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Lacey will not ask for review of social workers’ case dismissal

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Saying “state law is not on our side,’’ Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey said her office will not ask the California Supreme Court to review an appeals court ruling calling for the dismissal of charges against four social workers who were accused of failing to protect an 8-year-old Antelope Valley boy who was killed in May 2013.

The announcement comes about 1 1/2 months after a three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled that there was no probable cause to hold Stefanie Rodriguez and Patricia Clement, and their supervisors, Kevin Bom and Gregory Merritt, on the charges stemming from Gabriel Fernandez’s death.

The appellate court justices ruled Jan. 6 that the trial court should have granted the defense’s motion to dismiss the case against the four, who were charged in March 2016 with one felony count each of child abuse and falsifying public records.

“My office vigorously pursued those who directly caused Gabriel’s death and those who failed to intervene to protect him,’’ the county’s top prosecutor said in a written statement provided by the District Attorney’s Office.

“While we prevailed against those who inflicted the injuries, the appellate court rejected our theory of criminal liability against the social workers, who my office believed had a duty to protect Gabriel,’’ Lacey said. “Unfortunately, in the case against the social workers, state law is not on our side.’’

The appellate court panel refused Jan. 23 to reconsider its ruling.

The case was effectively put on hold during the appellate court proceedings. Rodriguez, Clement, Bom and Merritt are due back in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom on March 23, and the prosecution will not object to the case being dismissed then, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

The district attorney said that she will “explore proposing legislation to impose a legally recognized duty of care on those entrusted with protecting our children,’’ and that her office will ask the court to de-publish the ruling, which would mean that it couldn’t be cited as precedent in similar cases in the future.

Isauro Aguirre—the boyfriend of the child’s mother—was sentenced to death in June 2018 after being convicted of first-degree murder. Jurors found true the special circumstance allegation of murder involving the infliction of torture.

The boy’s mother, Pearl Sinthia Fernandez, was sentenced to life in prison without parole after pleading to first-degree murder and admitting the torture allegation.

An autopsy showed that the boy had a fractured skull, several broken ribs and burns over much of his body. His teacher testified that she called Rodriguez multiple times to report that Gabriel told her that his mother punched him and shot him in the face with a BB gun.

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