How Could You? Hall of Shame-Gloria Joya case-Child Death & Lawsuit Now Bittersweet Justice

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.

A 2016 case has been revealed.

From Oregon, “the estate of a 15-year-old Albany girl who died from severe gastrointestinal problems while under child-welfare workers’ watch filed a $9.5 million lawsuit Thursday against the state of Oregon.

The estate of [foster child] Gloria Joya claims the girl lived a life filled with abuse and neglect from her earliest years, and the stress from that contributed to gastrointestinal issues that weren’t properly treated and led to her death in April 2016.

According to the lawsuit and the state’s own investigation into the circumstances leading to Gloria’s death, state child-welfare workers failed to intervene in the girl’s life despite reports of:

• Her parents fighting, throwing objects and breaking them — causing Gloria and her frightened siblings to move to another room.
• Finger marks on the girl’s neck and her statement that she’d been choked.
• Her mother repeatedly using methamphetamine and living with the girl in a shelter.
• The girl missing school.
• The girl witnessing her mother engaged in sexual activity with others.

During a 13½-year period, child-welfare workers were contacted 28 times with concerns about Gloria’s health and safety.

The Oregon Department of Human Services closed many of the reports at screening without further investigation because it determined the reported conduct wasn’t considered abuse or to be a threat to Gloria’s safety. In one case, a screener determined a report that Gloria’s mother was using meth shouldn’t be investigated further because the caller was “unable to demonstrate how the mother’s drug use impacted her ability to provide care for her child.”

“The lawsuit claims DHS didn’t remove Gloria from her mother’s custody until about a year before the girl’s death — years after the first signs of stress-related gastrointestinal problems surfaced and shortly after the girl had contemplated suicide.

The suit claims that in the days before her April 2016 death, she began isolating herself in her room in her temporary, emergency foster home. The suit claims the foster parents failed to check on her for a few days. The suit also claims that when the foster parents and a caseworker realized Gloria was in poor health physically and mentally, they sent her to her aunt’s house instead of bringing her to the hospital on the night of April 26, 2016.

The aunt was worried about the girl’s severely distended stomach and pain and brought her to the hospital the next morning, the suit states. Gloria died the next day, according to the suit.

DHS spokeswoman Andrea Cantu-Schomus declined comment Friday for this story.

Under state law, DHS officials are required to conduct an investigation and write a “critical incident report” after children under their watch are badly injured or die.

In Gloria’s case, the critical incident report identified lapses in DHS’s supervision of Gloria’s care — including that information about Gloria’s gastrointestinal problems and schedule of taking medication weren’t relayed to the emergency foster family she was placed with in the days before her death.

But DHS also stated in its report that Gloria was embarrassed by her gastrointestinal problems and tried to hide them.

“The Designated Medical Provider (DMP) reviewed the case postmortem and concluded that no adult in the home could have predicted or prevented the fatality, as they were not provided adequate information regarding G.J.’s medical and mental health history, how these concerns intersect, and how significant stress made the child vulnerable to severe complications,” the critical incident report reads.

Read DHS’s critical incident report here.

Beaverton attorney Paul Galm and Steve Milla are representing Gloria’s estate.

Read  the lawsuit here.

Gloria’s parents are listed as the two heirs to her estate. But that’s in dispute.

An attorney for Gloria’s 10-year-old sister has filed court papers asking that a judge void their claims to the estate because her father “willfully deserted” Gloria in the 10 years leading up to her death and her mother neglected her, the court papers say. If a judge grants that request, any cash settlement or jury award for the lawsuit would go entirely to Gloria’s younger siblings.”

$9.5 million lawsuit claims death of foster child, 15, was stress-related

[Oregon Live 9/1/17 by Aimee Green]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update: “The state of Oregon has agreed to pay $1.25 million to the family of a 15-year-old Albany girl who died under the watch of child welfare workers.

Gloria Joya died while in foster care in 2016 from untreated gastrointestinal problems, a health condition that a 2017 lawsuit claimed was made worse because of the girl’s tumultuous life.

The lawsuit said child welfare workers with the Oregon Department of Human Services had been contacted 28 times with concerns about Joya, starting when she was 1 year old and continuing until she was 14. Callers repeatedly voiced fears that she faced abuse or neglect while living with one or both of her parents, yet the department didn’t take custody of her until she was 14, the suit said.

According to the lawsuit and the state’s own investigation into Joya’s death, the girl she missed an unusual amount school, her mother repeatedly used methamphetamine while living with her in a shelter and her parents fought and threw items in front of her and her siblings. Joya also said she’d been choked.

Paul Galm, a lawyer who represented Joya’s estate along with attorney Steve Milla, said the number of times people had contacted the department about Joya was “startling.”

“I think that’s one of the reasons that led to the settlement,” Galm said.

Joya died days after she’d been moved to a temporary emergency foster home in April 2016. The lawsuit claimed her health quickly deteriorated, but instead of rushing her to the hospital, a caseworker sent her to her aunt’s house. Her aunt brought her to the hospital the next morning, but the girl died the following day, the suit said.

Joya’s death marked one of the last times the Department of Human Services disclosed its full history of involvement in a child’s life by filing a required child fatality report. The state has subsequently withheld vital information about child deaths, making it difficult for survivors to pursue wrongful death lawsuits against it.

Terms of the $1.25 million settlement became public this week after attorneys filed settlement documents in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

After paying fees to lawyers and expenses generated by the lawsuit, $780,000 of the settlement will go to Joya’s family. Of that, about $130,000 will go to each of her four surviving siblings, ages 4 to 14. Another $130,000 will go to her mother, Magan Michelle McDermott, and $130,000 will go to her father, Jerry Rivera Joya.

Erin Olson, an attorney for Joya’s 12-year-old sister, urged a judge to prevent the parents from getting any money based on allegations that they failed to fulfill their parental duties: her mother by neglecting her and her father for leaving her life many years earlier.

But the legal threshold is high for excluding parents from such settlements.

Olson wrote in court papers that it would have been tough to prevail given that Joya’s mother could have argued that she tried to be there as a parent for her daughter despite her drug addiction and Joya’s father could have argued he struggled with “severe mental illness” in the years he remained out of contact with his daughter.”

State pays $1.25 million for death of 15-year-old foster child

[Oregon Live 11/29/18 by Aimee Green]