death, the Coatesville district issued a statement saying its staff “diligence reported concerns about her welfare to the state agency that receives and processes concerns.” She was enrolled in two of the district’s schools in 2022 and 2023 until Hoagland abruptly removed her from school and enrolled her in the cyber charter.
“These lawsuits are about accountability for everything my father and his girlfriend did to my sister, and the failure to protect her from such torture and abuse by her schools and state and county officials,” Abbey Hoagland said in the press release. “While we think every day about what she went through, the horror and pain she endured, we simply want to make sure that no other child will ever have to endure such cruelty while those responsible for protecting her look the other way.”
“The system failed Malinda, and who knows how many other children are suffering in similarly horrific circumstances. I hope these lawsuits finally shed light on the negligence of those who failed to do their jobs and simply swept the matter under the rug as if Malinda wasn’t human,” said Emily Lee.
Jamie Hoagland is equally desperate and angry.
“We must be held accountable not just for Malinda, but for every child in the state,” she said. “Change must happen soon before another innocent child is killed.”
A district spokeswoman, Rebecca Brain, said the district could not comment on pending litigation. A school district spokeswoman could not be reached.
You can contact editor Michael P. Rellahan at 610-696-1544.
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