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The 8-year-old New Bedford girl at the center of a custody battle will no longer be sent to Guatemala to live with her biological father.
An Essex County Juvenile Court judge has vacated the decision to hand custody of a child known as S.R.C. to her father, who had been deported to Guatemala, according to Kirsten Zwicker, an attorney representing the girl and her foster parents. The judge’s decision came Thursday night, hours after it was revealed that the father had a history of multiple aliases and serious criminal charges, including allegations of cocaine trafficking and assault with a deadly weapon.
The girl, who had been living in New Bedford with foster parents John Cobbett-Walden and Catherine Cobbett-Walden for three years when the judge gave custody to her father, is a U.S. citizen and does not speak any language other than English.
“They were elated to learn of the decision,” said Zwicker, the lawyer representing the Cobbett-Waldens in their lawsuit in U.S. District Court Massachusetts against the state Department of Children and Families and the Executive Office of Health and Human Services. “There are no words to describe how ecstatic they are that their foster daughter remains in the U.S.”
Zwicker said the decision came as a surprise, since there was no appeal or other action pending in the Juvenile Court. She speculated that news coverage of the case played a role.
“There was nothing filed in the court to prompt this,” she said. “I feel that the publication of our last briefing with the court certainly became a part of the public landscape, and there was a lot of press talking about it.”
Zwicker said her clients now hope to become the adoptive parents of S.R.C. But for the moment, DCF will maintain custody of the child and assess foster placements.
“It’s too early to tell what will happen now,” Zwicker said.
According to filings in U.S. District Court, a Juvenile Court judge granted the girl’s biological father, Esvin O. Gregorio-Cabrera, custody in early September. Advocates questioned the decision, in part because he was 29 and the mother was 15 when S.R.C. was born.
Carol Erskine, a retired Juvenile Court judge who has heard thousands of cases involving neglected children, said the mother’s age — a year below Massachusetts’ age of consent — and other “aggravating factors” should have been included in the case. She said that a Juvenile Court failing to take into account that a minor and an adult were engaged in conjugal actions is “pretty unforgivable.”
On Wednesday, lawyers for the family filed newly discovered information alleging Cabrera had numerous aliases when he lived in the U.S. and faced multiple charges, including open warrants for cocaine trafficking and assault with a dangerous weapon charges in Dorchester District Court from 2017.
Lawyers for Cabrera did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the DCF did not respond to a request for comment by publication.
A spokesperson for the state’s Office of the Child Advocate told The Light the department was unable to share any “case-specific details.”
“The Office of the Child Advocate is currently reviewing additional information it has received regarding this case,” the spokesperson said in an email. “We have no further statement at this time.”
Questions on state system
Zwicker said the case demonstrated multiple issues with the state’s child welfare system, particularly when it comes to ascertaining a child’s safety in a given placement. She said though the Juvenile Court made the initial decision to place S.R.C. in Cabrera’s custody, the court system relies heavily on DCF input when making such decisions.
“It begs the question of how much due diligence was performed on this person,” she said. “That’s entirely on the DCF.”
She said the decision to grant custody despite the implications of statutory rape particularly troubled her.
“Everybody I discussed this with can’t explain why this wasn’t more of a concern,” she said. “I think we have to take a really hard look at how that agency chooses to investigate these cases.”
Erskine, who was the chief judge for the Worcester County Juvenile Court, also questioned the international home study to assess the conditions in which the child would live in Guatemala.
S.R.C. requires medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and reactive attachment disorder. Zwicker said her foster parents were concerned that she would not receive the necessary treatment in the Central American nation. Records filed at U.S. District Court also claimed that during unsupervised time with the child, Cabrera once forgot to give her medication.
“In this case, there are concerns about the fact that the international home study that was done did not have all the information about the father,” Erskine said. “That becomes quite concerning because it can impact the safety of the child.”
DCF has a contract with International Social Service USA, a Baltimore-based international social work nonprofit, to conduct home studies abroad.
Erskine also noted that all potential guardians in custodial cases go through criminal background checks. While some minor offenses can be overlooked, charges such as Cabrera’s would’ve been a red flag to a Juvenile Court judge had he been convicted. But he never went to trial due to his deportation, meaning the case is open.
“Because the father was deported after the charges were filed, and it appears there were still warrants out for him,” she said. “it would not have shown in the criminal offender record.”
But one thing that stood out to Erskine about the criminal records was the person who found them.
“The department or people conducting an international homes study should do more due diligence,” she said, “because it was easy for the attorney for the foster parents to find that information.”
Kevin G. Andrade can be contacted at kandrade@newbedfordlight.org
