Los Angeles Times

Report clears social workers in death of Palmdale boy

- By Matt Stiles

The case seemed to fit the well- worn narrative about the Department of Children and Family Services.

Noah Cuatro, a Palmdale boy who was well- known to social workers, died under suspicious circumstan­ces while in the care of his parents, who had been questioned in the past about allegation­s of abuse and neglect. The department, weeks before the boy’s death in July, had received permission from a judge to remove him from his home — and didn’t do it.

Yet another child had fallen through the cracks and died. It’s the kind of story that has long haunted Los Angeles County’s troubled child- welfare system.

But now, a new report about the case has found that social workers and their supervisor­s acted appropriat­ely in leaving the 4- yearold boy at home, despite the tragic outcome.

“They ultimately did the right thing,” said Michael Nash, executive director of the Office of Child Protection, which evaluates childwelfa­re policy and operations for the county’s Board of Supervisor­s. “The department had consistent eyes on this family.”

The f indings will not spare the department from potential lawsuits or from further scrutiny by the Board of Supervisor­s. And child- welfare advocates interviewe­d by The Times were more skeptical of the conclusion­s, raising questions about the report’s overall thoroughne­ss.

“This self- serving, premature report in no way clears DCFS of wrongdoing and was nothing more than a PR stunt to deflect civil liability,” said attorney Brian Claypool, who has f iled a $ 50- million lawsuit against the department in the case of another boy, Anthony Avalos, who died in 2018.

But the report, obtained by The Times through the California Public Records Act, sheds new light on a case that’s been a mystery for weeks, as officials have withheld details to protect the boy’s siblings and the integrity of the ongoing investigat­ion into what authoritie­s describe as a “suspicious death.”

The boy’s parents, Jose and Ursula Cuatro, have not been charged with a crime. Their attorneys didn’t return calls for comment.

The report tightly summarizes confidenti­al case f iles and begins to answer what had been a central question in the case: Why had social workers filed a 26page request to remove Noah from his parents’ home

and not followed through?

Such decisions happen in only a fraction of the thousands of cases involving removal orders each year, according to the department’s records.

The report explains that despite receiving permission from Superior Court Commission­er Stephen Ipson to remove Noah, social workers decided to leave Noah at home because newer allegation­s of neglect and abuse hadn’t been substantia­ted. They did, however, move to “ratchet up” the boy’s supervisio­n, visiting him weeks before his death, said Nash, who also is a retired presiding judge over juvenile courts in Los Angeles.

Nash’s report states that social workers said the boy seemed to be in good spirits and was bonding well with his mother in the months before his death.

Noah died in the hospital on July 6, a day after his parents called 911, saying he had drowned in a pool in an apartment complex. Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva later told reporters that the death appeared inconsiste­nt with drowning and launched an investigat­ion. County investigat­ors have said little about their progress and have asked other county agencies, such as the coroner’s office that conducted the autopsy, to do the same.

Meanwhile, questions about the Department of Children and Family Services — still dealing with other cases of children who died under supervisio­n in the Antelope Valley — also have gone largely unanswered.

“When I’m not able to talk about something, there is a part of me that says, ‘ I need to get out in front of this,’ ” said DCFS Director Bobby Cagle. “There are bigger things at play, especially when there’s a criminal investigat­ion. I want to make sure I don’t do anything that would inhibit” possible prosecutio­n.

Nash, in his report, however, makes public an official timeline of the interactio­ns between the agency and the Cuatro family, starting in August 2014. That was when Noah was placed in foster care and then with his greatgrand­mother Eva Hernandez, who also is being represente­d by Claypool in a potential lawsuit against the DCFS.

The report illustrate­s how the checks and balances of a child- welfare system that’s often criticized for dysfunctio­n, in some ways, operated as intended when it came to the decision about whether to remove Noah. There was a disagreeme­nt among social workers about whether it was appropriat­e to separate the boy from his parents again over new neglect and abuse allegation­s, and ultimately a supervisor and administra­tor intervened.

“The real issue is whether DCFS’ investigat­ion of the child abuse reports was an adequate investigat­ion,” said Margaret Coyne, an attorney and executive director of Advokids, which operates a free legal- advice hotline for foster youth.

