For years after being diagnosed with severe lead poisoning by the Mobile County Health Department, LaCourcha Lett's children remained in the Mobile Housing Board's Orange Grove community, living in an apartment where the contaminated paint peeled and flaked from the walls, according to health department documents.

Lett, who in sworn testimony said she repeatedly asked the housing project's managers to remove the paint, filed suit against the Housing Board in 2005, alleging that high lead levels found in her children's blood came from the paint chips falling off her apartment walls. The case is set for trial in Mobile County Circuit Court in December.

The Mobile Housing Board officials whom Lett dealt with between 1996 and 2000 did not return calls from the Press-Register. Instead, a statement e-mailed Friday said that the board disputes the lawsuit's claims but will not otherwise comment on pending litigation.

Under federal law, the Mobile Housing Board was required to take steps to protect the children within a matter of days after lead was first discovered in their bodies by the Health Department in 1996. But Health Department records indicate that the problems persisted in the apartment for four years, despite repeated tests showing that both the children's bodies and surfaces in the apartment remained contaminated with lead.

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