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Sugar Cookie

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The great-grandmother of a Palmdale boy who died under suspicious circumstances last week said Wednesday that she cared for the child for years between stints in foster care, and he had begged not to be returned to his parents.

Noah Cuatro, 4, was in his birth parents' care when he died last Saturday. The parents took him to a hospital after they say he drowned in a pool at their Palmdale apartment complex, but investigators say medical staff found trauma on the boy's body that was inconsistent with drowning.

The courts decided Noah should be returned to his parents at 9 months old, but he was again removed from their home about a year after that because of neglect and malnutrition, according to Hernandez.

Noah was then placed in foster care until a social worked called Hernandez and asked if she would take him back. She says he lived with her for more than two years in very stable conditions.

But the last November, the boy was again returned to his mother and father — despite his own protests, Hernandez said.

“I told the social workers, ‘Please, he doesn’t want to leave. He wants to stay here. He begged me,’ Hernandez told KTLA. “He would hold on to me and say, ‘Don’t send me back, grandma.’ I don’t know. I couldn’t do anything. I just had to send him back.”

After that, Noah's mother allegedly wouldn't let his great-grandmother see him until 3 months ago, when Hernandez says she saw the child for the last time.

“He was not the same little boy anymore," Hernandez said. "He looked so sad and withdrawn.”

Hernandez said she got the sense that Noah wanted to tell her something was wrong but was unable to.

“He didn’t have the chance. She was just looking at him, and he wouldn’t say anything,” Hernandez said of the mother. “He would say, ‘Grandma,’ then he would just shut down. I kept saying, ‘What’s wrong? Tell me baby,’ and he wouldn’t say it.”

Hernandez claims she got a tip from other relatives that Noah was being mistreated after she last saw the boy 3 months ago.

The great-grandmother says that prompted her to file a complaint with the county's Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), asking social workers to make an unannounced visit to the home. But when the agency called her back, they allegedly said they let the mother know they were coming and reported that everything was OK in the home.

“If they would have taken him out of there, he would still be here,” Hernandez said. She lamented that "the kids don't have a voice."

Investigators say three children were removed from the home after the 4-year-old's death and placed into protective custody.

According to relatives, Noah's siblings include an older brother who was also in an out of foster care, a 2-year-old sister and a 1-month-old baby boy.
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Poor kid. He was in a safe stable environment with a relative who loved him, and the court insisted on returning him to abusive bio-units who killed him. Tragic.

We, as a society, need to get past the "nothing is more important than reunification with bio-parents" bullshit. That is not always the case, and too many kids die because of it.
 
Little sport knew it was bad there.
He must have been so scared.

The system failed at keeping an at risk child safe.
Please stop putting children back in the situations that harmed them in the first place.
Lives are literally on the line.

Do Fucking Better!
 
Los Angeles County caseworkers allowed 4-year-old Noah Cuatro to remain in his parents’ home despite a court order in May — weeks before the Palmdale boy died under what authorities say are suspicious circumstances, according to two sources who have reviewed court documents.

At the time of his death Saturday, Noah remained under active supervision by the county Department of Children and Family Services after at least 13 calls to the child abuse hotline and police from people who said they suspected that the children in the home were being abused, the sources said.

Noah's parents, Jose and Ursula, called 911 on Friday to say their son had drowned in a pool. Sheriff Alex Villanueva, however, told reporters the boy's body had signs of trauma that were not consistent with a drowning.

t's been almost two weeks since 4-year-old Noah Cuatro died under suspicious circumstances while in the care of his parents in Palmdale, but there are still many unanswered questions about what the boy dealt with during the time leading up to his death.

Attorney Brian Claypool spoke at a news conference on Tuesday, protesting what he described as a lack of transparency in Noah's case on the part of the Department of Children and Family Services and law enforcement.

Claypool said he wants to know why no one is being held responsible for the boy's death, which was reported to the Sheriff's Department by his parents on July 5 when they took him to a hospital and said he drowned at their apartment complex's pool.

"We already confirmed that is categorically false, he didn't drown. In fact, when the medical examiner's report comes out, it will show there wasn't a drop of water in that little boy's lungs," Claypool said. "His parents filed a false report. That's a crime, so why hasn't there been an arrest?"

