Relatives of a 4-year-old Palmdale boy whose 2019 death was originally reported as a drowning and later led to a criminal conviction of his parents have reached a tentative settlement in their lawsuit against Los Angeles County that took to task the decisions of social workers.
Evangelina Hernandez, the great-grandmother of the late Noah Cuatro, brought the wrongful death suit against the county in July 2020 on behalf of Noah’s 6-year-old sister and two brothers, ages 5 and 11, criticizing the actions of employees of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.
On Friday, Hernandez’s attorneys filed court papers with Pomona Superior Court Judge Christian Gullon notifying him of a “conditional” settlement with the county that is subject to approval by the county Claims Board and the Board of Supervisors. The court papers also indicated an “unconditional” accord reached with an Altadena residential campus for young boys.
No terms were divulged.
In April, Lancaster Superior Court Judge Robert Chu sentenced Jose Maria Cuatro Jr. to 32 years to life in prison, and Ursula Elaine Juarez to 22 years to life for Noah’s July 2019 death. Cuatro, 32, pleaded no contest on March 29 to one count each of first-degree murder and torture, and Juarez, 30, pleaded no contest to one count each of second-degree murder and torture.
In an amended complaint brought in 2023, the plaintiffs’ lawyers stated that new information was obtained in February and March of that year showing that Noah’s siblings also were subjected to abuse and neglect by Jose Cuatro and that county workers breached their mandatory duty to report their “reasonable suspicion” of such conduct.
In late March 2023, the oldest of the siblings told Evangelina Hernandez that he was often forced by Jose Cuatro to “physically fight and beat up” Noah, the plaintiffs’ attorneys stated.
The same sibling also told Matthew Hernandez that he and Noah were always hungry, that he saw his parents slapping his surviving brother in the face when he was an infant, that he observed his parents fight a lot and that he was “scared of his dad because he would beat him up” by punching him and hitting him with his belt, the plaintiff’s lawyers stated in their court papers.
The boy said he also saw Jose Cuatro hit Noah and the other two siblings, according to the amended suit.
In February 2023, county social worker Lizbeth Hernandez Aviles testified during a deposition about the alleged abuses of Noah’s siblings, stating that the property manager of the Cuatro apartment told her he heard crying from outside the unit and that there were “concerns over domestic violence” between the parents, according to the amended complaint. Aviles also testified that the Cuatro home had no beds or mattresses in the bedroom where the children slept, only a mattress in living room, the revised suits stated.
Aviles also testified that the home had a foul odor and that when she entered it was “cluttered and filthy” with trash on the floor and counter tops, according to the amended suit, which alleged that Aviles had an obligation to report her suspicions that Noah’s siblings also were being abused.
The case began when Noah’s parents reported a drowning in their family pool in the 1200 block of East Avenue S at around 4 p.m. July 5, 2019. But the boy’s injuries later raised suspicions about how he died and medical staff found the trauma he had suffered inconsistent with drowning.
Noah was taken first to Palmdale Regional Medical Center and then to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, where he was pronounced dead July 6, 2019. His death occurred after multiple reports of abuse had already been made to the DCFS, according to the suit.
“Instead of protecting Noah and his siblings, DCFS continued to place the children with their abusive parents, where the children continued to be abused over the course of several years,” the suit alleged.
After Noah’s death, social workers made threats against Evangelina Hernandez “in an attempt to silence her,” the suit alleged. They allegedly told her that if she made any public statements about Noah’s case and/or potential lawsuits, she would lose her request for guardianship of her other three great-grandchildren and would never see them again.