Left inset: Eli Hart (KSTP). Right inset: Julissa Thaler (Hennepin County). Background: The location near where police pulled over Thaler’s car and found Eli’s remains and a shotgun in the vehicle (KARE).
The Minnesota father of a 6-year-old boy murdered by the child’s own mother amid a custody battle has reached a $2.25 million settlement in his wrongful death lawsuit.
Tory Hart reached the settlement in the death of his son, Eli Hart. Before Eli’s murder, a Dakota County judge, following the recommendations of social workers, granted full custody to Eli’s mother, Julissa Thaler, despite the concerns of family members. Hart had warned the court about Thaler’s history of drug abuse, paranoia, and hallucinations. He filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Dakota County and three social services employees, alleging they were negligent in ignoring the warnings of the family.
Under the terms of the settlement, Hart will get over $1.2 million, the boy’s grandfather and grandmothers will get $25,000 each, and the rest will go to the family’s lawyers, according to court documents.
“On behalf of the Hart family we are pleased to bring this matter to resolution with Dakota County,” attorney Andrew Davick at Meshbesher & Spence said in an email to Law&Crime. “This was a truly tragic situation but this resolution holds the County accountable for its child protection failures. This was a challenging two years of litigation and this case should lead all counties to reflect on its procedures and processes in protecting our young people.”
A Dakota County spokesperson released a statement saying, “The murder of Eli Hart was a horrific tragedy. Our deepest condolences go out to his family and to all those affected by his death. The settlement is not an admission of wrongdoing, but it brings closure to a very emotional case for family, county staff and all involved. Dakota County remains firmly committed to the safety and well-being of our community’s children.”
As Law&Crime has previously reported, Thaler, 29, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
She fired as many as nine shotgun shells into Eli’s young body on the evening of May 19, 2022. The following day, she drove around with his body in the trunk of her Chevrolet Impala and threw away some of his remains in a gas station dumpster.
“A citizen saw the vehicle at a gas station not long before the traffic stop,” an affidavit of probable cause filed in the case said. “The information provided was that the vehicle had stopped near the dumpsters.”
Officers searched the dumpster and found a backpack and the remains.
At Thaler’s sentencing, the defendant sat with her attorneys as Eli’s family members spoke about the young victim, according to a report by Minneapolis-based NBC affiliate KARE.
“You could see the love and bonding shared every second they were together,” Eli’s stepmother, Josephine Josephson, said, describing the relationship between the boy and his father. “Nothing will ever be the same. The pain will never go away.”
Eli’s aunt, Nikita Kromberg, said her nephew was more like a son.
The loss, she said, has led to her youngest son hating school because of the pain he feels without his cousin here. After therapy, she said, her youngest son has chosen to remember Eli as a butterfly.
“To this day, I blame myself for not saving Eli when I was fostering him,” Kromberg told the court. “I should have documented things better, taken pictures or video of Eli and any encounters I had with this monster. How could someone do such an evil thing to an amazing, loving kid?”
The judge sought to console the grieving aunt.
“You realize it wasn’t your fault … it wasn’t your fault at all,” Hennepin County District Court Judge Jay Quam said, according to KARE. “So the sooner you let go of that, the sooner you can appreciate all the time you did have with Eli. Thank you for what you did for Eli. You made his life better.”
The mother only uttered a sentence during the proceedings.
“I’m innocent, f— you all. You’re garbage,” she reportedly said.
The judge responded.
“Ms. Thaler, I don’t know that that’s appropriate here,” Quam said. “The worst thing that seems to happen to parents is to lose their child. It’s worse, though, when you don’t lose your child to something like cancer or an accident. It’s when someone takes that child from the world. What I can’t imagine, nobody can imagine, is when the person who takes a child from the world is the one that brought that child in.”
The violence came amid a custody dispute between Thaler and Hart. Evidence suggested that Thaler was fixated on her ex when police questioned her about what happened.
“Do you need my ex’s name?” she asked an officer.
Later, Thaler said: “I, there’s stuff that I — didn’t tell you about my ex.”
Colin Kalmbacher, Matt Naham and Alberto Luperon contributed to this report.
