Jorge Barahona and Flaws in Child Protective Services

Child Safety and Protection Article:
The tragic case of Nubia Doctor and flaws in Child Protective Services

1. Jorge Barahona beat girl, who ‘screamed and cried until she was dead’ http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/crime/police-jorge-barahona-beat-girl-who-screamed-and-1305314.html - Main article

2. Why Did Florida Children Slip through Cracks? http://articles.cnn.com/2011-02-18/opinion/gelles.florida.child.abuse_1_child-fatality-child-protective-service-jorge-barahona?_s=PM:OPINION

3. Jorge Barahona charged with Murder in death of adopted daughter: http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/region_c_palm_beach_county/jorge-barahona-charged-with-murder-in-death-of-adopted-daughter,-10


There is no question that children are one of society’s greatest gifts and one of the greatest resources for the future of our society, so why are our systems failing to protect them? A major criticism of the issue of child safety comes from the case of two adoptive siblings. Nubia and Victor Doctor were placed with foster parents Jorge and Carmen Barahona with two other children in Miami, Florida. Instead of being placed in a safe loving environment, the children became the focus of one of the biggest child welfare scandals to hit Miami, Florida.



The two children were gruesomely and horrifically treated. They had been tied up with duct tape, starved, beaten, locked in a room for hours on end, and the children’s basic needs were painfully neglected. On Valentines day, 2004, the body of 10 year old Nubia was found stuffed in a trash bag in Jorge Barahona’s pickup truck. Nubia’s brother was also found in the truck, horribly weak and doused in chemical fluid. Jorge Barahona was arrested and held without bail on charges of murder and aggravated child abuse.

It is argued that this tragedy could have been averted had the Florida Department of Children and Families done a more thorough investigation concerning the welfare and living conditions of the children. An investigator on behalf of the agency visited the Barahona household on February 10, specifically in response to allegations of abuse. The investigator concluded that “there are no safety threats present at this time” and left the children in the “care” of the Barahonas. The family was visited again by Andrea Fleary, a DCF investigator, after a relative confided in a therapist that the twins were being tied by their feet and left in a bathroom. Two days after Fleary’s visit, a second investigator responded to the Barahona’s home because of a cut on Victor’s lip and the refusal of the Barahonas to disclose Nubia’s location. Only two days after that, the two children were found in Jorge’s truck.


Video on Florida DCF defending it’s handling of the Case of the Barahona children.

DCF began defending their non-involvement in the Florida twins case, despite the occurrence of other tragedies. There had been the beating death of another 6 year old gir,l Kayla Mckean. There was also the disappearance of another 4 year old girl, Rilya Wilson. A lot of blame was directed towards the agency workers for failing to see the signs of abuse and neglect. The agent who interviewed the children before Nubia’s death couldn’t even locate the adopted children when she visited the Barahona’s, but came to the conclusion that no involvement on the part of DCF was necessary. This led to one of the major criticisms of child protective service agencies. Many believe that the concrete role of child protective service is to interfere as little as possible in families, believing that the preservation of families is important to assuring the safety and well-being of children. However, the ugly and unfortunate outcome of extreme forms of abuse occurring within the home is often pushed out of mind or not considered as a possibility at all.

– DCF defends it’s role in the case of a murdered girl


One question I have after reading this article is “what kind of penalization is enacted on caseworkers who fail to investigate the risks in a dangerous home when a child is seriously hurt or even killed? Do these agencies conduct their investigations using the same caseworkers that failed to notice the ongoing signs of abuse? Is their incompetency accounted for and procedures reformed in a way that prevents this from happening in the future?