TW: child abuse

Gabriel Fernandez was an eight-year-old boy of Palmdale, California, who was murdered by his mother, Pearl Fernandez, and her boyfriend, Isuaro Aguirre on May 24, 2013, after being stupidly awarded custody eight months prior. He faced months of abuse, and his case is one of the worst cases of child abuse the U.S. has seen. He always had cuts, bruises, and scars all over his body, which were reported by his teachers and ignored. His autopsy and radiology images showed a broken skull, cat litter in his stomach, missing/removed teeth, hematomas, a nose deviation, neck swelling, a cut on his liver, all different ages of bruises and scars, small circular cuts, burn marks, lung disease, and even more. His eyes were beaten so much during his final moments that they were swollen shut and small objects were lodged under his skin.

Pearl Fernandez was sentenced to life in prison and Isuaro Aguirre was sentenced to death. His social workers, Stefanie Rodriguez and Patricia Clement, and their supervisors, Kevin Bom and Gregory Merritt, were charged with child abuse and falsifying public records. Gabriel's first-grade teacher made countless regular calls to the caseworkers to report signs of abuse, and a caseworker utilized a computer program to estimare Gabriel's risk of abuse, and results revealed it was high, but Merritt closed his case anyway. Rodriguez and Clement saw the impacts of Pearl and Isuaro's abuse first hand but failed to rescue him from that dangerous home. The social workers minimized the physical, mental, and emotional injuries Gabriel faced when they had a legal duty to protect him. They allowed him to remain in the home he was murdered in. The home he was stored in a cabinet in, where he slept. They were criminally negligent and allowed a boy to be murdered because his parents believed he was gay.

In January, a three-justice panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled that there was no reason to hold the social workers or supervisors accountable for the charges of child abuse and falsification of public records. Justice Francis Rothschild wrote, "We conclude that the petitioners never had the requisite duty to control the abusers and did not have care or custody of Gabriel for purposes of Penal Code section 273a, subdivision (a). We further conclude that the petitioners were not officers within the meaning of Government Code section 6200." They passed their opinion down to L.A. County Superior Court Judge George Lomeli, who presided over the trials of Pearl and Isuaro as well, who then officially dismissed the charges against all of the social workers at 8:30 am on Thursday, July 16, 2020.

This decision is not only a gross injustice to Gabriel, but shows other workers involved with child welfare that they can get away with falsifying public records because they don't fall under the meaning of "officer". Justice Victoria Gerrard Chaney, who was on the appeal court justice panel for the case against the social workers, even admitted that "Allowing a social worker to evade liability for falsifying a public document would incentivize social workers to put their own interests in avoiding liability for their misdeeds above the purpose of the state's child welfare statutory scheme, which is child safety. The petitioners' actions here prevented the system from working in whatever way it might have had they done their jobs honestly, and offers no incentive for either DCFS or individual social workers to work to reform and repair the parts of the system that may fail the children it is intended to protect. We have, in effect, encouraged DCFS and its social workers to cover their tracks if they stumble on the cracks in the system." It is supposed to be the top priority of social workers to keep the child safe. These four social workers failed to do this and should be held accountable for their actions. The charges being dropped against them all is unacceptable.