County Orders Probe Into Boy’s Death in Foster Care

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday ordered an investigation into the December beating death of a 19-month-old Glendale child who was living in a county foster care home.

The coroner’s office has ruled that the death was a homicide, and the boy’s foster parents have been charged with murder.

The Board of Supervisors, which is ultimately responsible for the county’s foster care system, directed the children’s services inspector general to determine whether the boy’s foster parents were adequately screened and whether caseworkers with the Department of Children and Family Services made a sufficient number of follow-up visits to the foster home.

“The placement of the child in the home raises questions that need to be answered,” said Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who wrote the motion for the inspector general investigation.

The board also unanimously asked Department of Children and Family Services officials to explain why the department apparently neglected to inform supervisors about the death before it was reported in the media.

Antonovich said the department is required to report such incidents to board members within 24 hours, but his office did not receive a formal call until one week after the death.

Victoria Pipkin-Lane, spokeswoman for the department, said the delay occurred because the department’s liaison with the Board of Supervisors was on vacation at the time of the death.

The child, identified as Julio Gonzalez, died on Dec. 29 in the infant critical care unit of Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena after his foster parents reported that he was having trouble breathing.

The foster parents, Fernando Enriquez Paz, 34, and Maria del Carmen Elizabeth Paz, 29, were charged with murder last week after an autopsy determined that the cause of death was head trauma. Bruises were also found on the toddler’s body.

The child’s twin brother, who was also living in the Paz home, as well as the Pazes’ biological children--a 3-year-old girl and 9-year-old boy--have been taken into protective custody by the Department of Children and Family Services.

County foster care officials have said that caseworkers had visited the child’s foster care home once a month since the twins were placed there in July and detected no signs that the children were being mistreated.

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Although foster care officials said the couple appeared to be exemplary foster parents, Antonovich said the death “raises questions with regard to the screening of these foster parents’ background and training as well as the need for follow-up visits by the department.”

The post of inspector general was created by the supervisors last year after the Department of Children and Family Services was rocked by several high-profile instances of death and abuse of children. Victor Greenberg was named to the position in July.

Greenberg could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

An investigation is also being conducted by the county’s Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect.

Times staff writer Efrain Hernandez Jr. contributed to this story.