Los Angeles Times - 08.09.2019

LATIMES.COM S SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2019A

thony Avalos failed to save him

to speak, and sent it through.” By September 2015, An- thony was enrolled at Lin- coln Elementary School in Lancaster. In talking with Anthony, Vice Principal Gia Greaux had become increas- ingly dismayed. He told Greaux that his mother beat him and locked him in a room with no access to food, water and the bath- room, according to DCFS records. He also described “the captain’s chair,” a form of discipline that required Anthony to hold a squatted position for a long period of time with his arms out- stretched. She called the child abuse hotline on Sept.

Around the same time,
Anthony’s uncle, David Bar-
ron, heard the same alarm-
ing stories from the children
during a visit.
They told him about be-
ing locked in a room, and
they said Leiva also ordered
the captain’s chair punish-
ment. Additionally, the chil-
dren said that Leiva whip-
ped their faces and legs with
a belt and dangled Antho-
ny’s younger half brother up-
side down from a staircase,
according to hotline calls
and DCFS records.
When Heather came to
pick up her children, David
and his wife physically
blocked her from taking
them and called 911. Sheriff ’s
Deputy Michael Gellardo re-
sponded and called the child
abuse hotline to report what
had happened.
“They seemed pretty
shaken up when I talked to
them about it,” Gellardo told
the hotline worker on the re-
corded line, adding his rec-
ommendation that the chil-
dren not go home with their
mother.
The next day, David
called the hotline himself.
The children, he said,
confided that they had been
locked in a room so long that
they urinated and defecated
on themselves. When Leiva
got angry, they said, he
threw dirty diapers at them,
slammed them into walls
and dragged one of Antho-
ny’s half brothers by the ear,
leaving it scabbed and
bruised.
The children were so
hungry that they hoarded
food, David added. When
asked how long this had
been happening, the chil-
dren could be heard in the
background responding, “A
thousand weeks.”
David told the hotline
worker that Anthony’s
mother “is cutting herself
and saying that she hates
life.... I have pictures of her
slitting her wrists and saying
that she wants to die.”
He also told the hotline
worker that Leiva was a
member of the MS-13 gang
and that he was afraid of
what he would do next. Two
days later, DCFS case-
worker Ikea Vernon met
with Anthony at his aunt
and uncle’s home. He re-
peated the account of abuse.
“Heather is my old mom.
This is my new house. I am
part of the Barron family
now,” he told Vernon, ac-
cording to her notes. “I’m ne-
ver going to see Heather
again. She locks us up in our
rooms and makes us starv-
ing.” Vernon then called
Dixon and two other Hatha-
way-Sycamores counselors
who had been working in the
home for seven months.
They were supportive of
Heather Barron’s parenting
during the discussion. “Each
service provider reported
that they have never heard
anything from the children
about abuse and neglect,”
Vernon wrote.
Vernon had recently
joined the department. Her
notes indicate that she had
been unwilling to draw a con-
clusion about abuse based
solely on what the children
told her.
When David and Maria
Barron showed up at the
DCFS office for answers
about the investigation, Ver-
non turned them away and
incorrectly told them they
could get information only
from Anthony’s mother, ac-
cording to the case notes.
The couple left unaware that
they could have filed a for-
mal petition to ask the court
to intervene.
Heather Barron still had
parental rights to the chil-
dren and after she brought
them home in the last week
of September, Vernon met
with Anthony at Lincoln Ele-
mentary. He said his mother
was “starting to be nice” and
“does a new thing where she
does not lock the bedroom
door anymore,” according to
DCFS notes.
A month later, Anthony
and his siblings recanted

