Following a seven-day trial in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, a jury sided with defendant Northeast Treatment Services, finding the nonprofit social services organization was not negligent in providing in-home services to a now-deceased infant and his minor siblings.

The plaintiffs in the case, William Calandra, serving as administrator of the estate of the deceased infant, J.R., and on behalf of J.R.’s siblings, B.M. and A.R., filed a suit claiming negligence on behalf of the defendant after the infant died in December 2018, according to court documents. The plaintiffs alleged that the child should have been removed from the home before his death, which they claim was caused by suffocation as a result of co-sleeping with his mother and older siblings.