Whistleblower Dennis Finn Agrees to $1.85 Million Settlement With L.A. County Over Child Welfare Failures

Whistleblower Dennis Finn Dennis Finn L.A. County Child Welfare Child Welfare Failures Gabriel Fernandez

By Joel Brussels , Parent Herald Apr 21, 08:14 pm

Photo: (Photo : FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)

Los Angeles County supervisors approved a $1.85-million payment on Tuesday, April 19, to settle a whistleblower lawsuit brought upon by a former county social worker who made allegations that he had uncovered a pattern of systemic misconduct that endangered thousands of kids, records show.

According to an amended civil complaint filed at the L.A. County Superior Court on June 23, 2020, Dennis Finn served as a social worker for the county's Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) for 24 years before he was fired on May 22, 2019. CityWatchLA reported that Finn was subjected to harassment, retaliation, and disability discrimination for blowing the whistle at DCFS.

The complaint stated that Finn's suspicions of misconduct emerged following the death of 8-year-old boy Gabriel Fernandez. He died on May 24, 2013, two days after he was beaten in his home in Palmdale.

Finn uncovers irregularities within the DCFS

A review of confidential documents in the days after Fernandez's death showed that county social workers left the victim in the care of his mother and his mother's boyfriend despite the mom being investigated six times regarding abuse allegations over the previous decade.

The Los Angeles Daily News reported that Pearl Sinthia Fernandez, Gabriel's mother, was later sentenced to life without parole in 2018. Isauro Aguirre, Pearl's boyfriend, received a death sentence. Young Gabriel's murder case put the DCFS under intense scrutiny. Officials decided to assemble a Blue Ribbon Commission on Child Protection, which recommended a series of reforms for child welfare.

Finn did not stop there, though, as he dug for more details surrounding Fernandez's case. According to the complaint, Finn had noted by the year 2016 ongoing issues similar to the inappropriate or delayed responses leading up to the death of Gabriel.

According to the legal papers, Finn found out that calls reporting suspected child abuse, neglect, and exploitation, which should have warranted the authorities' immediate action, were being systematically delayed.

The documents stated that Finn discovered that some calls were not entered until later dates, and other calls were put into DCFS systems under an improper code, listing them as consultations instead of emergency response referrals.

Finn became a whistleblower after authorities ignored initial efforts

The complaint stated that instances of delays and miscoding resulted in deep systematic flaw[s] whereby kids suffered severe injuries, continued abuse, and other brutal acts due to a failure of the defendants to ensure that their intervention and reporting were being conducted properly and in a manner compliant with relevant regulations, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times.

Finn initially reported the problems internally but later took his concerns to the union, the California Department of Social Services, hotline supervisors, representatives, and other county agencies. Court documents stated that Finn decided to take this course of action after his initial efforts were ignored or retaliated against by authorities.