How Could You? Hall of Shame-Clarence Garcia UPDATED and 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.

From Alberquerque, New Mexico, foster parent Clarence Garcia who was previously named in a October 2018 lawsuit is now indicted on “13 felony charges” since he has been accused of “sexually abusing six children under his care over a six-year period .”

“Clarence Garcia, who was indicted Jan. 4, remains out of custody after a detention hearing scheduled for Tuesday was pushed back until next month.

Garcia was at the center of an investigation by the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department last year after the agency discovered girls were being placed with Garcia, even though he had repeatedly been accused of sexual abuse and misconduct spanning nearly two decades.

The Jan. 4 indictment deals with incidents involving six alleged victims from 2012 to 2018. It alleges four of the girls were under 13 at the time of the abuse and two were 13 to 18 years old. He is charged with multiple counts of rape and criminal sexual contact of a minor.

Prosecutors have filed a motion asking a judge to detain the 60-year-old Garcia until his trial, but a hearing Tuesday on that request was rescheduled for early next month to allow the defense more time to review the extensive evidence in the case.

“The defendant has shown (he is) a danger by repeatedly sexually abusing some of the most vulnerable members of our community,” prosecutor Rebekah Reyes wrote in a motion for pretrial detention. “The defendant was being ‘supervised’ by CYFD and continued to be allowed to care for young children. Despite supervision, the defendant repeatedly engaged in sexually abusive conduct against minors.”

According to his conditions of release, Garcia cannot have contact with minors and cannot discuss the case with his wife, who is a witness.

The CYFD investigation eventually led the agency to revoke the license of Familyworks Inc., a not-for-profit that placed high-risk children into specialized foster homes. According to a search warrant, Garcia and his wife had contracted with the company to provide care since 1997.

The July search warrant filed in 2nd Judicial District Court pointed out that there had been claims of sexual abuse involving several children, ages 6 to 16, who had been placed in his home by Familyworks. Investigators said CYFD noted “consistent separate disclosures of food being used as a coercive tool from Clarence against the girls so he would be allowed to molest and penetrate them.”

But Christopher Dodd, who is representing Garcia, said Tuesday that his client is an innocent, law-abiding man and that some of the children involved in the case made disclosures only after repeated contacts from law enforcement.

“Having looked at the police reports thus far, it looks like many of the accusers initially made statements that there was no sexual contact,” Dodd said. “And we are very concerned about that fact.”

Dodd said one report he received indicates an accuser recanted and told police that she lied because she was upset because she wasn’t given her allowance.

Garcia, along with Familyworks and CYFD, is named in a civil suit filed by the mother of a foster child who says she was raped repeatedly for more than a year while in his custody.

Dodd said he also finds the lawsuit concerning.”

Foster parent charged with assaulting six girls in his care

[Albuquerque Journal 1/15/19 by Katy Barnitz]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update:“A former foster parent accused of sexually abusing multiple young girls under his care will remain out of custody as he awaits what could be several trials.

Clarence Garcia, 65, is facing 13 felony charges tied to incidents that took place over a span of six years and involved six children, according to court documents.

State District Court Judge Jacqueline Flores pointed to Garcia’s numerous health issues along with the fact that he no longer had access to foster children as she announced her decision. Garcia must wear a GPS monitor and is prohibited from having contact with children, according to his conditions of release.

Flores’ decision came at the end of a lengthy hearing Thursday that included testimony from the lead detective on the case. He acknowledged that there is no physical evidence in the case and that the state would likely rely on victims’ testimony at trial.

Garcia’s lawyer Christopher Dodd emphasized the lack of physical evidence as he asked Flores to keep his client, who has no criminal record, out of jail. At least one of the victims, he said, had a history of making false allegations, and he was concerned as to why so many accusers had only recently disclosed abuse.

“I just don’t think that the weight of the evidence here really shows that he is a danger,” he said.

Prosecutor Rebekah Reyes said that the case is centered on a systemic failure to protect some of the most vulnerable children in the foster care system.

“These are kids with problems, there’s no disputing that,” Reyes said. “That’s what makes them perfect victims. When kids like this are abused, nobody believes them.”

Reyes asked that Garcia be detained because there was no way to guarantee that he would not have contact with children. But Flores said evidence presented in the hearing showed the alleged victims in this case were all foster children, and Garcia no longer has access to foster children.

Garcia was at the center of a Children Youth and Families Department investigation that found children were being placed with him even though he had faced abuse and misconduct allegations dating back nearly 20 years. The investigation led the agency to revoke the license of Familyworks Inc., a nonprofit that placed high-risk children into specialized foster homes, including Garcia’s.”

