Too many ‘what ifs’
Despite numerous calls to authorities, 7-year-old still fell through the cracks
Let’s be clear.
The system designed to protect New Mexico’s children has failed miserably. Again.
With Omaree Varela and Victoria Martens still fresh in our collective memory, we are now faced with reports of a 7-year-old girl whose close relative/caretakers not only neglected her, but prostituted her for drugs.
An Albuquerque Public Schools teacher — who testified at the preventive detention hearing for James Stewart and Teri Sanchez on charges brought by the office of Attorney General Hector Balderas after the Albuquerque Police and Children Youth and Families departments failed in their jobs — said the child came to school hungry, dirty, smelling of urine and with bloodsoaked underwear. Another school staff member testified the girl had hickeys on her neck and chest. There was testimony Sanchez used the girl to panhandle and dressed her up for “secret parties with strippers.” It gets worse.
There was testimony Stewart forced the girl to “touch” his friends “in a sexual manner in exchange for drugs and paraphernalia.”
Judge Alisa Hart, who had the good sense to keep these two behind bars pending trial, called the charges against Stewart “morally reprehensible.”
The baffling thing about this case for the public is that issues with this child were hardly new to either CYFD or APD. There had been more than two dozen referrals over time.
The APS teacher who spoke to the responding APD officer about the underwear says she saved them for him, but the officer said they couldn’t be used in a criminal case and tossed them in the Dumpster. Interim Police Chief Michael Geier says the officer actually asked for an evidence technician to come to the school, but then backed off after calling a Crimes Against Children detective, who advised him the underwear was not worth keeping. The teacher testified that part of the little girl’s underwear was half saturated with blood. And the recommendation was to ignore it? There is plenty of blame to go around.
Both APD and CYFD have the ability to remove a child or initiate a “safe-house forensic interview” — which should have happened after the APD officer spoke to the teacher.
But in a breath of fresh air, CYFD Secretary Monique Jacobson ordered a tough internal review of her department’s handling of the case and found it lacking. She has initiated new policies and disciplinary action against several employees.
APD, not surprisingly, says it did things by the book. No problem here. That’s generally been the initial response no matter who is chief or mayor, and Geier and new Mayor Tim Keller fell right in line. Don’t upset the troops.
And this wouldn’t be APD’s first time bungling a horrible child abuse case. In the Omaree Varela case, the responding officers didn’t bother to listen to the boy’s 911 call before going to the house and being bamboozled by the boy’s mother and stepfather. Several months later, Omaree, who was 9, died of injuries when his mother said she “kicked him the wrong way.”
And APD didn’t investigate a complaint that a male in the household had kissed 10-year old Victoria Martens, who was later raped, murdered and dismembered in what police say was a meth-fueled rage. APD vacillated over whether it did or didn’t investigate the kiss allegation, whether it would have been a crime even if true and for a while peddled a fake story about what it had done.
Yes, adults entrusted with caring for these two children have gone/will likely go to prison for a long time. And none of that helps Omaree or Victoria.
In the wake of this latest atrocity, Gov. Susana Martinez immediately ordered a strike force comprised of investigators from State Police and CYFD to review all cases with 10 or more referrals. Keller, after an embarrassing “APD did just fine response” on Wednesday, on Thursday issued a seven-point plan to address child safety. They are positive, even if they do include no-brainers like APD reviewing child abuse cases for patterns that raise red flags and evaluating policies on evidence collection. Maybe that will keep underwear out of the trash.
The real heroes here are the persistent teacher who kept calling and Balderas, whose office’s attention to sex trafficking arguably kept this girl’s tragic fate from being even worse.
It’s clear a top-to-bottom review is warranted — both of how this case was handled, as well as the system. CYFD recognized that immediately. Perhaps Keller will now see the value of that as well — even if it ruffles a few blue feathers.
The problems of attacking child abuse are daunting, with CYFD getting about 40,000 calls a year. Half of those had enough substance to warrant further investigation and the department took 1,300 kids out of homes last year. Under the current administration, CYFD’s budget has been beefed up and workforce expanded.
These cases aren’t easy — they are tough for cops and social workers alike. The law favors keeping families together, with judges often imposing a tough burden on police and social workers in order to remove a child. Everyone involved, including caretaker-defendants, has lawyers.
Perhaps it’s time to have a conversation about those issues. But they really aren’t a factor in this case. You can’t argue you need more authority when you don’t even use what you have.