The grandmother of Sophia Mason — an 8-year-old Hayward lady who was discovered useless in March after months of abuse and neglect — has filed a authorized declare in opposition to Alameda County, offering horrifying new particulars about social employees’ obvious repeated failures to reply to escalating experiences concerning the younger lady within the last 15 months of her life.
A trove of child-welfare paperwork obtained by the household revealed that Sophia had twice personally instructed social employees that her mom had choked and hit her. She additionally complained of being grabbed by her neck and muffled when she tried to scream. At one level, the interior paperwork present, a instructor and a Kaiser social employee reported grave considerations over what they thought of indicators of abuse.
The household’s authorized claims — which had been filed final week and lay the groundwork for a lawsuit in opposition to the county — additionally give new particulars about what little one welfare staff knew relating to the lady’s dwelling scenario along with her mom, Samantha Johnson. Johnson and her boyfriend, Dhante Jackson, had been charged with homicide after the invention March 11 of Sophia’s decomposing physique in a tub. Johnson is in custody Jackson was arrested Friday after greater than months as fugitive, and is predicted to be held in jail in Merced on $1 million bail. Johnson has been in custody there since March.
The declare follows a three-month Bay Area News Group investigation earlier this year that found deep deficiencies in Alameda County’s Department of Child and Family Services’ response to Sophia’s case, together with its failure to take motion to take away Sophia from her mom’s care. In the middle of that investigation, Alameda County refused to reveal particulars of the way it dealt with a minimum of eight separate experiences of abuse or neglect involving Sophia Mason, thwarting the intent of a California legislation written to allow public scrutiny of presidency companies charged with holding youngsters secure.
County officers didn’t reply to any requests for remark for that investigation. Nor did they reply to a number of renewed requests for remark regarding the household’s authorized claims this week. The failures look like a part of bigger, systemic deficiencies in Alameda County’s equipment for holding youngsters secure, with the county’s DCFS company lagging behind almost each different county in California in responding to experiences of abuse or neglect throughout the legally-required timeframe, in line with one other unique report by this information group.
The household’s newly-filed claims — based mostly on new paperwork they obtained by means of a courtroom petition — broaden on the Bay Space Information Group’s findings relating to what occurred to Sophia.
“We now have proof the county did learn about this stuff, as a result of it’s within the county’s data,” assist Carly Sanchez, the household’s lawyer. “It form of offers a bit extra weight to what the household is saying. As a result of the household is expressing all of those considerations and fears and the social employees are blowing off the household.”
In all, the filings listed 33 separate failures on behalf of Alameda County’s social employees. They included a failure to conduct in-person investigations inside 10 calendar days, and a failure to tell legislation enforcement of suspected circumstances of kid abuse or neglect in a well timed method.
Sanchez stated it’s clear from the a whole bunch of pages of paperwork that county social employees should not cooperating with legislation enforcement once they study troubling particulars a few little one’s dwelling scenario or potential legal conduct.
“I do assume there are vital coaching points — that they don’t seem to be being educated to comply with the legislation,” Sanchez stated. “What I noticed was not even approaching compliant with what the penal code requires. Our expertise is that the social employees are literally educated to do it incorrect.”
The filings additionally supplied a window into experiences of abuse of neglect of Sophia that had — till this level — been shrouded in thriller.
In accordance with the authorized filings, a compulsory reporter — somebody required by state legislation to contact social employees once they suspect a baby is being abused or uncared for — at one level instructed little one welfare staff that Sophia’s mom had modified and had acted “unstable,” and “scary.” Sanchez declined to elaborate on who made that report, citing a safety order by the courtroom barring the paperwork’ launch.
Additionally in early 2021, one in all Sophia’s academics voiced considerations concerning the little one not attending faculty — including that it appeared unclear whether or not the lady may warn others that she was at risk, as a result of a speech dysfunction. As well as, a baby welfare hotline acquired referrals early final yr that Sophia had been hit by her mom and Jackson, and that the kid was being uncovered to sexual acts and her mom’s prostitution.
The declare additionally reveals how a Kaiser Permanente social employee phoned a baby welfare hotline in September and voiced considerations about marks on Sophia’s physique, together with bruises and what “appeared like outdated cigarette burns.” The individual submitting that criticism, and the character of their considerations, had not beforehand been made public. Alameda County had been required by California legislation to launch Sophia’s medical data to this information group however claimed that none existed. The social employee who responded to that report disputed that the lady had any marks on her physique that might be brought on by abuse or neglect, in line with the household’s declare.
Alameda County has 45 days to reply to the household’s claims, which embrace a wrongful dying declare filed on behalf of Johnson, Sophia’s grandmother, Sylvia Johnson. In addition they embrace a declare on behalf of the lady’s property, which seeks damages for the ache and struggling that Sophia skilled earlier than her dying. The latter declare was made attainable by means of a recently-enacted California legislation that expanded the damages that aggrieved events can search.
If no settlement is obtainable by the county and the household’s declare is rejected, the household has six months to file a lawsuit.
Within the meantime, little progress seems to have been made on potential inner investigations into the county company, regardless of requires motion from two county supervisors within the wake of this information group’s investigation. On Friday, Supervisor Nate Miley stated {that a} closed-door assembly was held over the summer season about Sophia’s case with county’s counsel. One other assembly is predicted within the close to future, he stated, which may end in a suggestion from the county’s counsel on the way to proceed.
Sanchez lamented this week that Sophia would nonetheless be alive if Alameda County staff had correctly responded to these experiences of abuse or neglect.
“It’s very heartbreaking that this little one died needlessly, in my view, as a result of the county couldn’t be bothered to assist her when she was asking for assist in the easiest method she knew how,” Sanchez stated.
