Inspector General’s report on overdose death of two-year toddler and DCFS’s missteps

Obituary photo of two-year-old Mitchell Robinson, III

The Louisiana Office of Inspector General has issued a report on their investigation of the death of two-year-old Mitchell Robinson III who died of a fentanyl overdose in 2022 in Baton Rouge. Inspector Stephen Street said even though the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services was notified of previous overdoses the system failed to protect the toddler.

“What it boils down to is that for nine days after DCFS was notified of a positive fentanyl test in this child, absolutely nothing was done to ensure the child’s safety,” said Street.

The report points out the assigned caseworker was overwhelmed with multiple high-profile cases and DCFS said they are trying to rectify that by hiring more staff.

Street said nine days before the child’s death on June 26^th, a third call was made to the DCFS hotline from a physician asking if any action had been taken in the case along with lab confirmation that fentanyl was found in the child’s system on June 4^th.

“There was a lot of back and forth, the child was brought in twice, and the folks that took the calls were not trained on the use of Narcan, they didn’t recognize it and what the significance of that was,” said Street.

Street said it’s an unfortunate truth that these types of tragedies with children are way more common than we want them to be.

“And a lot of times these caseworkers are overloaded beyond what any normal person could be expected to handle,” said Street.

The child’s mother Whitney Ard faces murder charges and the father Mitchell Robinson, Junior pleaded guilty to multiple drug charges.

To read the full report click here.