A Broward judge refused Monday to dismiss criminal charges against one of five defendants accused of allowing a 7-year-old child to starve to death last Christmas. Mirlande Moltimer, 47, is the owner of Samaritin Home Health Care, a home health nursing service that was supposed to provide around-the-clock care for Deonte Atwell, a non-verbal Fort Lauderdale child who lived with a form of spina bifida that rendered him immobile from the waist down. Prosecutors say his mother, brother, grandfather and two care providers starved Deonte and failed to report his deteriorating condition from October 2023, when he was last seen by non-family members, to Christmas two months later, when he was found dead and weighed just 7 pounds. Moltimer is charged with aggravated manslaughter of a child, third-degree felony murder, child neglect and Medicaid fraud. Defense lawyer Bruce Lehr argued that the case against Moltimer should be dismissed because his client did not fail in any professional or legal duties when she repeatedly signed off on the care Deonte was receiving, billing Medicaid as if the care were being provided. Moltimer’s company had complained in the past that Deonte’s mother, Michelle Doe, was refusing to provide access to Deonte, but Moltimer’s reports indicated she was relying on her nurse, Cassandre Lassegue, 33, whose charges include first-degree murder.