ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The New Mexico Children, Youth, and Families Department (CYFD) is facing yet another lawsuit. Six defendants—investigators and supervisors within CYFD—are accused of dropping the ball when it came to two children whose parents, Teri Sanchez and James Stewart, were accused of sexually and physically abusing them. Stewart is serving prison time for prostituting his kids.
The lawsuit brought by the children’s current guardian claimed CYFD didn’t investigate dozens of reports of abuse properly that date all the way back to 2004 and even knowingly violated policy.
“I think there are steps we could’ve and should’ve taken to better protect this little girl and her brother,” said Monique Jacobson, former CYFD cabinet secretary under former Governor Susana Martinez.
At the time in 2018, she was talking about the department’s mishandling of the case of two children in the care of Teri Sanchez and James Stewart. In 2019, Stewart was sentenced to 20 years behind bars for prostituting his children, child abuse, and other charges. Sanchez was declared mentally incompetent to stand trial.
Now, five years later, the children’s current guardian is suing CYFD for knowingly violating policy and procedures while investigating the roughly 46 reports and 22 investigations of child abuse and neglect by the time the children were seven and eight years old.
The lawsuit said investigators and supervisors were not licensed social workers and didn’t have the professional basis to assess the children’s home life.
It suggests how overloaded investigators were: one defendant is listed as having almost 150 cases when they were assigned this one. The lawsuit stated investigators didn’t see the children in a timely manner; didn’t take pictures or meet face to face in some cases; didn’t drug test Sanchez or Stewart; told teachers to stop making reports of abuse; told law enforcement there was nothing to investigate; ignored disclosures by the children; and falsified records and documentation of their investigation.
The lawsuit goes on to say that higher-level CYFD officials maintained a culture where workers did not have to comply with CYFD policy, and prioritized clearing the backlog of cases and staying within the department’s budget over properly investigating the allegations.
The lawsuit claimed a CYFD internal review of the case ended in the discipline of five of the defendants and the termination of only one.
CYFD told News 13 in a statement they were unable to discuss this case as it’s pending litigation.
The current guardian of the two children is seeking compensation and damages for CYFD’s ‘reckless violation’ of the children’s constitutional rights.
