{"id":63829,"date":"2015-06-03T15:42:42","date_gmt":"2015-06-03T22:42:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theavtimes.com\/?p=63829"},"modified":"2015-06-03T15:57:43","modified_gmt":"2015-06-03T22:57:43","slug":"l-a-county-trying-to-block-return-of-social-worker-in-palmdale-child-abuse-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2015\/06\/03\/l-a-county-trying-to-block-return-of-social-worker-in-palmdale-child-abuse-death\/","title":{"rendered":"L.A. County trying to block return of social worker in Palmdale child abuse death"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gabriel<\/a>
Gabriel Fernandez<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LOS ANGELES \u2013 The Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services is reportedly going to court in an effort to block the return of a social worker who supervised the case of Gabriel Fernandez<\/strong>, the 8-year-old Palmdale boy who was beaten to death.<\/p>\n

Gregory Merritt<\/strong> was fired over the case. But he successfully appealed his dismissal to the five-member Los Angeles County Civil Service Commission, which voted unanimously to reinstate him, imposing a 30-day suspension instead of termination.<\/p>\n

County departments usually abide by the commission’s findings, but Philip Browning, the county’s child welfare chief, said Tuesday he is taking the matter to court after determining that Merritt had \u201cegregiously\u201d missed multiple opportunities to save Gabriel, the Los Angeles Times<\/em> reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A department spokesman said Merritt would not be returning to work as a result of the county’s decision to file a petition in Los Angeles County Superior Court, according to the newspaper.<\/p>\n

Since Merritt’s 2013 firing, he has not been paid.<\/p>\n

\"Aguirre<\/a>
Aguirre and Fernandez are each charged with capital murder and could face the death penalty, if convicted.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The boy’s mother, Pearl Fernandez<\/strong>, and her boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre<\/strong>, are awaiting trial on charges of capital murder and a special circumstance of torture. They have pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n

The pair are accused of beating Gabriel to death after dousing him with pepper spray, forcing him to eat his own vomit and locking him in a cabinet with a sock stuffed in his mouth to muffle his screams, according to court records.<\/p>\n

Detectives who searched the family’s Palmdale apartment found a wooden club covered in Gabriel’s blood.<\/p>\n

In the months before the boy was killed, several agencies investigated allegations of abuse without removing him from the home, and shortly before his death, Merritt and social worker Patricia Clement decided to close Gabriel’s case.<\/p>\n

Browning fired Merritt, Clement and two other social workers over the case. But Merritt successfully appealed his dismissal.<\/p>\n

Outraged local residents have since created an online petition at change.org to \u201cBan Gregory Merritt from working in Child Protective Services!\u201d<\/em> View the petition here.<\/a><\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Previous related stories:<\/p>\n

Accused child killers plead not guilty<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Four social workers fired in death of Gabriel<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Couple charged with capital murder in death of Palmdale boy<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Justice for Gabriel protest, teacher speaks out<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Palmdale boy dies after abuse, mother and boyfriend arrested<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2013 The Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services is reportedly going to court in an effort to block the return of a social worker who supervised the case of Gabriel Fernandez, the 8-year-old Palmdale boy who was beaten to death. Gregory Merritt was fired over the case. But he successfully […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63829"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}