CYFD investigator alleges retaliation for refusing to cover up negative findings

It was only a matter of time before someone died.

That was the warning of a veteran investigator in the state Children, Youth and Families Department who contends in a newly filed whistleblower lawsuit that she was overruled by a supervisor who insisted on sending five abused and neglected siblings back to a mother who was unable to care for them.

Within a month of their return, the eldest youth was fatally shot in the head on the streets of Hobbs by an unknown assailant, according to a lawsuit filed last month by Elizabeth Parrish against CYFD in state district court in Santa Fe. And after 20 years in the agency, with a stellar record, Parrish alleges she became the target of harassment, criticism and bullying by her superior and others in the office.

“The New Mexico Children, Youth, and Families Department (CYFD) takes all claims and allegations seriously,” said Andrew Skobinsky, an agency spokesman, in an email. “It would be premature to comment at this time as this case is currently pending litigation. Once CYFD has had an opportunity to review the claims, we will respond appropriately through the legal process.”

It is the second time in four years that CYFD supervisor Patricia Garza — who declined to comment for this story — has been accused of misconduct in a whistleblower lawsuit filed by CYFD investigators in southeastern New Mexico.

Two years ago, the state paid out $340,000 to two CYFD investigators who alleged their supervisors ignored “red flag after red flag” regarding the safety of two children in state custody. The children were sent home on a trial visit in 2020 and were kidnapped by their parents, who fled the state. One of the children, a toddler, ended up blind as a result of subsequent physical abuse. CYFD admitted no wrongdoing in settling that case.

The Parrish lawsuit contends that CYFD had custody of the five siblings in mid-2023, but the oldest child was an “at risk youth who had become involved with street gangs. No one in the (boy’s) biological family was able to care for him, provide him with a safe environment, or divert him from the influence of his dangerous associates.” Their grandmother had previously cared for them.

In July 2023, CYFD decided to place them with their mother on a trial home visit, the lawsuit alleges.

“Garza was wholly uninterested in (the 17-year-old’s) wellbeing,” the lawsuit states. “Instead she was motivated by the desire to rid her office of a difficult, resource-intensive case.”

By September, the Hobbs CYFD office had received multiple abuse and neglect referrals related to the siblings, including allegations that the 17-year-old had been involved in multiple altercations where firearms were drawn or discharged. Parrish substantiated the allegations, as the investigator on the case. And recommended the children be immediately transferred to “an appropriate foster home.”

The children’s mother even told Parrish and others in the CYFD office that she could not care for the children herself and needed assistance.

The lawsuit states that Garza disregarded those pleas, and allegedly ordered Parrish not to add her factual findings or professional opinions to CYFD’s database, and to unsubstantiate the allegations.

But Parrish “disobeyed Garza’s improper orders. She entered the notes into the database and substantiated the abuse and neglect.”

Garza, however, “kept the existence of the abuse and neglect allegations hidden from the Children’s Court judge in the case. Instead, as far as the court knew, everything was fine,” the lawsuit alleges.

As a result, the judge dismissed the case in January, and granted permanent custody of the children to the mother. On Feb. 6, the 17-year-old was shot in the head by an unknown assailant and died two days later.

Parrish “refused to go along with Garza’s unethical, dangerous scheme,” the lawsuit states. “From that point onwards, however, she has been the target of continuous harassment, criticism and bullying from Garza and her cronies.”

Over the past year, Parrish, a child protective services investigations supervisor with 20 years at the agency, “has been reprimanded, had her reputation smeared, and been subjected to nonstop abuse.” The lawsuit alleges that Parrish has learned that Garza’s plan is to “find or fabricate a pretexual reason to terminate or make workplace conditions so intolerable that she quits.”

“The basic MO is the same: paint a rosier picture, maybe leave some information out, to make it seem like the kids are fine and that it’s OK to dismiss the case,” said Benjamin Gubernick, a Houston attorney who filed both cases. “The goal is to do as little as possible and keep the caseloads down.”