LOS ANGELES – Arraignment was postponed Monday for two former social workers and their supervisors, who are accused of failing to protect an 8-year-old Palmdale boy whose mother and then-boyfriend are charged with his murder.
The social workers and two of their supervisors — Stefanie Rodriguez, 31, Patricia Clement, 66, Kevin Bom, 37, and Gregory Merritt, 61 — were fired from their jobs following an internal investigation into the May 24, 2013, death of Gabriel Fernandez.
On March 20, all four were ordered to stand trial on one felony count each of child abuse and falsifying records. Each defendant faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge M.L. Villar found that the social workers and their superiors had a duty to protect the boy and had plenty of reason to suspect that the youngster might be seriously injured or killed.
“Red flags were everywhere, yet no referrals were ever made for a medical exam,” Villar said, citing reports of injuries by Gabriel’s teacher, who took photos, and a welfare office worker.
“The abuse was clearly escalating. Reckless and criminal negligence is found here,” the judge ruled.
In requesting a two-week arraignment continance Monday, an attorney for Gregory Merritt, Joseph Gutierrez, told a judge that the defense didn’t yet have access to transcripts from the preliminary hearing.
Asked outside the courtroom whether the social workers were considering a plea deal, Clement’s attorney, Shelly Albert, told reporters there was “no reason for them to plead to anything.”
Albert called the prosecution “an aberration” and said it amounted to holding the social workers “vicariously liable for acts of the parents.”
Pearl Fernandez, 33, and her then-boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre, 36, are awaiting trial on a murder charge stemming from her son’s death. The District Attorney’s Office plans to seek the death penalty against the two.
Gabriel’s death prompted a firestorm of criticism of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services over reports that social workers repeatedly visited the family’s home in response to allegations of abuse but the boy was left in his mother’s custody.
Merritt’s other attorney, James Barnes, told reporters following the preliminary hearing that Villar’s ruling was “totally incorrect legally,” contending the legal duty that the social workers had was not to the child, but to control the mother’s behavior.
There was simply not enough evidence for the Department of Children and Family Services to take the child away from his mother, the defense attorney said.
He said the escalating violence cited by the judge occurred months after Merritt had already closed the case file on Gabriel. The only complaint his client was aware of was bruising on the boy’s bottom, and parents are allowed by law to use corporal punishment, Barnes said.
“My client and the others are being scapegoated,” he said, calling the case an excuse for DCFS’s lack of sufficient staffing to handle child abuse cases.
Palmdale elementary school teacher Jennifer Garcia testified that she called Rodriguez multiple times to report that Gabriel said his mother punched him and shot him in the face with a BB gun. Her first call came more than six months before Gabriel was killed.
An autopsy showed the child had a fractured skull, several broken ribs and burns over his body, according to authorities.
Villar said records were incomplete and inadequate, parties weren’t talking to one another, incidents went undocumented and some people who are mandated to report abuse failed to do so.
Defense attorneys argued that others were culpable in the boy’s death and were better positioned to have saved the boy.
“Gabriel was certainly not left on an island by himself” when the case was transferred to another DCFS unit, Gutierrez argued. He said one therapist failed to report serious injuries because her supervisor told her not to.
The case was transferred to the Family Preservation Unit to “put more eyes” on Gabriel, said Rodriguez’s attorney, Lance Filer. “`(Rodriguez) was the only one … to substantiate any of the claims … she did exactly what she was supposed to do and had been trained to do.”
Gabriel was seeing a counselor twice a week and a sheriff’s deputy stopped by at one point to check on the boy and found no evidence of abuse, according to the defense.
“This was unanticipated, not foreseeable,” Gutierrez argued, adding that it’s “contrary to human nature, to human reason” that a mother could kill her child.
“I don’t think there’s anyone who feels worse than these four social workers,” Gutierrez said.
But Deputy District Attorney Ana Maria Lopez accused the defendants of making “a deliberate choice to circumvent the system,” taking shortcuts and violating procedures.
Prosecutors allege that Rodriguez and Clement falsified reports that should have documented signs of escalating physical abuse and the family’s lapsed cooperation with DCFS.
Prosecutors also contend that Bom and Merritt knew or should have known they were approving false reports that conflicted with evidence of Gabriel’s deteriorating physical health, allowing the boy to remain in the home until he died.
An investigation revealed that at times over an eight-month period preceding his death, Gabriel — among other instances of violent abuse — was doused with pepper spray, forced to eat his own vomit and locked in a closet with a sock stuffed in his mouth to muffle his screams, authorities have said.
“It was their responsibility to protect Gabriel,” Lopez said, “to remove this child and put him in a safe place. That’s where they failed.”
The prosecutor accused the social workers of “professional arrogance” and questioned whether they were “covering up their own misbehavior” in failing to reconsider their earlier decisions when the violence began to escalate.
