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He was the scapegoat. It seemed that abusing and torturing the boy brought the couple closer as sick and twisted as that is. It’s not unheard of for one child in particular to be singled out for abuse in a family while others are mostly left alone. The Netflix documentary was really hard to watch.
Unfortunately there will be plenty more Gabriel Fernandez cases out there, due to the following reasons:
1. CPS mandate is to re-unite biological families, regardless of how bad the family is. It's literally written into the state laws.
2. CPS workers usually assume that kids are lying or exaggerrating when the kids say stuff about being mistreated
3. CPS workers usually accept parent's stories of how injuries happen, even if it doesnt make sense.
4. CPS workers don't have authority to enter people's houses. If they do a home visit and nobody answers the door, there's nothing they can do and they just walk away and go to the next case.
5. CPS workers usually don't interview kids separately from the adults.
6. If a CPS worker interviews a kid who claims abuse, instead of immediately removing the kid, they will order "extra family support"
7. If a CPS worker interviews a kid who claims abuse, instead of immediate removal they will set up more interviews later, and by that time the parent has coerced the child into recanting their testimony. When CPS re-interviews the kid, they recant and CPS immediately closes the case, marking the complaint as "unfounded"
8. CPS workers rarely interview siblings alone to determine how the parents are treating the child in question.
I will say that not only was Gabriel abandoned by the CPS system, he was also abandoned by relatives. Plenty of aunts/uncles/cousins knew he was being tortured, but other than calling CPS they did little to help Gabriel. Desperate times call for desperate measures -- when Gabriel came to visit relatives, they should have refused to give him back until the police show up. If it requires a phone call to 911 or police every day, then do that.
Unfortunately there will be plenty more Gabriel Fernandez cases out there, due to the following reasons:
1. CPS mandate is to re-unite biological families, regardless of how bad the family is. It's literally written into the state laws.
2. CPS workers usually assume that kids are lying or exaggerrating when the kids say stuff about being mistreated
3. CPS workers usually accept parent's stories of how injuries happen, even if it doesnt make sense.
4. CPS workers don't have authority to enter people's houses. If they do a home visit and nobody answers the door, there's nothing they can do and they just walk away and go to the next case.
5. CPS workers usually don't interview kids separately from the adults.
6. If a CPS worker interviews a kid who claims abuse, instead of immediately removing the kid, they will order "extra family support"
7. If a CPS worker interviews a kid who claims abuse, instead of immediate removal they will set up more interviews later, and by that time the parent has coerced the child into recanting their testimony. When CPS re-interviews the kid, they recant and CPS immediately closes the case, marking the complaint as "unfounded"
8. CPS workers rarely interview siblings alone to determine how the parents are treating the child in question.
I will say that not only was Gabriel abandoned by the CPS system, he was also abandoned by relatives. Plenty of aunts/uncles/cousins knew he was being tortured, but other than calling CPS they did little to help Gabriel. Desperate times call for desperate measures -- when Gabriel came to visit relatives, they should have refused to give him back until the police show up. If it requires a phone call to 911 or police every day, then do that.
Some of that I agree with, but not everything.
CPS cannot force entry into your home, but if they ask for Police Assistance and the Police believe the child is in immediate danger of being harmed they can enter without a warrant, otherwise they can get a telephonic warrant.
While reunification is the desired outcome, CPS also counts on the bonus from the feds for 'quick non-relative adoption' of kids.
CPS operates in secrecy, they make serious errors both in unjustified separation of children to allowing kids to be killed by not intervening but they are never held liable and the court can't even access their "secret records"
CPS except in a few states requires the non-offending parent to accept services to learn how to parent, mind you this is the parent who was not responsible for and not present during the neglect/abuse but they still make them spend weeks or months in full day parenting classes, drug and alcohol testing and random home inspections.
