GIRL'S DEATH PREVENTABLE, LAWYER SAYS; COUNTY AGENCY ATTACKED AT TRIAL.

Byline: Jesse Hiestand Daily News Staff Writer

A 2-year-old Oxnard girl could have been spared a brutal death had the Ventura County Public Social Services Agency done more to protect the child from her allegedly abusive parents, a defense attorney said Monday.

Joselin Hernandez died three months after she was returned to the care of her parents, Rogelio and Gabriela Hernandez, both 19, who allegedly beat their child so severely she had been taken into protective custody at the age of 3 months, attorneys said.

``The death of this child by Mr. Hernandez could have been prevented in 1994 by very firm intervention on behalf of the responsible agencies,'' said Bill Maxwell, attorney for Gabriela Hernandez.

Maxwell's comments came during opening statements Monday at the Hernandezes' jury trial. The couple are charged with multiple felony counts including the abuse and murder of their daughter.

During pretrial hearings and jury selection, Deputy District Attorney Dee Corona repeatedly has said ``PSSA is not on trial'' in this case.

But Maxwell and Deputy Public Defender Douglas Daily, who represents Rogelio Hernandez, have said their defense strategy includes an attack on the agency's handling of this case.

Prosecutors say Rogelio Hernandez inflicted the physical injuries while his wife stood by and allowed it to happen.

``Her father, Rogelio, systematically tortured his girl until he eventually beat her to death,'' Corona told jurors. ``Her mother, Gabriela, sat by and let it happen. Gabriela is just as responsible for the injuries as if she inflicted them herself.''

Daily argued that this was a case of ``children having children'' since both defendants were 16 when Joselin was born.

He conceded the child had been abused and neglected, but said Rogelio Hernandez acted out of ``frustration, ignorance, an inability to handle life in general,'' not a cold-hearted desire to torture his daughter to death.

Maxwell said Gabriela Hernandez's defense will be that she had been abandoned by her family in Mexico at a young age and molested by two of her uncles. She fled to the United States at 12 and met Oxnard resident Rogelio Hernandez, the first person to show her affection, he said.

Corona spent more than an hour detailing with words and photographs the injuries suffered by Joselin.

A healthy child for the first three months of her life, Joselin was rushed to the hospital in July 1994 where doctors found nine broken ribs, both ankles fractured and burns on her hands, feet, buttocks and mouth.

She was taken into protective custody and later placed by PSSA with the parents of Gabriela Hernandez.

Rogelio and Gabriela Hernandez were told to get counseling and take parenting classes.

But according to Corona, witnesses say Rogelio Hernandez continued to beat his daughter during supervised visits over the next eight months.

On one of the first overnight stays, the child's grandmother reportedly saw Rogelio Hernandez hit his daughter and carry her away. When the child later returned, Corona said, her forehead was swollen, her legs and stomach bruised and there were scratches near her eyes.

The defendants completed a parenting class in January 1996 and received temporary custody of their now-healthy and healed daughter two months later.

Again, witnesses say the pattern of abuse continued. In mid-April, the child had severe burns to her hands and, according to Corona, the parents attempted to conceal the injury by taking their daughter to a botanical herbal shop healer where ointment was rubbed on her skinless hands.

In May 1996, two PSSA social workers went to check on Joselin after someone reported that she was limping and may have knee injuries, Corona said.

One social worker, unaware of the past abuse, left after being told by Gabriela Hernandez that she could not see Joselin.

The other social worker, seeing no sign of knee injuries, took no action to protect the child even though there was blood in the child's eyes and burns on her hand, Corona said.

Joselin began to vomit for days at a time and was taken June 22, 1996, to an Oxnard hospital where she died.

An autopsy showed broken bones, a third-degree burn on her upper lip, bruises caused by biting around both knees, and internal injuries healing and healed, Corona said.

The cause of death was a massive blow to the stomach that ruptured the child's intestines, she said. The death was ruled a homicide.