their allegations of abuse. Wyatt, the sheriff ’s detec- tive reviewing the latest allegations, closed his investigation after one failed attempt to reach Leiva, according to Wyatt’s court testimony. He also never talked to Gel- lardo, the deputy who called the child abuse hotline. In December 2015, Ver- non marked the allegations from Greaux, Gellardo and David Barron as “inconclu- sive.” She also used a com- puter system to score the family’s risk of abuse and neglect, and it once again rated it “high” and recommended a greater level of interven- tion. Vernon and her super- visor, however, decided against any further action. In later testimony before the grand jury that indicted Heather Barron and Leiva for murder, Vernon said her decision relied on the children recanting their prior claims of abuse. She testified that she was unaware that victims of abuse often retract their accounts. “At the conclusion of my investigation, the situation was stabilized because the children had recanted their stories,” Vernon said. Dixon and Hathaway- Sycamores ended their work with the family the next month. Hathaway-Sycamores’ chief executive, Debbie Man- ners, declined to be interviewed for this article. Later, Mildred Blue, a teacher providing services to Barron at a domestic violence center, reported to the child abuse hotline in April 2016 that the children arrived with bruises and said that Leiva had forced

them to fight each other at home. They also appeared hungry. One ate out of the trash, she said. The children denied the allegation when interviewed by DCFS caseworkers, who did not try to reach Leiva at Barron’s home and decided there was no need for follow- up. Cox, the sheriff ’s investi- gator, also received a report of Blue’s hotline call. He too decided not to follow up, according to his testimony. The department requires detectives to conduct inde- pendent investigations of child abuse and not rely solely on DCFS’ reports, even if DCFS says it’s un- founded. Near the end of 2016, at least one more call to the child abuse hotline arrived regarding Anthony’s family, but details in the department file are scant. Case- workers marked it “un- founded.” Around this time, Heather Barron cut ties with her brother, sister, sister-in- law and the educators who had once reported abuse. She moved Anthony to El Dorado Elementary, where his history was unknown. There, he got to know his new fourth-grade teacher, Harmony Bell, and on the last day of school he wrote her a letter. Dear Mrs. Bell, Thank you for teaching me every- thing you could it was such a blessing to meet you. I just hope that when I’m going to 6th that you can come to New Vista so I can see you still. I hope that you can come to my high school, mid- dle school and college. That

way we will see each other for school years without a problem because how close we are [and] how we are best buddys/friends.......I just want to stay with you forev- er but i can’t I just hope you have a good rest of your life because you already know that I’m going to have a good life. Love Anthony Avalos your friend.

The truth comes too late June 2018

The alleged final series of events began on June 18, when Heather Barron said Anthony confided to her that he liked boys, according to DCFS records. She told a DCFS caseworker that Leiva overheard the conver- sation. The following night, Leiva allegedly dropped An- thony repeatedly on his head, according to grand jury transcripts. Los Angeles County sheriff ’s deputies responded to a 911 call from Heather Barron about 12:15 p.m. June 20, 2018, and found Anthony in- side the family’s apartment. Authorities said they were told the boy had “suf- fered injuries from a fall.” Paramedics took him to the hospital in grave condition. Maria Barron, Anthony’s aunt and David’s wife, learned of Anthony’s condition and went to the hospital, where she found Heather in the hallway, she said in an interview. When Heather hesitated to let her see her nephew, Maria crouched at her feet, on her hands and knees on

the linoleum floor, to plead with her to allow her to see the boy. Through tears, she told Heather she was sorry for re- porting the abuse allegations — anything to win her way in. When Heather relented, Maria found Anthony un- conscious and breathing on a ventilator. His lifeless face was held by a large yellow neck brace. Sensors were taped around his skull, re- cording his diminished brain activity. He was 4 feet, 6 inches tall and weighed 77 pounds. He died hours later on June 21. County officials removed the other children from the home as the investigation continued.

Lingering anger and questions October 2018

Over the next few months, the true horror of what happened to Anthony and his siblings finally came out. A grand jury heard evi- dence in Anthony’s case in October. His teacher, Har- mony Bell, testified that Anthony had a “mind-blow- ing” positivity, according to the unsealed transcript. In addition to the letter, she said he often drew pictures for her and her daughters. Anthony’s uncle, David, said in an interview that he loved playing football and fishing at Apollo Park and the aqueduct in Quartz Hill. To help earn the fishing trips, David said, Anthony excelled at school. He told

his uncle that he didn’t talk when he wasn’t supposed to, didn’t roughhouse, that he helped pick up things from the floor and helped the teacher pass out papers. In the months since An- thony’s death, his siblings have answered questions — often reluctantly — for detectives, prosecutors and grand jurors, providing a graphic and poignant coda, all the while professing their love for their mother and desire to protect her. Anthony’s 8-year-old sister told investigators he was forced to kneel on his bare knees on dry rice “a lot,” often from the time he re- turned from school until bedtime. It was such a com- mon practice that his knees were scabbed, never healing. His 7-year-old brother told investigators the children would have to fight one another to escape punish- ment, and eating was a privi- lege that they had to earn. If they urinated while they were locked in a room, Leiva would push their face into the puddle. Sometimes, he would stuff a shirt in their mouth to muffle the screams. Their mother is also charged with first-degree murder for her alleged com- plicity with Leiva. In the im- mediate aftermath of his death, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervi- sors promised a comprehen- sive public report by former Juvenile Court Judge Michael Nash — director of the Office of Child Protec- tion — of “any systemic issues” in Anthony’s protec- tion by DCFS, the Sheriff ’s Department and other county agencies. The report included a series of recommendations, such as increasing staffing in the Antelope Valley and im- proving access to medical assessments to minimize risks to other children in the future. But it emphasized that Anthony had not been under county oversight for more than a year before his death and no one had told the agency of ongoing dan- ger during that time. Even in the period when the agency did receive warn- ings, Nash wrote, Anthony’s mother provided caseworkers reasons for assurance, including the successful completion of a parenting class and domestic violence program. “Numerous inter- views with the children oc- curred wherein the children indicated no issues. Numer- ous persons, including social workers, relatives, service providers, school personnel, and others, reflected no con- cerns,” he wrote. Nash declined to be interviewed and answered only limited questions about the case. In a brief email ex- change, Nash said he did not review recordings of hotline calls by the Children’s Cen- ter counselors, the teacher at the domestic violence center, “or any other call.” Instead, he said he had relied on DCFS-provided sum- maries. He also said “we did not talk about Hathaway Syca- mores in our report because we did not see any information suggesting they did anything improper. To the con- trary, their actions appeared to be above reproach.” Nash acknowledged, though, that he had not read the Hathaway-Sycamores case records. Others declined to com- ment entirely, including Sheriff Alex Villanueva, DCFS Director Cagle, Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey and Su- pervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents Lancaster. But a far more devastat- ing portrait of DCFS came in May from State Auditor Elaine Howle. The audit praised the department for reducing case- loads for its workers, yet it found that the department’s social workers failed to initi- ate and complete investigations of neglect accurately or quickly enough. In more than one-third of the cases reviewed, safety assessments were wrong because caseworkers didn’t include important risk factors such as past domestic violence or previous DCFS investigations — all information at their fingertips. Perhaps the most sting- ing conclusion was that, al- though the county has ex- tensively studied past child fatality cases such as Gabri- el Fernandez’s, yielding key recommendations that would save lives, “the department has not ensured that its reviews ... improve the services it provides.”

DAVID BARRONand his wife, Maria, second from right, with their seven children in California City. In 2015, David Barron called the child abuse hotline after his nephew, Anthony, and his siblings told him of their ordeal.

Gary CoronadoLos Angeles Times

CONCEPCION RAMIREZ, left, Anthony’s grandmother, weeps after his funeral services in July 2018 in Quartz Hills.

Irfan KhanLos Angeles Times MARIA BARRON, right, cries after it was announced the family would sue the DCFS.

Gary CoronadoLos Angeles Times

VICTOR AVALOS, Anthony’s father, grieves with the family. L.A. County supervisors ordered a review to look into “any systemic issues” by Children and Family Services and other agencies after the boy’s death.

Irfan KhanLos Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times - 08.09.2019

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