In order to remove a child CPS only had to convince a judge that some neglect or abuse occurred, there is very little ability for a parent to defend themselves because they are denied access to the CPS report. It is a kangaroo court where a parent can't disprove allegations because they are never privy to the CPS investigation. It's farcical
I think that CPS should be ended entirely, all cases involving the abuse or neglect of children should be handled through a special branch of law enforcement where both the child and the parents would be afforded due process, and the investigators of the cases could be held accountable if they fail to protect the children or if they falsely accuse parents.
CPS cannot force entry into your home, but if they ask for Police Assistance and the Police believe the child is in immediate danger of being harmed they can enter without a warrant, otherwise they can get a telephonic warrant.
While reunification is the desired outcome, CPS also counts on the bonus from the feds for 'quick non-relative adoption' of kids.
CPS operates in secrecy, they make serious errors both in unjustified separation of children to allowing kids to be killed by not intervening but they are never held liable and the court can't even access their "secret records"
CPS except in a few states requires the non-offending parent to accept services to learn how to parent, mind you this is the parent who was not responsible for and not present during the neglect/abuse but they still make them spend weeks or months in full day parenting classes, drug and alcohol testing and random home inspections.
In order to remove a child CPS only had to convince a judge that some neglect or abuse occurred, there is very little ability for a parent to defend themselves because they are denied access to the CPS report. It is a kangaroo court where a parent can't disprove allegations because they are never privy to the CPS investigation. It's farcical
I think that CPS should be ended entirely, all cases involving the abuse or neglect of children should be handled through a special branch of law enforcement where both the child and the parents would be afforded due process, and the investigators of the cases could be held accountable if they fail to protect the children or if they falsely accuse parents.
No state would pay law enforcement for this. If they cared enough to spend more money, there wouldn't be half the problems there are. If you made it a branch of law enforcement but still gave each worker a caseload of 31 kids, I guarantee the same issues would happen. It has simply never been a priority when budgets are made. This applies to all human services areas, not just those having to do with kids. No one goes into this for the money. Just like teachers, I think most go in because they want to help people. Then they find themselves in a system that offers little support and impossible workloads for little money. They burnout. They take shortcuts, so that they don't have to work 2 hours off the clock every day. Kids suffer. I can't see one single thing that would be different if you moved it to law enforcement, except you'd be handing off to people with no training in human services, Maybe it'd be better only because cops get paid for overtime, but again because human services has never been a priority in budgets, they'd be told not to work OT, so they'd be back to taking shortcuts.
They are being held liable in this case, 2 of them and 2 supervisors have been criminally charged.
No state would pay law enforcement for this. If they cared enough to spend more money, there wouldn't be half the problems there are. If you made it a branch of law enforcement but still gave each worker a caseload of 31 kids, I guarantee the same issues would happen. It has simply never been a priority when budgets are made. This applies to all human services areas, not just those having to do with kids. No one goes into this for the money. Just like teachers, I think most go in because they want to help people. Then they find themselves in a system that offers little support and impossible workloads for little money. They burnout. They take shortcuts, so that they don't have to work 2 hours off the clock every day. Kids suffer. I can't see one single thing that would be different if you moved it to law enforcement, except you'd be handing off to people with no training in human services,
They are being held liable in this case, 2 of them and 2 supervisors have been criminally charged.
yeah they were charged...and the charges were dropped by the appellate court. You don't have to have police officers act as social workers,you can have the very same people who get hired for CPS now work for an agency that is run as a branch of law enforcement. The difference is that CPS could no longer hide behind their cloak of secrecy, and parents who are wrongfully accused would be afforded the same protections as are given someone charged with a crime.
I have a friend whose grandbaby was seized by CPS 2 days after being born. The reason given was that the mother allegedly told a hospital social worker that she used drugs a few days before the baby was born. The mother and infant both tested negative for any drugs. The hospital did a meconium test and CPS claimed in court that it was positive for meth, they refused to show the results to the parent's court appointed attorney.When it started to look like CPS was fighting to permanently take this baby from his parents, the grandparents hired an attorney. The attorney obtained the supposedly positive meconium test results which was negative for all drugs (meconium measures drugs in the babies system for up to 20 weeks before birth) CPS apologized and said they must have 'read it wrong'.