Previous related stories:
Social workers ordered to stand trial in Palmdale boy’s death
Hearing begins for social workers charged in Palmdale boy’s death
Judge rejects bid to dismiss charges against social workers
Arraignment postponed for social workers charged in case stemming from Palmdale boy’s death
Social workers accuse DA of criminalizing child welfare work
Four social workers charged in Palmdale boy’s death
Social workers charged: Reaction from “Gabriel’s Justice” founders
L.A. County trying to block return of social worker in Palmdale child abuse death
Four social workers fired in death of Gabriel
Justice for Gabriel protest, teacher speaks out
Palmdale boy dies after abuse, mother and boyfriend arrested
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Cathy J says
This has been going on far to long! The facts are already known, and hopefully the DCFS social workers now have been better educated, seen what the situation leads up to when you sit on your lazy ass and let shit happen. This entire case is heartbreaking. I’m sure there are many families that have been affected by the decisions of these social workers, we can only pray that this has been a training experience for the still employed workers at this point. It should be mandated that each office has to go to the hearings and sit and see what this little man had to deal with, maybe some compassion for the children when you know things are not right, and they knew this when they falsified records to cover each other’s ass. The social workers get paid very well, when your protecting children, you need to have some pride in your job, not just look at it as any other job, your responsible for saving children from the monsters, and you can pretty much look at parents and know who is a nut case! Get the kids out !
April17 says
I think that stuff has been going on with AV DCFS for a long long time, and I believe that some people who work there know it, and/or are a part of it. I’m concerned for all children that come through the DCFS office in the AV.
I’ve seen a parent’s case go from good to really really bad, and it seems to be because there are either social worker’s that are mad, dislike a family, and have no compassion at all, or they know gangsters on the street or someone in their office does, and they have them do something to the family or maybe even the kid, without you knowing who, or how. But me, my eyes and ears are so wide open, you will not get nothing past me, and I don’t care how nice you seem to be.
Now, I kind of feel that some of this stuff that is going on is caused by people of some type of gang targeting either the parent’s to get on drugs or set up to have problems, I wouldn’t doubt if they would try and cause them to get into a car accident. All because they were offered lots of money to hurt a family or get the kids taken. I’m sorry but it seems like some social workers are in on it. Why?? Because maybe some are doing drugs also, and are getting offered a lot of money to mess up someones case, or the social worker is part of a gang and is offering them money to ruin their life, get addicted to drugs, so they can abuse the mother sexually, and physically, and emotionally, so they can dull there senses and sit back and watch them go through some evil bullisht. Why??? Maybe they thrive on seeing them suffer. You also have Satanist, witch craft behavior going on.
It also seems like there is child sex trafficking involved with some kids in the DCFS. Someone told me that a lot of social workers know about it and are a part of it. Now could that be a big reason for targeting certain families because they have really beautiful, innocent type kids and they think oh here is a good target.. I can see dcfs trying to make you think they are giving the child back to the parent’s, but when they give the wrong parent back the kids who has the record etc, and sends out gangs to mess up the good parent that had everything going great, and even take custody away and terminating their parental rights is CRIMINAL. YOUR OFFICE IS CORRUPT SUPER DUPER BAD!!! WHY DID THIS HAPPEN, HMMM SO THEY CAN TARGET THE PARENT WHO HAS CUSTODY OF THE KIDS AT A LATER DATE, TO GET THEM IN THEIR HOME, OR SEX TRAFFICK THE OUT OR SELL THEM TO ANOTHER COUNTRY??
WHERE ARE ALL THESE KIDS THAT ARE ADOPTED OUT TO NON FAMILY MEMBERS??
ARE SOME SOLD TO CHILD SEX TRAFFICKERS, OR BEING GROOMED TO BE PROSTITUTES. COULD SOME OF THESE FOSTER HOME BE IN ON KNOWING THAT A YOUNG GIRL LEFT THE FOSTER HOME AS A SO CALLED RUNAWAY TO MAYBE VISIT FAMILY, BUT WHAT ABOUT IF SHE GOES TO A MANS HOUSE INSTEAD, AND THE FOSTER HOME DOESN’T CALL HER IN AS MISSING UNTIL SOMEONE NOTIFIYS THE POLICE, AND THE PERSON SHE WAS WITH GIVES THE FOSTER HOME THE HEADS UP THAT SOMEONE CAUGHT ON TO THEIR SKEM. I THANK GOD I WAS ABLE TO INTERCEPT IT. I JUST WORRY ABOUT THE GIRL STILL BECAUSE WHO KNOWS IF SHE IS REALLY SAFE?? I WANT HER WITH FAMILY
ARE SOME OF YOUR FOSTER PARENTS GROOMING THEM OR HAVE PEOPLE COMING TO THEIR HOUSE TARGETING THEM NOT REALIZING WHAT THERE DOING. BECAUSE YES I NOTICED LITTLE GIRLS THAT WOULD COME FROM THE FOSTER HOME AND BE DANCING AND DOING THE SPLITS, BUT I DIDN’T SAY ANYTHING TO THE MOTHER BECAUSE I KNEW THAT SHE WOULD SAY I WAS TRYING TO CAUSE PROBLEMS. BUT NOW MANY YEARS LATER I FIND OUT THAT THIS IS ONE OF THE WAYS TRAFFICKERS GROOM CHILDREN, AND I AM SOOO CONCERNED FOR ALL CHILDREN THAT HAVE CASES WITH DCFA
George says
How many times do we postpone this these workers need to be in prison and no butts this young boy was a victim to all this crap ,lazy county works we have let’s get this trial going no breaks
Tim Scott says
Gross inefficiency in prosecution is unfortunately pretty common. Let’s hope they eventually get it right. They’ve already blown getting it fast.