Mother sues for damages after daughter’s death
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“(Cheyenne) died of asphyxiation due to strangulation and smothering,” claimed Roxanne Haga, birth mother of the victim. The suit was filed Friday, on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the child’s death.
“Sherri Mathis, in the months preceding the death, engaged in a pattern and practice of repeatedly inflicting abuse upon the child with the full knowledge and acquiescence (of her husband and co-defendant in the case) Robert Mathis.”
Mrs. Mathis stands charged with first-degree murder for the death of the child who was in her legal custody. Pathologist maintain the child died due to foul play; however, Mathis maintains the child suffered medical problems and died of natural causes despite her attempts to revive the girl at their King’s Ridge Road home June 26, 2004.
Mathis was charged several months after the death, once pathologist reports indicted the probable cause of death was homicide. Mathis was made to relinquish her daycare business, Small Wonders Daycare, in light of the murder charges against her which also brought a restraining order, barring her from coming around the daycare.
It was the daycare which began Mathis’ affiliation with Cheyenne Delp as the victim, along with her two older brothers, who went to the daycare, were placed in the legal custody of Mathis in 2001 after Haga and father, Bill Delp, granted her custody of the children while they were dealing with legal problems. The birth parents reportedly agreed to the placement.
Although the child was not in Haga’s legal custody at the time of the girl’s death, Haga is suing Mathis as next of kin and birth mother of the victim. The amount being sought was not stated on the lawsuit although Haga’s attorney, Sarah J. Cripps of Smithville, is asking for compensation for mental pain and suffering, medical and funeral expenses and for punitive damages.
“The grossly negligent acts and omissions of the employees of the state of Tennessee, Sherri Mathis and Robert Mathis, were the direct and proximate cause of the death of Cheyenne Delp,” Haga claimed in also attaching blame to the Department of Children’s Services while not naming the department in the suit. “DCS owed a duty of care to Cheyenne Delp to ensure she was placed in a suitable and appropriate home and to ensure she remained free from abuse and maltreatment.”
A date has not be set to hear the civil case. Mathis’ criminal case is set for this September.
Generally, civil suits are heard after criminal cases are completed and, on occasions, the findings differ as civil liability only takes a preponderance of the evidence while criminal liability takes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.