During this time the baby was in a foster home an hour from his parents home, the parents were allowed one hour per week supervised visitation and were ordered to drug test twice a week and attend 20 hours a week of parenting classes. When the judge got the meconium results he apologized to the parents, dismissed the case and ordered that the baby be returned to his parents - three months to the day after he was born.
yeah they were charged...and the charges were dropped by the appellate court. You don't have to have police officers act as social workers,you can have the very same people who get hired for CPS now work for an agency that is run as a branch of law enforcement. The difference is that CPS could no longer hide behind their cloak of secrecy, and parents who are wrongfully accused would be afforded the same protections as are given someone charged with a crime.
I have a friend whose grandbaby was seized by CPS 2 days after being born. The reason given was that the mother allegedly told a hospital social worker that she used drugs a few days before the baby was born. The mother and infant both tested negative for any drugs. The hospital did a meconium test and CPS claimed in court that it was positive for meth, they refused to show the results to the parent's court appointed attorney.When it started to look like CPS was fighting to permanently take this baby from his parents, the grandparents hired an attorney. The attorney obtained the supposedly positive meconium test results which was negative for all drugs (meconium measures drugs in the babies system for up to 20 weeks before birth) CPS apologized and said they must have 'read it wrong'.
During this time the baby was in a foster home an hour from his parents home, the parents were allowed one hour per week supervised visitation and were ordered to drug test twice a week and attend 20 hours a week of parenting classes. When the judge got the meconium results he apologized to the parents, dismissed the case and ordered that the baby be returned to his parents - three months to the day after he was born.
I don't know, I don't have as much faith in law enforcement as you do. And the direct workers don't make the rules. Again it's underfunded and unorganized, because it's not and has never been a priority.
My niece had CPS called once too, after my nephew and his oldest (about 15 or 16 then) had a huge fight and my nephew hit him. He took off and went to his grandmom's who called CPS. CPS went to the house and talked to all the kids and both parents, but then they left and that was the end. There is kind of a damned if they do, damned if they don't situation.
There are plenty of people mistreated and victimized by the "justice" system and law enforcement, I just don't think it would be any different at all in their hands. People charged with a crime have their rights violated too. Change the laws, yes, make it a priority and fund it so they can get good people (who on earth would sign up for such a hard, thankless, dangerous job for peanuts if they had alternatives??) and things will improve.
I'm sorry the charges were dropped, did they say why?
CPS cannot force entry into your home, but if they ask for Police Assistance and the Police believe the child is in immediate danger of being harmed they can enter without a warrant, otherwise they can get a telephonic warrant.
While reunification is the desired outcome, CPS also counts on the bonus from the feds for 'quick non-relative adoption' of kids.
CPS operates in secrecy, they make serious errors both in unjustified separation of children to allowing kids to be killed by not intervening but they are never held liable and the court can't even access their "secret records"
CPS except in a few states requires the non-offending parent to accept services to learn how to parent, mind you this is the parent who was not responsible for and not present during the neglect/abuse but they still make them spend weeks or months in full day parenting classes, drug and alcohol testing and random home inspections.
In order to remove a child CPS only had to convince a judge that some neglect or abuse occurred, there is very little ability for a parent to defend themselves because they are denied access to the CPS report. It is a kangaroo court where a parent can't disprove allegations because they are never privy to the CPS investigation. It's farcical
I think that CPS should be ended entirely, all cases involving the abuse or neglect of children should be handled through a special branch of law enforcement where both the child and the parents would be afforded due process, and the investigators of the cases could be held accountable if they fail to protect the children or if they falsely accuse parents.
