Kinship Foster Mother's 17YO Son Sexually Assaulted Toddler Leading To Their Death

[Sugar Cookie]

Santa Clara County’s embattled child protection agency placed a 2-year-old boy in foster care, where he died this month, with a relative despite the woman’s prior felony conviction for child endangerment.

Just weeks after coming under the care of Bridget Michelle Martinez, the boy, Jaxon Juarez, died in a hospital on April 9. Authorities charged Martinez’s then-17-year-old son with six counts of sexual assault of Juarez.

A felony child endangerment conviction prohibits the county’s Department of Family and Children’s Services from placing a child in her care, even in an emergency, according to the county’s own policy.

Family members of the toddler are outraged and said they plan to sue the agency because he never should have been allowed to be placed in the home, given her record.

“It is completely unacceptable,” Riley Wallace, Jaxon’s aunt who lives in Arizona, said. “They did not protect a child, and that’s their job, that’s what they took the child for, to protect him. And they failed him so terribly.”

After Jaxon was born, he lived with his mother, Brianna Burton, and his father, Albert Juarez, according to Wallace.

Wallace said Jaxon’s mother passed away last year due to alcohol abuse, and around the same time, the county took custody of the child. Jaxon lived initially with another foster family, Wallace said, before being placed with his maternal grandfather near Sacramento for six months.

Due to the distance from the boy’s father in the South Bay, where the county agency required the grandfather to bring the boy regularly for visits, Jaxon’s grandfather was unable to continue serving as a guardian, Wallace said. Jaxon was transferred in late February to live with Martinez, a cousin of Albert Juarez.

Wallace said her family in Arizona asked the county to let Jaxon live with them, but they were turned down due to the distance from Jaxon’s father and told they’d need to wait for Jaxon to be put up for adoption.

Wallace said her family would have taken him “in a heartbeat” and provided a good home for him.

We have the room. We have the capability of taking him,” she said. “With this case, nothing made sense.”

Martinez’s son, charged with sexual assault, is set to appear in juvenile court on Monday, April 20. Martinez was also arrested earlier this week, but as of Friday afternoon, she was no longer in custody.

South Bay Toddler Placed With Woman Convicted of Child Endangerment Before Death | KQED

Jaxon Juarez died just weeks after being placed with Bridget Martinez.

www.kqed.org

Baby raper and his mother

 

[Sugar Cookie]

 

[runninfawn]

what a sweetie .....