Whistleblower Social Worker: Fresno County Mishandling Child Abuse Cases; Supervisors Promise Review

Lorraine Ramirez, a veteran Fresno County social worker, told the Fresno County Board of Supervisors on Feb. 10 that child welfare staff are being forced to reunify children with unsafe caregivers and that those children are being "reabused, re-neglected," creating a "vicious cycle" of repeat cases. County leaders have said they will hold a meeting next month to look into reunification processes for foster children.

Ramirez’s renewed whistleblower remarks echo material social workers presented at a union press conference on Oct. 13, 2021 at the Fresno County Child Protective Services office at 1404 L Street. At that event, Service Employees International Union Local 521 representatives produced photographs and testimonials showing minors sleeping on mats on conference room tables and on floors, children relieving themselves in water bottles, broken glass and scattered items in rooms used to house youth, and two police officers in at least one photograph surveying conditions. SEIU Local 521 demanded increased staffing, better training, improved working conditions and higher wages; the union listed Estevan Gutierrez as media contact at estevan.gutierrez@seiu521.org.

Ramirez criticized county management at the 2021 press conference, saying: "I can hear it now, the Department will blame the child welfare crisis on state authorities, or CAL/OSHA regulations preventing beds or cots being placed in work spaces and that the state discontinued group homes for youth to live in. But I have to tell you, other counties are handling the children in their custody much more humanely and this tells me that Fresno County management think that children sleeping and living in offices are the answer and its NOT."

The whistleblower allegations build on a longer pattern of oversight concerns. A 2009 investigation found Fresno County ranked among the worst of California’s 20 biggest counties at meeting child protection standards, noting the county was less likely to conduct timely investigations, less likely to make required social work visits, and far less likely to confirm allegations of mistreatment. That history has been cited repeatedly as background to the 2021 photos and the current complaints about reunification decisions.

County social services decisions also have been contested in individual court cases. In one dependency matter involving a baby named Kayden, primary care doctors saw the infant on Nov. 9 and Nov. 11 and reported no concerns. Testing at Children’s Hospital on Nov. 12 showed a Vitamin D deficiency but testing for bone fragility was negative. Fresno County filed a dependency petition on Nov. 15 accusing parents Whisenhunt and Shepard of abuse, cruelty, and failure to protect; the juvenile court ordered on Nov. 16 that CPS keep Kayden and granted parents twice-weekly supervised visits. The juvenile court later appointed attorney Robert Wyrick for Whisenhunt on April 17. Follow-up testing on Feb. 21 showed Vitamin D levels normalized. After a rapid appellate ruling on Aug. 22, attorney Kevin Little said, "Something definitely happened," and added, "The opinion was either written already or close to being written" before the hearing, saying his options included petitioning the California Supreme Court or asking Fresno County Superior Court for another opportunity.

SEIU materials have called for accountability from Director Delfino Neira and the Board of Supervisors, stating that Fresno County social workers "cry out for accountability in holding the Director Delfino Neira in Fresno County’s Department of Social Services and the Fresno County Board of Supervisors to address this crisis that office spaces are shared with staff and foster children." The available materials do not include a direct public statement from county leadership responding to Ramirez’s Feb. 10 remarks, and the sources provided do not make clear whether Ramirez remains employed by the county. The meeting promised next month will be the next concrete test of whether county leaders will alter reunification practices and address the staffing and facility failures social workers have described.