A state licensing board has imposed a four-year probation on a contracted L.A. County counselor for failing to report the suspected abuse of Gabriel Fernandez and Anthony Avalos, two younger boys whose deaths spotlighted egregious lapses within the area’s youngster welfare system.
In a choice that took impact March 31, the state Board of Behavioral Sciences positioned Barbara Dixon, a licensed marriage and household therapist, on probation and required her to take part in psychotherapy, regulation and ethics coaching, and coursework in youngster abuse evaluation.
The state board had formally accused Dixon final 12 months of failing to report allegations of abuse of Gabriel in 2013 and Anthony in 2015. Dixon additionally confronted expenses by the licensing board of gross negligence and unprofessional conduct, in line with data.
Dixon’s conduct was first reported to the state board in 2019 by an nameless grievance that contained an article The Instances revealed the identical day on her involvement in each youngsters’s instances. To resolve the disciplinary case with probation, Dixon relinquished her proper to contest the pending expenses.
Her legal professional, Gina Lacagnina, didn't reply to a message searching for remark.
Dixon offered in-home counseling providers to each boys by her job with what was then namedHathaway-Sycamores Baby and Household Companies, a Pasadena nonprofit that contracts with L.A. County to offer youngster welfare, psychological well being, foster care and different providers. Final summer time, the group modified its title to Sycamores.
A couple of month earlier than Gabriel was killed in 2013, Dixon wrote in her notes that the boy had “seen accidents on his physique (scrapes, bruises, and so forth.)” and that he was limping and had a black eye. Dixon questioned the boy in entrance of his mom and wrote that the boy “spoke at a low pitch” and repeated his mother’s account that he fell off a bicycle.
Gabriel’s mother was to offer a physician’s observe concerning therapy of these accidents at their subsequent session with Dixon, however Gabriel’s mother missed the appointment. There have been no notes exhibiting Dixon had ever adopted up on the medical therapy or the standing of the kid’s accidents, and he or she withheld the knowledge from the kid abuse hotline, flouting a state regulation that mandates her to report all suspected abuse.
Dixon was given immunity to testify within the felony case that was later filed in opposition to L.A. County Division of Youngsters and Household Companies caseworkers concerned in Gabriel’s case. In 2017, she testified that she initially believed the household’s account that Gabriel fell off the bike, however turned involved after occurring a stroll and speaking to him, The Instances beforehand reported.
Dixon mentioned in testimony that her boss at Hathaway-Sycamores didn't need her to report the abuse, and he or she complied with the directive. Consequently, DCFS didn't study concerning the accidents documented by Dixon till after Gabriel died.
The state disciplinary data make no observe of Hathaway-Sycamores’ directions to Dixon, who testified that she couldn't alert the kid abuse hotline with out a supervisor’s permission.
Gabriel’s mom, Pearl Fernandez, and her boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre, have been convicted in 2018 of first-degree homicide in his torture dying. Aguirre was sentenced to be executed and Fernandez was sentenced to life in jail with out the opportunity of parole.
Representatives of Sycamores didn't reply to messages searching for remark. Chief Govt Debra Manners beforehand informed The Instances that Sycamores complies with California’s obligatory reporting legal guidelines.
“The reporting statute particularly lists that people (not entities) are mandated reporters,” Manners informed the newspaper in an e-mail in 2019.
Dixon continued working at Hathaway-Sycamores and started offering in-home remedy toAnthony Avalos in early 2015, data present. By then, DCFS had already acquired a number of reviews of suspected abuse of Anthony or his siblings by their mom, and throughout the 12 months that Dixon labored with Anthony, her case information didn't point out new allegations that got here into the kid abuse hotline.
The state alleged that Dixon discovered from Anthony that a relative had sexually abused him, and there was no indication from her notes that she had reported the suspected abuse.
Later that 12 months, Dixon famous allegations from Anthony’s uncle that his mom was abusing him and his siblings, however there was no document that she had mentioned this with DCFS. Shortly thereafter, Anthony had returned to reside together with his mom.
When Dixon went to see the boy lower than two weeks later, she described the boy as exhibiting “regressed behaviors,” like “whining, pouting, crying, and defiance,” that had not been beforehand current. Dixon wrote that Anthony shared “ideas associated to current disaster” however didn't doc any direct evaluation of the alleged abuse, the state board mentioned.
Anthony died in 2018, and his mom, Heather Barron, and her boyfriend, Kareem Leiva, have been charged with killing the boy and abusing two different youngsters within the family. Barron and Leiva have pleaded not responsible.
DCFS declined to specify what penalties, if any, have been imposed on Sycamores on account of its dealing with of Gabriel’s and Anthony’s instances, saying in a press release that it “holds its contracted businesses and their staff to the very best authorized and moral requirements.” Within the fiscal 12 months ending 2021, Sycamores had $54 million in L.A. County contracts, or about 88% of its complete program service income, in line with the group’s most up-to-date audit.
Dixon signed a stipulated settlement in October, which was adopted by the state licensing board final month. As a part of the decision, she should pay $1,200 per 12 months for monitoring throughout her probation in addition to $8,800 for the prices of her investigation and accusation. The probation won't conclude till cost is full.
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