According to the allegations filed with the county, the woman who oversees the visit to oversee the visit between a troubled mother and a troubled mother had a history of whipping her three daughters belt buckles, raising sleeping pills and feeding them only on water.
The county child welfare department has approved Secret Daniel, 30, to act as a monitor for a supervised visit between Jessica Darthard, who suffers from substance abuse and her 17-month-old son, Justin Bree.
The baby overdose with Daniel’s watch on February 18, 2024 with fentanyl and fell asleep, according to prosecutors after his grandfather Jesse Darthard smoked fentanyl on the couch next to him.
Darthard and her father are charged with murder, while Daniel is charged with child abuse in connection with Justin’s death.
A survey last year found that the child welfare agency approved Daniel to oversee the visit. He doesn’t realize she was the best friend of the baby’s mother and lived in a Lancaster home where drug use is ramping. Justin and his two brothers lived in another home with their foster parents.
The woman’s shared residence was one of many obvious warning signs that social workers missed when Daniel allowed him to become a monitor, according to a March 21 claim, the predecessor to what Daniel’s daughters’ parents said was a $75 million lawsuit against the county. The lawsuit will be filed on behalf of three daughters, ages 3, 8 and 10.
Julie Filet, the paternal grandmother of Daniel’s daughter, said the girls “have had many scars on their bodies and scars on their faces,” while the mother of the two said “we’ll just throw them outside in the middle of the night and lock the door.”
“They have nightmares at night,” said Filet, who described the children being deeply hurt.
Justin Bree on a supervised visit with his father, Montis.
(Montisbury)
The three girls lived in the Lancaster home where Justin visited his mother, according to their families who announced legal action at a press conference on Thursday. According to the family, Daniel’s 10-year-old daughter was often in care of him on these visits.
Daniel’s lawyer declined to comment.
When Filet gained custody of her three grandchildren last year, she said they were as malnourished as their bones show. She hasn’t seen them since Daniel became pregnant in the spring of 2021.
After working with therapists, the children began to speak slowly about the abuse as they were more at peace in their new home, played softball after years of absence and returned to school.
Part of the alleged abuse came while Daniel was supposed to serve as a neutral monitor for a DCFS-approved visit with his son. DCFS removed Justin and Darsard’s two other children from her detention after her boyfriend fatally overdose with fentanyl while the children were at home. This removal followed at least three other DCFS investigations over the past decade, followed by Darsard’s investigation. Six months before Justin’s death, she crashed while driving drunk with him in the back seat, not buckled.
When a DCFS social worker came to Lancaster Home, the kids said they were told to hide to see how Darthard’s supervised visit was clearly going.
“DCFS has approved an abusive mother to monitor her abusive mother,” said Brian Claypool, lawyer for Daniel’s three children. “It’s like putting gas in a game.”
Claypool represents a family whose loved one died in a horrifying child abuse case, including 10-year-old Anthony Avalos, who was murdered by his mother and her boyfriend.
The attorney also represents Justin’s father, Montis Valley, in another $65 million lawsuit against the county. Bree, a truck driver who lost custody of Justin, says the county is careless about his son’s life.
Montisbury is located at the grave of Justin, son of Inglewood.
(Zoe Cranfill/Los Angeles Times)
In addition to indicting Darthard for Justin’s murder, prosecutors have also indicted the juvenile’s mother with felony child abuse and child abuse. Daniel is charged with felony child abuse.
The serious abuse allegations against Daniel deepen questions about how DCFS social workers should determine who should be responsible for overseeing visits between vulnerable children and troubled parents. The court may appoint an independent observer to monitor the visit, but parents may also choose family friends or relatives.
“It is our sincere hope that all those affected by this tragedy will find healing as they move forward,” DCFS said in a statement. A DCFS spokesperson directed the Times to the department’s policy regarding supervised visits. This doesn’t deal with whether the monitor can’t live with their parents, but says there is “no conflict of interest.”
In an interview, Claypool argued that home abuse should be well known to social workers. Social workers were expected to visit Darthard’s home on a daily basis.
According to the claims, DCFS was investigating whether Daniel abused or ignored his child when social workers approved her as a monitor for Darthard’s children. DCFS declined to comment on whether there was an open case against Daniel when Justin died.
The claim also claims that Daniel sold food stamps for drugs, sent his daughter out of sleep pills and alcohol at night, was kicked out of the house in the middle of the night, and let him roam the streets to find a place to sleep somewhere. Daniel saw her older two girls being abused by Darthard, and the two mothers encouraged the older two girls to watch porn, the claim says.
“What we’re looking at here is a huge, huge red flag in all directions,” Claypool said. “Why she was considered a monitor never makes sense.”
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