CPS is not held accountable for the lies the workers tell. And when they take your child you are presumed guilty with no evidence. All it takes is the word of the worker to lose your children, even if you have evidence that contradicts the worker's statement. You can literally do everything in the case plan and still never get your child back. They typically make up their minds how they want a case to go and steer it that way from the beginning.
My child was taken away from me on false allegations. Zero evidence any of it occurred. I wanted a trial to fight the charges. The court appointed attorney, worker, and judge had all tried to get me to stipulate to the charges. I refused to do so. I was innocent. The court appointed attorney laughed like she thought it was funny that I wanted a trial and then went on to say "I am not going to defend you." After she said that I am mentally thinking that I needed to hunt for an attorney the next day immediately. I never got the chance to do so. She went inside the court room without me (I hadn't been called yet) and acted like she was going to ask a question. She came back with another court date claiming the hearing was continued. I was excited thinking it gave me more chance to get a different lawyer. Couldn't get one by the next hearing date, so I was still stuck with her. Went to the hearing and learned that she had gone into court and stipulated me to the charges without my consent. Just like that I lost all rights to a trial and to any appeals. I found out months later that the judge, case worker, and this attorney were all facebook buddies and the judge usually appointed this particular attorney and that there was a push on the parents to get the parents to stipulate to the charges.
They had from before they took my daughter intended to give her to her rapist father and that was the goal they worked toward from day one. The man who raped and tortured me got custody. I wasn't even allowed supervised visitation. I didn't get to see my girl graduate or go to prom. And after years of therapy at the hands of CPS she went from wanting to come home to me to hating my guts and introducing me to people (when she briefly came back after reaching adulthood) as her "birth mother" and telling people her "real parents" were in Virginia. She moved back to Virginia last year and hardly ever talks to me. I went through hell trying to keep her safe and take care of her just to have her taken away from me and my character assassinated for things that never even happened. I never have any hope of exoneration. I live as a pariah socially. I already didn't have much of a social life because of being sick so much, but after this happened people were never nice to me again. Every person I thought was my friend turned on me. I know I'll never have a true friend. I never have had a true friend in my life.
I realized from Romans 13 and what the authorities He established over me did to me that I was never chosen for salvation and that He wanted all of this to happen to me. God never blessed me with anything. I've never been saved. I've never been loved by anyone. I've never had any true friends. I'm not blessed with good health and never have been. I was never blessed with employment so that I could provide for myself. I wasn't even blessed with a daughter. God used me as a vessel so that my rapist could have a child and left me with nothing.
CPS actually doesn't like to take abused kids away. Severely abused children are often hard to place because they have trauma/emotional issues. Sure, they may take babies quicker because they can adopt them out and get federal funds for it. Older children who have been severely abused tend to act out a lot and need a lot of time to decompress. Most people don't have the patience to deal with that. So, the kids that do act out are chemically sedated so that they don't have to deal with them. When those children turn 18 they are turned out into the streets. A lot of regular street homeless were former foster children and they aren't really "mentally ill" but suffering from psychological trauma. They never got the help they needed when it mattered. Society's response to anyone who is mentally off is to drug them and try to ignore them, so there's not any hope they'll get better.
I did everything demanded of me except to admit guilt. After I was stipulated against my will, I still maintained my innocence as I always had and I told everything that I never stipulated and what really happened. No one cared. No one tried to help me. Society destroyed me for things that never happened without any evidence that anything had ever happened. It sure made my expensive criminal justice degrees pretty worthless.
CPS gets around constitutional due process all the time. The judge in my case even told me that she didn't care about my constitutional rights. No lawyer fought for me. I had no rights. I literally had no chance to win, even though I knew I was innocent. I had zero power.
“Aguirre hated the boy because he thought he was gay, according to the prosecutor”
Wow, just wow. I have been wondering why this child seem to be singled out among the siblings. I hope the mother is found guilty as well, and I am glad to see that two social workers and two supervisors were also charged. That poor, poor baby.
