The great-grandmother of a four-year-old boy who passed away after his parents tortured him has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Los Angeles County Child services.
The boy’s parents, 25-year-old Ursula Elaine Juarez and 28-year-old Jose Maria Cuatro Jr were indicted on one count each of torture and murder in the death of the child in July 2019.
Cuatro is accused of assaulting the boy only hours before he passed away then told officers that he had drowned in their apartment complex swimming pool.
The child’s great-grandmother, Eva Hernandez, filed a civil lawsuit against the LA County Department of Children and Family Services, alleging the agency failed to act on multiple reports of abuse.
The court filing alleges, “Instead of protecting Noah and his siblings, DCFS continued to place the children with their abusive parents, where the children continued to be abused over the course of several years.”
According to the lawsuit, Hathaway-Sycamores Child and Family Services suspected or knew of the abuse occurring in the child’s home after DCFS sent him for mental health assistance but ‘failed to report the abuse.’
A statement from the district attorney’s office said, “Jose Cuatro allegedly sexually assaulted his son on the same date.”
The parents took their child to the hospital on July 5, saying that he had drowned in pool. However, medical staff became suspicious after finding signs of trauma on the victim’s body. The child passed away at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles the following day.
DCFS allegedly confirmed the claims but placed the boy back with his abusive parents.
Hernandez, who cared for the boy for two years, told KTLA, “I told the social workers, ‘Please, he doesn’t want to leave. He wants to stay here. He begged me.’ He would hold on to me and say, ‘Don’t send me back, grandma.’ I don’t know. I couldn’t do anything. I just had to send him back.”
The child was sent back to his parents and the great-grandmother cried when she saw him again a few months later.
From March to April 2019, multiple reports of suspected child abuse involving the boy came to light. The next month, a caseworker also filed a 26-page request to remove the boy again from his parents’ custody after the father had kicked the children in public.
But Noah was never placed to foster care even though a judge granted the request.
The lawsuit claims DCFS ‘willfully’ ignored the court order and left the child with his parents. “Had said Defendants fulfilled their mandated and legal duty of care, Noah Cuatro would not have been harmed and/or continued to be harmed,” it reads.
Juarez faces up 32 years to life in jail while Cuatro faces up to 47 years to life behind bars.
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