DID FLAWS IN THE SYSTEM DOOM DESARIE SARAVIA?

Byline: Amy Raisin Darvish Staff Writer

NORTHRIDGE - Inside a white plastic shopping bag is a jumble of legal documents and other papers, remnants of Marina Jovel's futile battle to win custody of her two young grandchildren.

Although there were signs the children had been abused, the law was stacked against her.

Jovel says her son was too troubled to even supply a blood test to prove paternity. The children's mother had troubles, too, and first left them in her own mother's care and eventually with Jovel - a two-week stint that stretched into two years.

Then, on July 28, the mother came to pick up her children, brushing aside Jovel, whose desperate plea to the Department of Child and Family Services was to no avail.

The result was tragic. On Nov. 12, sheriff's investigators say, 5-year-old Desarie Saravia was raped and fatally beaten in a Castaic park by her mother's boyfriend. Her older brother also was battered and suffered internal injuries.

Debby Saravia, their 26-year-old mother, has been jailed on $1 million bail on multiple child-abuse charges. Her 23-year-old boyfriend, Antonio Rodriguez, faces charges of torture, rape and capital murder. The boy has been placed in protective custody.

``They made my mother give the kids back,'' said Joel Soriano, another of Jovel's sons and the children's uncle. ``My mom refused ... but then the social worker called and said she could go to jail if she didn't do it.

``Desi was crying and screaming. She didn't want to go with her mother. Debby had to drag her out of here. Now Desi is gone, and there's nothing we can do to bring her back.''

Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, who has pressed for reforms in child services, has asked the county Department of Children and Family Services to prepare a report about its handling of Desarie's case.

``We don't know the facts of this case,'' said Raine Richey, a spokeswoman for Antonovich. ``Supervisor Antonovich is quite concerned and wants the appropriate discipline taken. We will wait for the DCFS to investigate and get back to us.''

DCFS spokeswoman Louise Grasmehr said the case was being investigated, but that state law prohibited her department from commenting further.

Jovel said her son, Oscar Jovel Jr., never married Saravia and was never involved with the children, who lived for a while with their maternal grandmother. When they moved into Jovel's Northridge apartment about two years ago, she quit her job as a housekeeper to care for them.

A few months ago, she enrolled Desarie and her brother in school and bought them supplies and new clothes.

``She was so excited, she couldn't wait to start school,'' Soriano said. ``She slept with that (Hello Kitty) backpack every night. She wore it around the house. My mom told Desi she had to put it away because it wouldn't be new and clean for when she started school.''

Jovel made sure the youngsters had their immunizations - the medical reports part of a small file on the children that Jovel keeps in the plastic supermarket bag. There also are letters to Jovel from the county and state agencies confirming that she applied for and received financial assistance for the children.

There also is a flimsy paper plate - worn and folded in quarters - signed by Saravia and putting Marina Jovel and Soriano ``in charge of my children until further notice.''

Realizing that she held only a tenuous claim to her grandchildren, Jovel tried to gain legal custody.

She and her husband completed forms for background checks and submitted them to the DCFS in September 2002. One year later, on Sept. 24, 2003, they had a letter notarized pleading for custody of the children, but they never mailed it to social workers because their son did not provide the proof required to show they were the children's grandparents.

``The social worker told us we needed the letter to apply for custody,'' Soriano said. ``But (the children) have Debby's last name, so they told us we needed to prove my brother is their dad. We found him in El Salvador and sent him $80 for a blood test. He never did it.''

The notarized letter, Soriano said, was useless without the blood test.

The family also called DCFS after Desarie returned from a visit with her mother with bruises on her buttocks - injuries that Saravia blamed on a roller-skating mishap, Soriano said. The family took photos of the injuries and added them to their bag.

Jovel resisted turning the children over when Saravia came to pick them up on July 28. Soriano said Saravia called the social worker, who reminded Jovel she had no legal right to the children.

Ryan Saravia, one of Debby Saravia's brothers, said his sister also had two older sons with another man whose parents are raising the children. He said his sister's last known residence was ``a back house in San Fernando, more like a little shed,'' where she lived with Rodriguez and the two children.

He said he visited Debby in jail within days of the slaying and said she was distraught.

``She knows she had nothing to do with the death of my niece. It was her boyfriend, and she feels like she's being punished. To me, (her boyfriend) seemed like a loser, but my sister has always been in relationships with people like that.

``She shouldn't have had kids in the first place. She's always been wild, and she's had a lot of problems. The state has to realize that she needs help herself. But I never saw her abuse her kids. If (her son) was bad, she would give him a time-out.''

Amy Raisin Darvish, [phone]

amy.raisin(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color -- ran in SAC edition only) A photo of slaying victim Desarie Saravia is framed by a wreath of flowers during her funeral service on Saturday at Forest Lawn Memorial-Park, Hollywood Hills.

(2 -- ran in SAC edition only) Oscar Jovel Jr. and his mother, Marina, attend the funeral of Oscar's daughter, Desarie, who was slain on Nov. 12.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer