CHILD-WELFARE BLUNDERS LED TO BOY'S DEATH TODDLER RETURNED TO ABUSIVE DAD WITHOUT CHECKS, REPORT SAYS.

Byline: Michael Gougis Staff Writer

In a scathing indictment of the child-welfare system, investigators blamed social workers for poor oversight, incompetence and numerous policy violations for returning a 22-month-old boy to his Lancaster family where his father - a convicted wife batterer and child abuser - beat him to death, the Daily News has learned.

The confidential county auditor/controller report dated Oct. 31 concludes that a series of blunders by the Department of Children and Family Services contributed to the April 23 death of Isaac Lopez. DCFS officials said they have not seen the report and couldn't comment and don't know whether anyone has been disciplined.

Children's advocates who reviewed the report were shocked, saying the case ranked among the nation's worst examples of incompetence by child-welfare workers.

Isaac's battered and burned body was found in a duffel bag in the back of his father's van. Both parents are facing murder charges.

The report said social workers did not inform Juvenile Court authorities or an examining psychiatrist about key facts involving the family's decade-long history of domestic violence, child abuse and the mother's inability to provide for her seven children.

``A lengthy history, dating back to 1992, revealed unresolved issues of homelessness, physical abuse by father/stepfather, domestic violence between mother and father/stepfather, as well as a consistent pattern of violating court order, misleading DCFS and the court about the familial circumstances,'' the report said.

Still, the children were returned to the mother's custody but social workers offered such little oversight they did not know Isaac's father had moved in again.

``There are a million policies here that weren't followed,'' said Carole Shauffer, executive director of the Youth Law Center, a statewide association of advocates for disadvantaged kids. ``This is really bad. Have they given up entirely on protecting children there?''

According to the report, Lopez and his six brothers were placed in foster care in July 2001 after being found homeless and starving in the Covina area. Just 16 months later, they were returned to a mother so unable to care for them or herself that she'd shown up, on one occasion, to visit her children with bruises on her face and an eye swollen shut.

A copy of the report has been sent to the county Board of Supervisors for review.

Isaac's parents, Anthony Lopez, 35, and Sylvia Rolon, 41, face charges of murder, assault on a child causing death and child abuse. Each has pleaded not guilty and remains in custody.

The DCFS investigation stated that Lopez - who used a number of aliases - and Rolon had been accused of child abuse and neglect several times since 1992. At the time the child was returned to his parents, the DCFS also had reports showing Lopez was convicted of spousal abuse and child abuse of Isaac's older brother.

An autopsy concluded that Isaac died from asphyxiation and multiple internal and external injuries. Investigators also found that the boy's face and head had been severely burned after he was killed, a county coroner spokesman said.

Among the report's findings:

--A psychiatrist advised that Rolon's seven children could eventually be returned to her, but only after several conditions had been met. Caseworkers read only one paragraph of the lengthy report, misinterpreted the doctor's recommendations and returned the children before the mother had met the conditions.

--Caseworkers didn't tell the psychiatrist or the Juvenile Court judge that Lopez and Rolon had a 10-year history of neglect and abuse. Caseworkers admitted to investigators that they hadn't read the case file. Investigators said the court would have made ``significantly different orders'' had it been aware of this information.

--Rolon failed to comply with previous court orders and DCFS recommendations to obtain domestic-violence counseling, yet her children were returned to her anyway.

--When the family relocated from the Covina area to Lancaster, the Covina-based social worker tried twice to transfer the case to a DCFS office in the Antelope Valley. Both times, DCFS officials in Lancaster refused to take the case, citing overwhelming caseloads. That meant the family was being supervised by a caseworker almost 100 miles away. The caseworker did not visit the family as often as required by DCFS policy.

--Social workers failed to run a fingerprint scan on the father, which would have revealed his prior arrests and convictions.

--When the caseworker last visited the family, just three days before Isaac was found dead, the children told the social worker the father was still living in Iowa. However, the social worker failed to ask neighbors - a routine check - whether the father was around. Had they knocked on the next apartment door, they would have found that Lopez had been living in the apartment for at least a month.

``Clearly, the boat was missed here,'' said Deanne Tilton-Durfee, executive director of the county's Inter-Agency Council on Child Abuse and Neglect.

Michael Gougis, [phone]

michael.gougis(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1) Sheriff's investigators check the apartment of Sylvia Rolon in Lancaster on April 25 in their search for Issac Lopez, who later was found dead in his father's van.

Daily News

(2 -- color) Isaac Lopez, seen at age 1, was beaten to death by his father April 23 after being returned to his family by county social workers.

(3) Anthony Lopez, 35, shown in a file photo, faces murder charges in the death of his son Issac. According to a report, a caseworker who visited Issac's home three days before his death was ignorant that Lopez, a convicted child abuser, was living next door.