MECHANICVILLE – The father of the four children murdered earlier this year by their mother and grandmother plans to sue the city of Mechanicville, Mechanicville City School District, Saratoga County, the Mechanicville Housing Authority and the Ballston Spa Central School District, alleging they failed to protect the children from years of abuse and neglect.

According to a Sept. 10 notice of claim filed with the city, county, schools and housing authority, Brady Harmon seeks $400 million for injuries, damages and civil rights violations that he and his four children, Harper, 13; Hudson, 11; and twins Gavin and Gracelynn Harmon, 10; suffered after the children, were poisoned by their mother Sarah Myers, 44, and their grandmother Amy Steadman, 64, on June 10.

The claim alleges the women used medication to control the children and authorities failed to act on signs the children were drugged – including  May 2024 overdoses that sent three of the children to the hospital.

In addition to negligence and civil rights violations, attorneys at the New York firm Liakas Law allege wrongful death and medical abuse of the children where they lived and died in a city housing authority apartment on Harris Avenue.

“This tragedy did not occur without warning,” Nicholas Liakas, senior partner at the firm. “The systems entrusted with protecting these children failed to prevent the unthinkable. Our fight is not only to secure accountability for the Harmon children, but to force meaningful systemic change so that warnings are acted upon, agencies fulfill their duty, and no family in Saratoga County suffers a tragedy like this again.”

Plaintiffs, under New York law, are required to file legal notices against government entities, warning them of plans to file a lawsuit.

The claim says both Myers and Steadman suffered from factitious disorder, also known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a mental health condition that prompts caregivers to inflict serious illness or injury on children or others in their care.

Myers and Steadman “regularly administered unnecessary medications and other substances to the children in excessive and dangerous doses, including but not limited to melatonin, Benadryl, or other drugs containing its active ingredient diphenhydramine, and kratom. The children were given these to control them and to make them sick and injure them to the point where they required medical attention,” the notice alleges.

The abuse culminated in the June death of the children. City police said the children were poisoned with Benadryl and kratom in the grandmother’s apartment, just weeks before they were to see their father for the first time in seven years. When one of the boys, Gavin, resisted, he was stabbed. Myers and Steadman then committed suicide.

The claim notes that between June 10 and June 23, when the badly decomposed bodies of the six were found, Brady Harmon repeatedly urged city police to check on the wellness of the children. But police did not enter the apartment until a neighbor on June 23 noticed a foul smell and flies gathered around the apartment’s air conditioning unit.

The legal action describes a May 29, 2024, incident at the Mechanicville City School District in which all four children overdosed at school after Myers gave them Benadryl. Gracelynn was so ill that rescuers tried to revive her with Narcan, a nasal spray developed to reverse opioid overdoses.

Three of the four children were sent to Albany Medical Center where, Liakas partner Cassandra Rohme said, Myers told hospital staff that the children must have mistakenly taken Benadryl.

“The hospital did notify (Child Protective Services),” Rohme said by phone on Thursday. “That is the bare minimum of their duty in the circumstances. … The hospital seemed to have taken the mother’s word for it that the children somehow took Benadryl. That makes no sense under the circumstances. When multiple children come to school intoxicated and one has to be given Narcan. … This was a missed opportunity.”

Rohme said the incident should have prompted the instant removal of the children and “triggered an immediate criminal and abuse investigation.”

Gavin resisted his mother and grandmother’s abusive behavior before the killings, which are believed to have occurred on June 10, the claim says. His resistance, it alleges, prompted Myers and Steadman to have him “falsely diagnosed with several mental illnesses and put on psychotropic medications that reduced his ability to fight back.”

Brady Harmon had received 10 notifications from Saratoga County Child Protective Services to alert him of investigations. However, the letters never informed him about what was being investigated. The county declined to comment on Harmon’s legal action.

Following the overdose at the school, Myers began homeschooling her children. The claim alleges that the district also failed to monitor their education.

“Anyone who could read could tell Myers was unfit to homeschool as she frequently misspelled basic words, lacked understanding of the subject matter she was tasked with teaching, and engaged in erratic and abusive behavior,” it says.

Ballston Spa Central School District is also because the children attended Milton Terrace and Gordon Creek elementary schools after Myers left Utah with the children in November 2019.

“Myers absconded with the children without (Brady Harmon’s) permission and against his wishes in order to maliciously deny him custody of and visitation with the children,” the notice of claim reads.

Brady Harmon is from Utah and continues to live there. He has said he hasn’t seen his children alive since Myers left but was expecting to host them during summer break after reaching a divorce settlement.

The claim also alleged that the children were “used as pawns in the contentious divorce and custody proceedings and prevented (Harmon) from even speaking to the children.”

Harmon also alleges that Myers falsely claimed that the children were abused at the hands of their father “to gain sympathy, resources (including public resources), and money, and to otherwise control, manipulate, abuse and harm the children.”

Brady Harmon’s suit alleges that the  city, county, schools and housing authority, should have understood that Myers and Steadman’s “varied and outlandish claims of abuse were obviously false as they were unsupported by any fact or evidence” and that the women were “abusing and neglecting the children to control the children.” They also noted that the schools, county and city should have known the children were in danger “especially given the escalating desperation to control” and prevent them from interacting with others.

“As the father and natural guardian of the children, (Brady Harmon) was entitled to all information about the children’s education, medical treatment and all abuse and neglect incidents,” the notice reads. “Instead, those with knowledge deliberately kept information about the abuse and neglect of the children. … Had (he) been fully informed of the information … he would have begun emergency proceedings to have the children removed … and ensure that (Myers and Steadman) were investigated appropriately.”