DETROIT (WXYZ) — Derrick Brown only learned he had a son after Detroit Police told him he was dead.
9-year-old Zemar King, found buried in a Detroit backyard in January, is alleged to have been murdered by his own mother just months after he warned a Children’s Protective Services employee that she wanted to kill him.
“He didn’t deserve this,” Brown said in his first interview since Zemar’s murder. “He already stated (to CPS) what was going on in the house.”
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As 7 News Detroit first revealed, Zemar told a CPS employee in April 2024 that his mother, Brandee Pierce, beat him with a belt, choked him with her hands and wanted to kill him.
Brown had been in a relationship with Pierce a decade earlier, but said they lost touch.
Then about two years ago, he says Pierce contacted him out of the blue and wanted to meet.
“She said, 'I wanted to meet with you so I could tell you: this is your son,'” he recalled.
It was during their face-to-face meeting with Zemar, Brown said, that Pierce made him an offer.
“She told me that I could take him…she will switch everything to me,” he said. “I asked her, 'is something wrong?' She said no, she just feels that she took on a lot.”
Brown said he agreed to take custody of Zemar, but said he should take a DNA test first.
They scheduled one for the following week, but Brown said Pierce later canceled it, saying she needed to go to California.
Brown said he never saw Zemar again.
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Two years later, a CPS caseworker would be called to a Plymouth hospital after Pierce arrived in the midst of a mental health crisis.
She said she was homeless, questioning whether she should give up custody of one of her boys. That’s when Zemar told CPS the family often had no food, he hadn’t been to school in a year and that his mother beat him.
But a CPS caseworker concluded there wasn’t enough evidence to substantiate a neglect complaint, according to an internal investigative summary obtained by 7 News Detroit, and the case was closed.
The family was placed in a homeless shelter.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services will not say whether that caseworker is under investigation or facing discipline.
“State and federal law prohibit MDHHS from providing any information,” said department spokesman Erin Stover.
'It looks like the system broke down'
But, a former federal prosecutor says the conduct of that CPS employee warrants further scrutiny, not just from the state, but also from law enforcement.
“Not every time a government employee makes a mistake or does something wrong does the government then prosecute them,” said Matthew Schneider, the former U.S. Attorney for Michigan’s Eastern District.
“However, there are at certain circumstances at least the issue should be reviewed. And this is one of those cases," he said.
Before his years as a federal prosecutor, Schneider was deputy attorney general for the state.
“There is not a doubt in my mind: if I were still the deputy attorney general, I would be looking for the reports in this case,” Schneider said. “I would want to know what happened and should law enforcement get heavily involved in investigating and looking at this case? And contemplating whether or not charges should be brought.”
Schneider says there are two charges a prosecutor would most likely consider: willful neglect of duty, a misdemeanor charge that was brought against former Gov. Rick Snyder and others as part of the Flint Water Crisis, and misconduct in office, a felony charge that carries up to five years in prison.
There is no sign that either Attorney General Dana Nessel or Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy are reviewing how CPS handled Zemar King's case.
“The facts are the little boy is telling the CPS worker: I’m getting whooped with a belt, I don’t have a place to live, I don’t get enough food to eat, I don’t feel safe all the time,” Schneider said, later adding: "And it looks like the system broke down.”
Whether criminal charges are brought won’t mean much to Brown. Earlier this month, he buried the son he only recently learned was his.
He says he can’t shake the thought of the 9-year-old’s final cries for help.
“I would have took him. With no questions asked,” Brown said. “If he would have said all that, I would have found ways to take him.”
We did reach out to Pierce's attorney for comment but did not hear back.
According to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, Pierce was just referred for a competency evaluation and won't be back in a courtroom until May.
Contact 7 Investigator Ross Jones at ross.jones@wxyz.com or at (248) 827-9466.
