The child’s death highlights the potential pitfalls of well-intentioned attempts by authorities to keep children with their families in troubled homes, and recalls two notorioius Bay Area cas…
The child identified in a lawsuit as O.Y., who allegedly was killed while in custody of her parents after authorities failed to respond appropriately to signs of abuse In a case that echoes the tragic child deaths of Sophia Mason of Hayward and Phoenix Castro of San Jose, a federal lawsuit accuses Contra Costa County social services authorities and Antioch police of failing to protect an 18-month-old girl from the alleged deadly abuse and neglect of her parents.
Contra Costa County declined to comment on the lawsuit or make social worker Colleen Sullivan, also named as a defendant, available for an interview on Friday. Last year, 3-month-old Phoenix Castro died from a fentanyl and methamphetamine overdose while in her father’s care, with more than two dozen Santa Clara County social workers“This press for reunification in my view has taken priority over the safety of children,” said Steve Baron, a former director of family court services in Santa Clara County.
Over the year following seizure of the kids, Children & Family Services employees repeatedly deceived the juvenile court, saying the parents were complying with court orders when the agency’s own records showed the parents were missing half their drug tests and not addressing the arrest warrants, the lawsuit alleged.
Two months later, the girl’s father took a video of her, a year old at the time, sitting in a booster chair motionless, with a nose-to-lip cut and blood on her face, according to the lawsuit. Young is seen screaming at her and flinging her onto a bed, the lawsuit claimed. About a year after O.Y.’s death, he was arrested in what the lawsuit described as a domestic violence case. He was found guilty of mayhem and is serving two years in prison.
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