How Could You? Hall of Shame-Waldo and Andrea Hernandez UPDATED

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Las Vegas, Nevada, foster parents  Waldo and Andrea Hernandez “let their 13-year-old biological child place a 14-month-old boy in their care on top of a refrigerator, which had been outside in the heat. The boy had no clothes on because he was getting his diaper changed. The toddler had suffered burns on his arms and buttocks.”

They plead guilty “Tuesday [ December 10 ,2013 ] to charges of child neglect or endangerment with substantial bodily harm involving two young children in their care.”

“The Hernandez’s admit they did not give the boy proper care following the burns.

The documents also show the other child in their care, who was only 2-months-old, had such severe diaper rash that he developed a skin infection in his neck, armpits and legs.

Child Protective Services took the children out of the Hernandez’s home in September. They started looking for the couple after they failed to notify the department that they had moved to Sandy Valley.

Under a plea agreement with prosecutors, the couple is not expected to be sentenced to more than 12 years in prison.”

Foster Parents Plead Guilty to Child Neglect

[8News Now 12/10/13 by Natalie Cullen]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update: “Two former foster parents were sentenced Thursday to five years’ probation for failing to properly care for two of their foster children last year.

Andrea Hernandez, 38, and her husband, Waldo Hernandez, 40, tearfully begged District Judge Valorie Vega for leniency at the hearing. Clark County prosecutor Dena Rinetti asked for prison time for the couple.

The Hernandezes each pleaded guilty in December to one count of child neglect or endangerment with substantial bodily harm.

As part of their sentence, the couple could no longer be foster parents, babysit or care for other children who were not their own offspring, Vega said. Waldo Hernandez, an immigrant from El Salvador, will also have to comply with immigration authorities and will likely be deported. He remained in custody following the hearing.

Authorities said two foster children were not properly cared for under the Hernandezes’ supervision when county Department of Family Services foster care licensing workers visited the family in September.

A 17-month-old boy had a three-inch burn scar on his arm and another large scar on his buttocks.

The child was burned and scarred when the foster parents’ autistic 13-year-old son tried to change him outside on a hot June day, using a plastic bag as a diaper and the top of a black mini-fridge as the changing table.

A 2-month-old baby was found with a severe skin infection.

Authorities were alerted after the biological mother called to report a diaper rash, county officials have told the Review-Journal.

But it took days for investigators to find the Hernandezes, who were not at their Las Vegas address. They were found living in a mobile home on a dirt lot in Sandy Valley, about 50 miles southwest of Las Vegas. County workers obtained the new address from records of the Clark County School District, where the couple’s son is a student, and reclaimed the foster children.

The two had been licensed foster parents since 2008.”

Foster parents get probation in toddler leg burn case[Las Vegas Review Journal 3/13/14 by Frances Mc Cabe]