Child- welfare advocates point out that the report sometimes lists social workers’ decisions without much detail, raising questions about whether the DCFS pursued signs of problems aggressive­ly enough. Others have also raised concerns about the completene­ss of the report, which took more than a month to compile following a directive to do so by the supervisor­s in the weeks after Noah’s death.

And while the report delves into the thinking behind social workers’ decision not to remove the boy, it doesn’t reveal in detail what they told the court to secure the removal order in the first place or how Ipson responded. Those documents remain secret. An attorney representi­ng The Times, Dan Laidman, argued in court on Sept. 9 that they should be unsealed.

Social workers had been involved with Noah for much of his life. One of their f irst interactio­ns with him came in 2014, when an infant sibling of Ursula Cuatro suffered a skull fracture while in her care at the family’s home. At the same time, there were allegation­s that Noah’s father, Jose Cuatro, abused marijuana.

Noah was sent back to live with his parents the following year, after a medical evaluation concluded that the injury to Ursula Cuatro’s sibling wasn’t the result of abuse — and after social workers found no evidence of drug use by Noah’s father.

But by 2016, Noah was returned to foster care after allegation­s that he had been medically neglected by his parents, who failed to take him to several doctor’s appointmen­ts, according to Nash’s report. The court again placed Noah with Hernandez, and his parents began trying to comply with the court’s demands for family reunificat­ion.

The parents made “tremendous progress” complying with the case plan, despite some inconsiste­ncies in scheduling overnight visits with Noah, according to the report. And by 2018, a court sent Noah back to his parents over the objections of DCFS officials, who continued to worry about the boy’s connection with his mother.

In the months that followed, social workers had numerous encounters with Noah, who at times seemed normal, according to the report. But he also appeared lethargic during one visit, perhaps from an ear infection, and was ordered to undergo a medical exam after social workers noticed a bruise on his back, which he said was from a fall from a bunk bed.

Still, social workers remained worried, according to the report. At one point, social workers said Noah seemed “coached” and frightened by their presence. Ursula Cuatro, they said in the report, also showed signs of mental illness. She was pregnant but claimed to be serving as a surrogate. She also had failed to enroll Noah in preschool or participat­e in family therapy.

At least one DCFS worker referred to both parents as “habitual liars who present well,” according to the report.

Then in May 2019, another round of allegation­s was made through a tip line, with the tipster saying that relatives witnessed Noah suffering from night terrors, and that the boy had seen his father assaulting his mother and that he had possibly been sexually abused.

Based on that informatio­n and the family’s history with the DCFS, a social worker sought a court order to remove Noah from his home on May 15, even though the tip had not yet been verified by social workers. Ipson approved it quickly, according to Nash’s assessment in the report.

But in the days that followed, Noah’s parents and the relatives whom the tipster had said witnessed the abuse told social workers that the allegation­s were false. Noah, according to social workers cited in the report, also appeared in good spirits and denied any abuse.

As the DCFS investigat­ion continued, social workers disagreed about whether the order to remove Noah should have been filed.

On May 22, social workers and a senior DCFS official reevaluate­d the case. Believing that they didn’t have enough evidence of abuse to justify removing the boy from his home, they decided not to use the judge’s authorizat­ion to do so.

Instead, they agreed to try a formal meeting with the family and Noah, and consider new supervisio­n of Noah’s three siblings, because of their concerns about the mother’s mental health and her noncomplia­nce with court orders, according to the report.

By mid- June, social workers were still investigat­ing the latest allegation­s. Although they believed the mother neglected Noah, the investigat­ion into alleged abuse by the father was inconclusi­ve. The social workers last saw Noah in late June. He told them he was doing well, according to Nash’s report.

They updated the court in late June and asked for a 30- day continuanc­e to investigat­e further.

Noah died two weeks later.

 ??  ?? NOAH CUATRO, 4, died in July while in the care of his mother and father.
NOAH CUATRO, 4, died in July while in the care of his mother and father.
 ?? Liz Moughon Los Angeles Times ?? EVA HERNANDEZ, Noah Cuatro’s great- grandmothe­r who at times was his caretaker, is comforted by activist Najee Ali at a news conference in July.
Liz Moughon Los Angeles Times EVA HERNANDEZ, Noah Cuatro’s great- grandmothe­r who at times was his caretaker, is comforted by activist Najee Ali at a news conference in July.

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