Claypool wants to see a criminal indictment of the DCFS social workers and supervisors who ignored a court order, which indicated Noah was to be returned to his great-grandmother, Eva Hernandez, who cared for him for more than two years.

"His body was badly bruised – that tells us it's likely that somebody beat him up and that might have been the cause of the death. We had to find that out on our own," Claypool said. "If they had returned that little boy to Eva Hernandez, he would be alive today."

Claypool added that DCFS ignored several "red flags" in Noah's case, including phone calls made to the agency to report allegations of sexual abuse and malnourishment.
 
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These agencies are a joke. My wife's ex was a meth addict who refused to pay child support AND EVEN KIDNAPPED ONE OF THEIR CHILDREN but the judge stated a father deserves to see his children despite circumstances. Well a person who refuses to support his kids or to set an example isn't a father; they're a bum.
 
I am so sick of reading about dead babies because they were returned to their birth parents despite proven neglect and abuse. Makes me soooooo angry :(:mad:
 
The parents of a 4-year-old Palmdale boy who died under suspicious circumstances in July have been arrested, authorities said Thursday.

Noah Cuatro's parents initially told law enforcement the boy drowned at a Palmdale community pool on July 5, but authorities later said signs of trauma inconsistent with drowning were found on his body. Some of the injuries were consistent with possible abuse.

He was pronounced dead the following morning at Children's Hospital Los Angeles.

Jose Cuatro and Ursula Juarez were arrested around 8 a.m. Thursday on suspicion of killing their son, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. A search warrant was also served at their home to recover any possible evidence.

Noah's death was ruled a homicide by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner on Tuesday. Homicide detectives first responded to the case in the days after he died.
The boy's great-grandmother, Eva Hernandez, broke down as she spoke before reporters during a news conference Thursday afternoon.

"I wish he was here," she said through tears, struggling to speak. "He was so loving. He was so sweet. He was such a smart little boy."

According to Hernandez, Noah was taken from his mother at birth and placed in and out of foster care until Hernandez took custody of him when he was 3 months old.

When Noah was 9 months old, his birth parents again regained custody but he was removed from their care again about a year later. He went back into foster care until Hernandez took custody of him for more than two years, she said.

In November 2018, for a last time, the boy was placed back into the care of his parents. He died on July 6.

On Aug. 30, the Los Angeles County Office of Child Protection released a report that found social workers acted appropriately in leaving Noah at his parents' home, according to the Los Angeles Times.

But Hernandez's attorney, Brian Claypool, said the county's Department of Children and Family Services "deliberately disregarded" Noah's welfare by sending him back to his parents.

He said the 4-year-old often begged not to be taken from Hernandez.

"He would cry, grab onto her arm, onto her leg because he did not want to leave her," Claypool said.

Days after Noah's death, Hernandez told KTLA the boy was removed from his parents' custody the last time due to neglect and malnutrition. She recalled how the boy begged not be sent back.

"I told the social workers, ‘Please, he doesn’t want to leave. He wants to stay here. He begged me,’" Hernandez said at the time. "He would hold on to me and say, ‘Don’t send me back, grandma.’"
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Parents charged in murder, torture of 4-year-old son they claimed had drowned
A California couple who claimed to have found their 4-year-old son unresponsive in a pool last year have been indicted on murder and torture charges — with authorities alleging the dad also sexually assaulted the boy before he was killed.

Jose Maria Cuatro Jr., 28, and Ursula Elaine Juarez, 25, are facing the charges for the death of their son, Noah, who died in a hospital last July — one day after the couple reported finding him motionless in an apartment complex pool, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday.

https://nypost.com/2020/01/29/parents-charged-in-murder-torture-of-4-year-old-son-they-claimed-had-drowned/
 
A grand jury indictment unsealed Tuesday charges the parents of a 4-year-old Palmdale boy with murder and other charges in connection with their son's death last summer.

The indictment charges Jose Maria Cuatro Jr., 28, and Ursula Elaine Juarez, 25, with one count each of murder and torture in the death of their son, Noah Cuatro.


