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Call to investigate DCFS after another local boy’s death

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Anthony (265014)
Anthony

An attorney representing the family of a 10-year-old boy who was allegedly tortured and murdered by his mother and her boyfriend in Lancaster has called for a criminal investigation into social workers who investigated allegations of abuse in the household.

“This is a case of flat-out, deliberate indifference toward the life of Anthony Avalos,” the family’s attorney, Brian Claypool, said at a news conference Tuesday outside the Los Angeles headquarters of the county Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). “These records that we have today clearly demonstrate and social workers within L.A. County DCFS had massive red flags of a household replete with horror, a household where many of the kids were allegedly abused, not just Anthony Avalos. Because of this, we are calling for a criminal investigation. We would like social workers investigated for child abuse and criminal negligence.”

The boy’s mother, Heather Maxine Barron, 28, and her boyfriend, Kareem Ernesto Leiva, 32, are charged with torturing and murdering the boy in the days leading up to his June 21 death. The two are awaiting arraignment Aug. 3 in a Lancaster courtroom.

Deputies and paramedics responded to a 911 call from Barron about 12:15 p.m. June 20 and found her son unresponsive inside his family’s apartment.

Claypool—who was joined by the boy’s father, Victor Avalos, and the boy’s aunt and uncle, Maria and David Barron—said he has obtained documents that are a “recipe for a criminal investigation,” noting that the records show 18 separate investigations into the household by DCFS over a four- year period beginning in 2013 and 88 alleged instances of child abuse, sexual abuse and child neglect.

“We have counted 15 substantiated allegations of child abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse,” Claypool said. “Of those 15 substantianted, we have counted at least two, possibly three substantiated sex abuse claims. Now you tell me if that was not enough information for a well-trained, compassionate social worker to immediately remove and permanently remove not only Anthony Avalos but all those (six other) kids in the house.”

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the family’s request, according to a spokesman for the office.

In a statement released last month, DCFS Director Bobby Cagle said:

“As all agencies work tirelessly to get to the bottom of what happened, each day brings to light new updates and information about Anthony’s senseless death. While we cannot comment on an ongoing criminal investigation, we are committed to cooperating with our law enforcement partners. I reiterate my deep commitment to seeing justice done on behalf of this innocent child. Our hearts go out to those that have been so deeply affected by this tragedy.”

About two years ago, the District Attorney’s Office filed charges against two former social workers and their supervisors, who are awaiting trial on charges of child abuse and falsifying records for allegedly failing to protect another boy—8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez of Palmdale—from deadly abuse by his mother, Pearl Fernandez, and her then-boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre.

Aguirre was convicted this year of first-degree murder and sentenced to death, and the boy’s mother was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty in the boy’s death.

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