Cortland County Social Services Issues Statement on Death of Rykelan Brown

Yesterday, Thursday, August 1st, Cortland County Social Services released a statement on the death of Rykelan Brown. The boy passed away from injuries reportedly sustained while in custody of his biological father Joshua Emmons of DeWitt.

Emmons is facing charges of second-degree manslaughter and endangering the welfare of a child.

Rykelan’s biological father was determined to be his father through a paternity test back in August. He filed for custody one month later.

Rykelan died two months after being placed with Emmons. It also came to light that Emmons had been convicted of beating another boy back in 2019. This history did not appear in documents obtained from the family court custody process.

On Thursday, August 1, Kristin Monroe, the commissioner of Cortland County Department of Social Services, released this statement:

“The death of a child is devastating to families, communities and the child welfare professionals who commit themselves to doing this extremely complicated and emotional work. We are deeply saddened by this tragedy, and while pending criminal charges and confidentiality laws prevent us from sharing the specific details of this incident, we are fully cooperating with the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS), the oversight agency that reviews our work and provides our workforce training. Additionally, OCFS provides technical assistance in implementing new programs and identifying best practices to keep children safe and support families.”