The boy's father is also charged with one count each of assault on a child causing death and the newly added count of sexual penetration with a child under 10 -- the indictment alleges that act occurred on the same day the boy was attacked -- and one count of child abuse under circumstances likely to cause death.
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A Los Angeles County court ruling on Thursday ordered the unsealing of transcripts of the grand jury proceedings in the case involving the death of Noah Cuatro.

Eyewitness News has obtained a copy of the lengthy document, which describes in detail what happened to the 4-year-old Palmdale boy during the last day of his life.

Noah's parents, 28-year-old Jose Maria Cuatro and 26-year-old Ursula Elaine Juarez, have been charged with murder and child abuse in the case. The couple has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The investigation started last summer after his parents told police he had drowned in a pool. But according to the released grand jury documents, Noah was allegedly unwanted by his parents, suffered beatings, sexual abuse and, ultimately, death at their hands.

Audio and transcripts from that 911 call on July 5 were also included in the grand jury proceedings. Juarez could be heard telling the dispatcher that they had pulled Noah from the swimming pool and is also heard administering CPR over the phone.
Noah's father would later demonstrate to investigators, as shows in the unsealed recordings, how he labored to save his son's life.

"I was like Noah, Noah. Breathe, breathe," said Jose Cuatro and he reenacted the scene.

But the couple's story soon unraveled at the Palmdale Regional Medical Center. A responding deputy relayed a doctor's findings to a DCFS hotline social worker.

"He was transported to the hospital. No signs of drowning at all, no water in the lungs. But there is signs of physical and sexual abuse," Deputy Jordan Hegge could be heard saying on the call.

According to the autopsy, Noah died of asphyxiation and blunt force trauma. The coroner found healing rib fractures and sexual assault trauma consistent with sodomization, among other injuries.


Prosecutors allege Jose Cuatro targetted Noah because he believed he wasn't his biological son. A DNA test conducted through the autopsy found evidence that Noah was his biological son.

Noah's mother at one point sent a chilling text message that read "Almost killed him so many times I had to do CPR for him to wake up and stay alive right."

Details emerge about Noah Cuatro's history in foster system

Red flags surrounding Juarez were raised when she was pregnant with Noah. She had a baby sister, 10-month-old Bobbi Jean, who suffered a skull fracture while in her care.

Within the same month in 2014, Noah was born. Noah and his siblings were put into foster care but were repeatedly returned to their parents.

Testimony from the grand jury transcripts also puts the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services under fire for failure to follow through with a court approval to remove Noah from the home.
Child Social Worker Susan Johnson had obtained a judge's approval to have Noah removed from the home several weeks before his death. According to testimony, her supervisors were able to overrule the court order.

Johnson says that the supervisors also dismissed her from the case.
https://abc7.com/noah-cuatro-dcfs-palmdale-child-dies-abuse/6371338/
 
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The parents of a 4-year-old Palmdale boy pleaded not guilty on Thursday to a grand jury indictment charging them with murder and torture in their son's July 2019 death.

Jose Maria Cuatro Jr., 28, and Ursula Elaine Juarez, 26, were indicted Jan. 23 on those charges in the death of their son, Noah Cuatro.

The indictment also charges the boy's father with one count each of assault on a child causing death and a newly added count of sexual penetration of a child under 10, with the indictment alleging that the latter crime occurred on the same day the boy was attacked.

The boy's mother is additionally charged with one count of child abuse under circumstances likely to cause death.
On July 1, the boy's great-grandmother, Evangelina Hernandez, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Los Angeles County on behalf of herself and the boy's sister and two brothers, alleging that his death occurred after multiple reports of abuse had already been made to the Department of Children and Family Services.

"Instead of protecting Noah and his siblings, DCFS continued to place the children with their abusive parents, where the children continued to be abused over the course of several years,'' the suit alleges.

After Noah's death, DCFS social workers made threats against Hernandez "in an attempt to silence her," the lawsuit alleges.

The social workers told Hernandez that if she made any public statements about Noah's case and/or potential lawsuits, she would lose her request for guardianship of her other three great-grandchildren and would never see them again, the suit states.

Hathaway-Sycamores Child and Family Services is also named as a defendant in the civil lawsuit. Hathaway-Sycamores knew of or suspected the abuse and misconduct occurring in Noah's home after the boy was sent to the agency by the county Department of Children and Family Services for mental health services, but failed to report the abuse, according to the suit.
 
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