XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: emailsme@null.com   
      
   PALMDALE, CALIF. (AP) –  Graphic grand jury testimony reveals   
   details of the abuse suffered by an 8-year-old Los Angeles   
   County boy allegedly battered to death by his mother and her   
   boyfriend.   
      
   Court documents made public Monday show Gabriel Fernandez was   
   doused with pepper spray, forced to eat his own vomit and locked   
   in a cabinet with a sock stuffed in his mouth to muffle his   
   screams, the Los Angeles Times reported.   
      
   The Palmdale boy died in May 2013, days after he was   
   hospitalized with injuries including a cracked skull, broken   
   ribs and burns.   
      
   Pearl Fernandez and Isauro Aguirre have pleaded not guilty to   
   murder charges with special allegations of torture. They are in   
   jail awaiting trial.   
      
   Gabriel remained with his mother and her boyfriend despite   
   several investigations by social workers. The incident prompted   
   calls for sweeping reforms to the troubled Los Angeles County   
   foster-care system because child welfare workers failed to   
   remove the boy. Officials have taken steps to fire two social   
   workers and two supervisors, while others involved in the case   
   received letters of warning or reprimands.   
      
   The newspaper reviewed more than 800 pages of testimony.   
      
   Fernandez called 911 on May 22, 2013, to report that her son was   
   not breathing. She told sheriff's deputies who arrived at the   
   apartment that Gabriel had fallen and hit his head on a dresser,   
   according to testimony. When paramedics arrived, they found   
   Gabriel naked in a bedroom, not breathing, with BB pellets   
   embedded in his lung and groin. He died two days later.   
      
   "It was just like every inch of this child had been abused,"   
   testified James Cermak, a Los Angeles County Fire Department   
   paramedic.   
      
   Attorneys representing Fernandez, 30, and Aguirre, 34, could not   
   be reached for comment Monday. Because of repeated delays in   
   setting a preliminary hearing, prosecutors convened a grand   
   jury. The indictment was returned July 28.   
      
   Fernandez and Aguirre deliberately tortured the boy to death,   
   hiding their tracks with forged doctor's notes and lies to   
   authorities, Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Hatami told the   
   grand jury.   
      
   "For eight straight months, he was abused, beaten and tortured   
   more severely than many prisoners of war," Hatami said.   
      
   The abuse worsened in the months leading up to Gabriel's death,   
   according to testimony from two of his siblings, both of whom   
   are minors. They said Gabriel was forced to eat cat feces,   
   rotten spinach and his own vomit. He slept in a locked cabinet   
   and wasn't let out to go to the bathroom.   
      
   Several agencies investigated allegations of abuse before   
   Gabriel's death without removing the boy from the home. On   
   multiple occasions, deputies went to the family's apartment or   
   to Gabriel's school to investigate reports of abuse and of the   
   boy being suicidal. Each time, they concluded there was no   
   evidence of abuse and did not write a detailed report.   
      
   http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2014/08/20/graphic-account-   
   shows-mother-boyfriend-allegedly-beat-8-year-old-son-to-   
   death/?intcmp=obnetwork   
      
       
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)