I nearly forgot I had started this thread years ago. I too, as many here, have watched the Netflix documentary. It is clear that the first several years of Gabriel's life was happy and normal while living with his gay uncle and the uncle's life partner. They are actually the ones who brought him home from the hospital.
Further insight provided from the documentary is that the mom was herself abused, including a gang rape that lasted over the span of days. By no means do I mention this as a "oooh, poor abusive parent was herself abused as a child" scenario. Instead, it may shed light on why she picked Gabriel for her whipping boy. She likely singled out Gabriel as the scapegoat for her abuse because she considered him soft for having been in a nurturing household for his childhood, unlike herself.
It was also mentioned that Gabriel expressed to the monsters that he wanted to go back to the uncles, which may be why they concluded that Gabriel must be gay. The grandparents aren't faultless in this either, as they were the ones complaining about the propriety of Gabriel being raised by two homosexuals (for their religious reasons they were uncomfortable with this arrangement). The grandparents pulled Gabriel from his first (and arguably best) home. The bio mom wanted custody of Gabriel for the welfare money, as was explained in the documentary.
To speak to the speculation about the boyfriend's motives and behavior - the documentary explained this as well. There were texts revealed between boyfriend and bio mom where they used Gabriel's torture as a twisted form of sexual foreplay. They also stated that the boyfriend was willing to do anything to keep this "hot" woman in his life, that he wouldn't be able to attract another woman who looked as desirable as bio mom apparently did. For those who haven't seen the documentary, they shared photos of bio mom posed provocatively in a bed with tattoos covering much of her body.
I'm glad they made the documentary of little Gabriel's short and tragic life, to reveal the very many people involved with this one child. How he positively touched their lives, and how many of those whose duty was to protect him actually contributed to his death. I do believe that mom had a bigger role in his torture and death than anyone else, yet she avoided the death penalty. For those who have a penchant for vengeance, she is getting "the treatment" at her incarceration facility, which I read about on another message board.
As a teacher, I am at once grateful and saddened by Gabriel's teacher and her role in all of this. She repeatedly did exactly what she needed to as a mandated reporter, and experienced repercussions professionally for being responsible and following the law. I can only imagine what a hole this left in her heart as well.
yeah they were charged...and the charges were dropped by the appellate court. You don't have to have police officers act as social workers,you can have the very same people who get hired for CPS now work for an agency that is run as a branch of law enforcement. The difference is that CPS could no longer hide behind their cloak of secrecy, and parents who are wrongfully accused would be afforded the same protections as are given someone charged with a crime.
I have a friend whose grandbaby was seized by CPS 2 days after being born. The reason given was that the mother allegedly told a hospital social worker that she used drugs a few days before the baby was born. The mother and infant both tested negative for any drugs. The hospital did a meconium test and CPS claimed in court that it was positive for meth, they refused to show the results to the parent's court appointed attorney.When it started to look like CPS was fighting to permanently take this baby from his parents, the grandparents hired an attorney. The attorney obtained the supposedly positive meconium test results which was negative for all drugs (meconium measures drugs in the babies system for up to 20 weeks before birth) CPS apologized and said they must have 'read it wrong'.
During this time the baby was in a foster home an hour from his parents home, the parents were allowed one hour per week supervised visitation and were ordered to drug test twice a week and attend 20 hours a week of parenting classes. When the judge got the meconium results he apologized to the parents, dismissed the case and ordered that the baby be returned to his parents - three months to the day after he was born.
Was just reading more about this case. The LAPD were just as negligent as CPS was. They are all guilty and simply making child advocates part of another broken government entity that failed Gabriel is not a solution:
“But she claims that not only did the LAPD not believe the horrific things Gabriel said were happening to him, they told him to stop lying.
“When I heard that sheriffs had went out and threatened Gabriel as if he keeps lying about things, that made me very angry,” Elizabeth said.”
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