How Could You? Hall of Shame-Kaya Centeno case-Missing Child and Lawsuit 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 Rohnert Park, California, adoptive parents Jose and Gina Centeno “were arrested on August 19 after it was alleged that they abused their adoptive kids for years.”
“Rohnert Park Police are investigating the disappearance of a girl who was last seen nearly ten years ago. The investigation into the missing case of Kaya Centeno was launched after her parents were accused of abusing her siblings.”
“According to the 14-count complaint filed on August 20 in Sonoma County Superior Court, the couple has been held at the Sonoma County Jail on $18 million bail. Both of them have been charged with felony torture and other crimes. Besides, Jose has also been charged with an additional nine felony crimes for his suspected sexual abuse of the 17-year-old girl, identified as Jane Doe #1 in the complaint. If found guilty, the couple would likely receive life sentences.
During the investigation, Jane and her 15-year-old brother told investigators that they have another sibling, Kaya, who would have turned 18 on May 23. The pair said their sister vanished from their Rohnert Park home between 2010 and 2012. She was between eight to twelve years old when she was last seen. It was also reported that Kaya was a student at John Reed Elementary School, but her admission was canceled when she was in second grade allegedly to be homeschooled, police said as reported by The Press Democrat.
Now, local police are urging the public to come forward if they have any information regarding the missing girl. Rohnert Park police Sergeant Keith Astley said: “We want to find Kaya. We want to hear from anybody who knows Kaya. Have they seen Kaya? When was the last time they saw Kaya? Kaya was in the household and then she was not. We don’t know where Kaya is, and we want to find her.” If anyone has any information, they have been requested to call the Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety at 707-584-2612, or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST). In addition, Rohnert Park Police have also worked with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to make a picture of what present Kaya might look like.
Police in Rohnert Park got to know about the alleged abuse on July 24 when authorities in Mexico informed Sonoma County child protective services of abuse against the kids, who had been put in protective custody with extended family in the country about one and a half years ago. Jose and Gina Centeno had adopted five children: three siblings and later on, twins. However, after the couple separated, the wife has been taking care of the twins. The suspects have also been charged with felony kidnapping since they allegedly hide the three older siblings to get adoption assistance funding, the complaint stated.
The reports also stated that Jose and Gina Centeno gave the reason behind Kaya’s disappearance to her siblings, but that detail has not been made public since the investigation was still in an early stage. Meanwhile, police said in a statement that investigators have, however, discovered evidence at the Centenos’ C Section home “to corroborate the victims’ statements about the abuse”.”
[Meaww 9/15/2020 by Divya Kishore]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Update:“The attorney for 53-year-old Gina Centeno says his client, who was in custody, died at a hospital in Sacramento on Sunday. The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office says she died of natural causes after being diagnosed with Leukemia. Her trial was going to start in May. Centeno and her husband were to stand trial on suspicion of torturing three foster children, including one who disappeared in 2012.”
Rohnert Park Suspect In Foster Care Abuse Case Dies In Custody
[KSRO 1/10/24]
Update 2:“A federal judge on Monday cut some claims against Sonoma County and its employees brought by three people who claimed they were repeatedly abused by their guardians on the county’s watch.
U.S. District Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin dismissed several claims against county employees for a lack of specificity, tossing accusations that they provided false information to a court and negligently inflicted emotional distress on the foster children.
However, the judge also let multiple claims survive against county employee Amy Lafferty, the former Adoption Services representative whom the plaintiffs accuse of deliberately ignoring suspicious reports on their abusive foster parents.
In her order, the Joe Biden appointee said Lafferty was not immune to the plaintiffs’ breach of mandatory duty claims.
“Lafferty again argues plaintiffs’ claims are conclusory and fail to meet the ‘high legal standard’ of deliberate indifference, but she fails to show why the court should depart from its previous ruling,” Martinez-Olguin ruled.
The court previously denied Lafferty’s motion to dismiss this claim after the plaintiffs successfully argued that a reasonable officer should have seen a significant risk of harm in their adoption.
In their lawsuit, the three plaintiffs say they were physically and sexually abused by their foster family for several years after Sonoma County removed them from the custody of their biological parents in 2006. The plaintiffs were siblings under the age of five when they were placed with foster parents Jose and Gina Centeno in 2006, despite reports that the Centeno family had abused two other foster children from earlier that year.
The plaintiffs accuse Lafferty, specifically, of placing them in a home with abusive foster parents without due diligence, noting that the county worker didn’t consider their extended family members as prospective adoptees and never met with or interviewed the foster parents before their adoption.
In doing so, they claim Lafferty violated a mandatory duty required by California adoption program regulations.
Though the judge dismissed claims that Lafferty provided false information to a court while assigned to the then-foster children’s case, she still allowed the plaintiffs the chance to repair the claim in a future filing.
Claims against other county employees were not as successful.
The judge dismissed the plaintiffs claims against certain county social workers for interfering with their proper foster home placement by providing false information to a court, which they argued is a violation of their Fourteenth Amendment rights.
The claims, she said, were too general, lacked key information or failed to claim that the workers’ actions were “carried out with malice.”
The plaintiffs have until July 9, 2025, to fix their claims and refile an amended lawsuit.
The plaintiffs first sued Sonoma County and California in 2022 over claims that the county, the state and foster care agency TLC Child and Family Services ignored their pleas and reports from the social workers and others and allowed their abuse to continue.
The plaintiffs say the state agencies received frequent reports between October 2006 and September 2008 from the children’s biological extended family and others, including a county social worker, that the children were being physically and emotionally abused, including that they were seen with bruising on their arms and legs, and that they did not want to leave family visits. In 2010, the children’s teachers reported that they were coming to school with unexplained bruises.
At one point, the children told a social worker that they were kicked and hit with belts, fists and wooden spoons, and were forced to stand holding heavy objects above their heads in the shower as punishment. The children say they were later taken out of school by the Centenos and hidden in captivity.
The plaintiffs also claim that between 2011 and 2018, the Centenos shackled them to their beds with alarms to prevent them from leaving, kept them in cages and sexually abused them. One sibling, Kaya, has not been seen since 2012, the plaintiffs say. Eventually, the Centenos took the children to Mexico, where the children told the authorities about the abuse they suffered.
Mexico Child Protective Services alerted Sonoma County Child Protective Services about the reports of abuse in 2020. The children were brought back to California, and a criminal investigation began, which led to the arrests of Jose and Gina Centeno in August 2020. Gina Centeno has since died, but Jose Centeno was sentenced to multiple life sentences in August 2024.
The judge allowed several claims to survive a previous motion to dismiss the case in September 2024, although she did dismiss claims against the California with prejudice at the time, citing the Eleventh Amendment.
The plaintiffs filed the case’s fourth amended complaint in October 2024. The defendants moved to dismiss in December 2025.
This case was filed in the Northern District of California.”
Judge thins claims against Sonoma County employees in foster child abuse case
[Courthouse News 6/16/25 by Matt Simon]
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