Settlement hearing set in child death case

Parties involved in a complex civil suit over the death of one child and the abuse of a second child are scheduled to gather for a settlement hearing next month at the Oconee Courthouse.  On the docket for the February term of the Common Pleas Court is a settlement hearing in the case of Rayvyn Hammond versus Upstate Affiliate organization and others, including the DSS, the county sheriff, the coroner, the hospital, and two doctors.  The motions roster for  February 8 civil proceedings in front of Judge McIntosh directs the multiple parties to gather for a settlement hearing.  A 23-page Common Pleas lawsuit, filed in 2019, contained six causes of action alleging negligence in the circumstances that took the life of one girl at the hands of a boyfriend of the mother and followed by injuries to the girl’s sister five months later. The perpetrator, Matthew Chappell was sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2019 after pleading no contest to voluntary manslaughter and guilty to great bodily injury to a child.  The lawsuit seeks “judgment against all Defendants for all actual damages and consequential damages in an amount to be determined….”