A Bakersfield man accused of eating his 4-year-old son's eyeball has a lengthy criminal record, including a child abuse conviction. Kern's Child Protective Services refused to say Monday why social workers allowed the boy to live with the man, or if anyone was monitoring the child's well-being.
A state senator labeled the situation ''outrageous'' and called for a full investigation of the case.
Angelo Mendoza Sr., 34, was arrested April 28 after neighbors found his son lying in a pool of blood in the east Bakersfield apartment where the two lived together. One of the boy's eyeballs was completely gone and hasn't been located. The other eye was damaged beyond repair, police said.
The boy told investigators, ''My Daddy ate my eyes.''
Mendoza’s criminal past dates back more than ten years. He has more than 20 cases on file in Superior Court. Three years ago, he and the boy's mother pleaded no contest to drug charges and willful cruelty to a child.
The mother, who has a warrant for her arrest on a drug case, is out of the picture, leaving Mendoza to share an apartment alone with the boy.
Why would authorities allow that?
KGET's Alex Valle took that question to CPS Monday, but got no answers.
County officials wouldn’t discuss the case or say when a case worker last checked on the boy. But CPS officials said drug charges aren't always enough to take a child out of the home. CPS says according to state law there must be serious physical abuse before a child is taken away from his parents, drug charges or using drugs in front of your kids isn't always enough.
Bethany Christman, Assistant Director of Child Protective Services, said federal and state laws prohibit her from explaining.
“There is a whole variety of child abuse,'' Christman said. ''There is anything from what we call general neglect all the way through severe neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse. Those are all the various topics we can remove a child under. It depends on the degree of what those are if we can actually remove a child.''
CPS won't tell us their last complaint against Mendoza or if they were watching the boy more closely because of his father's criminal past.
Supervisor Ray Watson says he expects officials from CPS will report to the Board of Supervisors about the case at their meeting on Tuesday.
Sen. Dean Florez has been a vocal critic of Kern County CPS and promoted a state investigation a few years ago.
In response to our inquiry Monday, Florez issued this statement:
“This outrageous case of child abuse deserves a great deal of scrutiny, and given the seriousness of 4-year-old Angelo Mendoza’s injuries, I think it is fair to question whether child protective authorities let him down.
''A young child living with drugged-out parents deserves extra attention from child protective authorities and it is not clear whether Angelo received the necessary supervision that could have protected him.
''This is especially troubling given that Angelo’s parents had already pleaded no contest to child endangerment charges in the past, as a result of using PCP. The fact that little Angelo’s mom had an arrest warrant for failing to complete a drug treatment program looks like a warning sign that was missed.
''While the decision on whether or not to remove a child from a parent can be difficult, I think we should always error on the side of caution. This is especially true when you have parents who abuse PCP -- a very dangerous and unpredictable drug.
''I expect the Kern County Board of Supervisors to initiate a full investigation by an outside agency to study whether there were any failures in protecting Angelo Mendoza from harm.
''Kern County should have the best operating practices at CPS that puts the safety and well-being of children as its first priority.
''Only through an honest assessment by outside experts would we be able to know whether everything that could have been done to protect Angelo was put in place by Kern Child Protective Services.
''If laws need to be changed in order to protect kids like Angelo, then Child Protective authorities shouldn’t be sitting idly silently. We need to hear from them immediately.”
Aneglo Mendoza Senior is set to be in court on Wednesday. He faces mayhem and torture charges.
