The father of a seventeen-month-old boy who died due to an overdose of fentanyl is suing the LA County’s Children and Family Services.
He claims that a supervisor was in the home when the child ingested the deadly drug.
According to Brian Claypool, the father’s attorney, Montise Bulley will file a lawsuit against the government agency, claiming that it failed to protect his son, Justin, who was allegedly in the home with the supervisor and his three siblings when he died.
According to Claypool, Justin’s mother only had supervised visits with him, which means that the court-ordered supervision was present when the toddler’s mom visited him and his siblings with her on February 18, 2024. The boy’s death was ruled as a result of an overdose of fentanyl. A spokesperson for the DCFS, however, declined to comment on his claims.
A spokesperson for the county’s child welfare agency, however, declined to comment on the lawsuit. The father noted that during the time of his son’s death, he had been fighting for custody. He claimed that he had been visiting his son unsupervised.
He said he was worried about his son Justin. He was devastated when he heard about his death. According to Claypool, there were numerous red flags that were raised before the child died. The medical examiner ruled that the boy’s death was an accident.
A year before the boy died, a man died at the home of Justin’s mother due to an alleged drug overdose. Claypool also noted that the child’s mother got into an accident with her kids while driving. He claimed that it was only a matter of time until at least one child died at her hands.
According to Claypool, the boy’s mother had been using drugs with her father, and they fell asleep when the child accidentally ingested the lethal substance. He also claims that the supervisor of the agency, who was supposed to be monitoring the child, left the home when paramedics arrived. The coroner reportedly found 25 nanograms of the drug in the boy’s blood.
The attorney claims that the supervising worker, who was appointed by the county, did not immediately pull the child out of the fatal overdose. She then ran away from the scene. The law enforcers later found the worker and the three other kids, who also had traces of fentanyl in their systems, along with the deceased boy’s family.
According to Claypool, Justin’s grandfather had been smoking the drug in the living room, which contaminated the area where the child died. The Lancaster office of the county’s Department of Children and Family Services was handling the case of the child at the time of his death. In 2022, the agency reached a settlement with the family of Anthony Avalos, who was 10 years old at the time of his death. His mother and her boyfriend were sentenced to spend their lives in prison for torturing and killing him.
Days after the boy’s body was found, the head of the county’s Department of Children & Family Services revealed that social workers had been called to the home several times for reports of child abuse. A couple of miles away, two more children were killed in Palmdale. The family of Gabriel Fernandez sued the agency in 2014.
The mother and her partner were sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole after being convicted of starving, torturing, and killing Fernandez. Six years after the incident, the child’s great-grandmother sued the agency. In March, the parents of the deceased child pleaded no contest to the charges related to his death.
The families of the children who died claimed that social workers were aware about prior cases of abuse. Claypool noted that there needed to be a major change within the agency, specifically the way it handled cases in Lancaster and Palmdale. He also suggested that the entire system be overhauled. He said forensic trained interviewers should be allowed to interview children after they’ve been accused of neglect or abuse.
Justin’s father expressed his hopes that the system would be changed in the wake of the incident.