Abuse suspect to remain free before trial

[Albuquerque Journal 2/7/19 by Katy Barnitz]

A search of the court case files in New Mexico finds that Clarence will go on trial on 4/15/20.

Update 2:“A Rio Arriba County jury late Friday awarded a staggering $485 million in a lawsuit filed on behalf of a girl who was sexually abused in a specialized foster care program designed to provide her with behavioral health treatment, according to an attorney who represented the child.

“I think the jury’s award and verdict show the little girl she is valued and that what happened to her shouldn’t have happened,” attorney Josh Conaway of the Fadduol, Cluff, Hardy & Conaway law firm said in a telephone interview Friday evening.

Conaway said the jury deliberated for six or seven hours Friday following a two-week trial in the state district courthouse in Tierra Amarilla before delivering its verdict in favor of the child’s court-appointed guardian, Shasta Inman.

Another court-appointed guardian, Lindsey Fooks, filed the lawsuit in 2019 against several defendants: former foster parents Clarence Garcia and his wife, Debbie Garcia; the nonprofit Familyworks Inc.; behavioral health provider Acadia Healthcare and its CEO, Joey Jacobs; and Acadia subsidiaries Youth and Family Centered Services of New Mexico Inc. and Desert Hills, a onetime residential treatment center for children.

The lawsuit accused the companies of failing to protect children in their care from Clarence Garcia, a foster parent certified through Familyworks who was criminally charged with sexual abuse of children and named in several lawsuits accusing him of abuse.

The state Children, Youth and Families Department revoked a license for Acadia-owned Desert Hills in 2019 amid reports of sexual abuse and violence at the facility, and ordered the Albuquerque center’s operators to shut it down. Desert Hills had run Familyworks, Conaway said.

Attempts to reach attorneys for Acadia, which operates in several states, were unsuccessful late Friday.

The jury’s verdicts on each of the counts in the complaint and the amount of the award had not yet been posted online Friday evening by the First Judicial District Court.

The lawsuit is one of about 10 the firm filed on behalf of children against Acadia related to abuse and neglect, Conaway said. Three of the cases involved Clarence Garcia, who was accused of sexually assaulting children in his care. Conaway added most of the cases have been resolved while others are still pending, with one set to go to trial in the next few weeks.

Garcia, who received no jail time after pleading guilty to seven counts of criminal sexual contact, is awaiting sentencing on an alleged probation violation that could put him behind bars, according to online court records.

The lawsuit decided Friday alleged Familyworks had selected, authorized and certified Clarence and Debbie Garcia to care for an 8-year-old Bernalillo County girl despite “prior knowledge that Clarence Garcia was sexually abusing and sexually assaulting foster children placed in his care.”

He repeatedly raped the girl in 2018, the lawsuit alleged.

Garcia was accused of sexually abusing at least six girls in treatment foster care over a seven-year period, according to a motion prosecutors filed in 2019 in the 2nd Judicial District Court seeking to have him detained until his trial in a criminal case.

Garcia was charged with 13 counts in the criminal case, including 11 counts of criminal sexual contact and two counts of child rape, according to a grand jury indictment. The Bernalillo County girl was among his alleged victims.

He pleaded guilty in January to seven counts of criminal sexual contact under a plea agreement that called for him to receive a suspended 42-year sentence, with five to 20 years of supervised probation.

During his plea hearing in January, prosecutor Rebekah Reyes said the deal was in the best interest of Garcia’s victims, KRQE-TV reported.

“Knowing how hard it is to get a jury to convict on child sex abuse cases, especially when we’re dealing with severance, this plea was very much in the best interest of these kids so that they wouldn’t have to go through the process of a trial,” the prosecutor said, according to KRQE.

Judge Britt Baca-Miller agreed to suspend the 42 years of prison time at the initial sentencing, the TV news station reported, but decided it could be imposed if Garcia violated the terms of the agreement.

The judge imposed a 20-year period of probation, a court record shows.

Prosecutor Shane Briley filed a motion April 21 asking the court to revoke Garcia’s probation after he was accused of participating in online activity prohibited under his conditions of probation and found in possession of prohibited items, including weapons.

Garcia admitted he had a Facebook account, the motion says, and “by his own admission, his account had pictures of his nieces and nephews of ages 7 to 15 years old.” The motion lists numerous items seized as evidence, from bags of stuffed animals to firearms schematics, an ax, live rifle rounds and 10 unauthorized cellphones.

Court records indicate Garcia admitted to at least one of the probation violations June 29 and is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 3.”
Attorney: Rio Arriba County jury awards $485M in lawsuit alleging child sex abuse
[Santa Fe New Mexican 7/7/23 by Phaedra Haywood]