RE: Lawsuit alleges NM CYFD coverup over 4-year-old's death
Monsters. What kind of mother allows her child to be subjected to such treatment? Evil people are everywhere posing as normal human beings. This is where we are in our society today.
Quote:New Mexico Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s policies requiring state employees to automatically delete their communications after 10 days may complicate efforts to investigate the death of a child whose abuse was repeatedly brought to state attention.
Last month, attorneys in a wrongful death lawsuit filed against Grisham’s Child, Youth, and Families Department (CYFD) argued the agency engaged in a cover-up to conceal caseworker conduct related to deceased four-year-old James Dunklee. According to Albuquerque News, Dunklee was beaten to death by the partner of his mother’s friend they were staying with. Zerrick Marquez now faces life behind bars after a guilty plea to intentional child abuse resulting in death.
In 2019, however, attorneys claim the CYFD had a chance to save Dunklee from a torrent of home abuse. Two months before Dunklee’s death, the police and CYFD were brought to urgent care where Dunklee was found with multiple bruises and injured genitals, Albuquerque News reported. Dunklee told police and CYFD officials he was being touched inappropriately by one of his mother’s boyfriends.
It was not the first time child services came across strong evidence of abuse. When Dunklee was three, according to the lawsuit reviewed by Albuquerque News, “CYFD found him living barricaded in his room and bruised.”
“When he was four, APD and CYFD were called again, finding James was bruised and not potty trained. James would tell police his mother’s boyfriend was hitting him,” the local paper reported.
“CYFD time after time after time, referral after referral failed to take custody of James,” Sara Crecca with the Law Firm of Alexander D. Crecca, P.C. Attorneys told Albuquerque News.
Crecca and her colleagues are now accusing CYFD of a cover-up. The agency managers “directed the investigator to erase her notes before entering them in the official CYFD system,” Crecca said, believing critical evidence of government misconduct is now gone.
It remains unclear whether the CYFD was using the encrypted messaging app Signal at the time, which allows for automatic deletion of messages after 10 days. In May of last year, the agency terminated a pair of senior employees who raised concerns about the app’s use in the agency. The employees complained that the policy kept staff communications concealed from Inspection of Public Records (IPRA) requests.
The two firings became a scandal for Grisham, up for re-election this November, as her office directed state agencies to use the encrypted messaging service. The CYFD stopped using Signal following the initial controversy, but still reportedly used Microsoft Teams, which also features the automatic deletion of encrypted messages, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican.
The CYFD did not respond to multiple voicemails from The Federalist requesting an interview over whether the agency was using encrypted messaging services with automatic deletion in the months before Dunklee’s death.
Patrick Brenner, the president of the New Mexican-based Southwest Public Policy Institute, said Grisham’s commitment to transparency has been problematic.
“I have been increasingly concerned about Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s anti-transparent administration,” Brenner told The Federalist.
“Our repeated calls for the administration to acknowledge the public’s right-to-know have been met with silence,” Brenner added. “As a rule, the government is only anti-transparent when they have something to hide. Now that we have the death of a young child being covered up by CYFD, it’s becoming increasingly clear that this might be the case.”
Quote:A whistleblower in New Mexico’s Child, Youth, and Families Department (CYFD) revealed to The Federalist the agency used an encrypted messaging service with automatic deletion around the time of the death of a child whose abuse was brought to state attention.
Cliff W. Gilmore was fired from his role as CYFD’s public information officer in May last year along with his wife, Debra, an agency attorney, when the pair raised concerns about state use of the app, Signal. The firings became a scandal for New Mexico Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, whose office directed state agencies to use the encrypted messaging service featuring the automatic deletion of records every 10 days or sooner.
The routine deletion of staff communications erases potential for agency oversight under Inspection of Public Records (IPRA) requests. While a ruling from the New Mexico attorney general’s office in September 2020 shared with The Federalist concluded the app’s use did not technically violate the state transparency law, the office warned the government its use deleted records that would otherwise be subject to public review.
The CYFD stopped using Signal following the controversy over the termination of Cliff and Debra Gilmore, but is still using Microsoft Teams, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican. The alternative software also houses the capability to automatically delete staff records.
The deployment of encrypted messaging services with routine erasure is likely hampering comprehensive oversight into cases where potential misconduct is being investigated. Last month, a trio of attorneys filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the agency over the death of four-year-old James Dunklee in 2019. Dunklee was beaten to death by the partner of his mother’s friend the two were staying with. Zerrick Marquez now faces life behind bars after pleading guilty to intentional child abuse resulting in death.
Attorneys told Albuquerque News that strong evidence of Dunklee’s abuse was shared with state officials with the CYFD multiple times before his death in 2019. The state, however, failed to take substantive action and left Dunklee in an abusive home. Now attorneys say the agency is engaged in a cover-up deliberately erasing notes on the case.
While it was initially unclear whether the state agency was also using Signal throughout 2019 when Dunklee’s abuse was brought to the CYFD’s attention, Gilmore told The Federalist the encrypted messaging app was indeed used among staff. The app’s usage further obstructs efforts to conduct meaningful oversight in Dunklee’s case and probe possible negligence.
“I can confirm the leadership team under former Sec. [Brian] Blalock was using Slack and then Signal across the span in question,” Gilmore told The Federalist.
Blalock stepped down from Grisham’s cabinet as CYFD chief in August.
The CYFD did not respond to multiple voicemails from The Federalist requesting an interview.
RE: Lawsuit alleges NM CYFD coverup over 4-year-old's death
Like I tell Crimson, Las Cruces and that probably includes the whole state of New Mexico do not love their children as they are always beating them up or like in this case killing them. It's the Child Abuse Capital of the World. I wish I knew what their problem was. It's sad, so sad, really.
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[NEWS] Lawsuit alleges NM CYFD coverup over 4-year-old's death
