Lawsuit alleges CYFD failed to protect boy from abuse in Questa home

Feb. 21—A legal representative of a 4-year-old boy is suing the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department, alleging the state agency failed to vet the child's adoptive parents and home in Questa, where authorities suspect he was brutally abused and neglected.

The boy was born in 2018 in Utah with developmental delays due to exposure to drugs and alcohol in the womb, and he was placed with Adrian Vigil and Heidi Velasquez of Questa in late spring 2020, according to court-appointed guardian ad litem Gabrielle Valdez, whose complaint was filed earlier this month in state District Court.

The couple, identified as the boy's relatives, were to serve as foster parents and potential adoptive parents for him.

The child welfare agency was responsible for evaluating the couple and their home; ensuring they had access to services to address the boy's developmental needs; and making monthly visits to the home to assess the boy's well-being — but that didn't happen, the lawsuit says.

CYFD "had information prior to the adoption being finalized that the Vigil/Velasquez home was not safe for [the child] and yet ... chose not to intervene in any way to protect" the boy, the suit alleges.

Before the adoption was finalized, the couple stopped taking the child to developmental services and neglected his medical care, the suit says, and in February 2021, Vigil brought the boy to a hospital in Taos, saying the child had experienced a "seizure-like episode."

Medical providers recommended the boy to pediatric specialists at the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, who determined he had "suffered severe child abuse and neglect," the suit says. The case was referred to a child abuse response team, which found the boy was emaciated and had healing fractures throughout his body.

The child also had a brain bleed, retinal hemorrhages, ulcer sores on his buttocks, blood under his fingernails, a bruise on his face and a missing toenail, according to the complaint.

The child abuse response team concluded there was evidence the boy was "being subjected to chronic, recurrent, severe physical abuse, medical neglect and nutritional neglect," according to the complaint.

The lawsuit and court records related to criminal charges against Vigil and Velasquez also said there was some evidence the boy had suffered sexual abuse and exploitation.

Still, the suit says, the UNM medical team learned CYFD had not placed a 48-hour hold on the child until asked to do so by the head of the child abuse response team.

Valdez's suit asks the court to award the child an amount "sufficient to compensate [him] for all injuries and damages."

Asked Tuesday to comment on the allegations, a CYFD spokesman wrote in an email: "We cannot provide information considered confidential under state law. As a general matter, in accordance with our obligations under the Children's Code and applicable court orders, we conduct ongoing assessments regarding the safety and well-being of all children in department custody."

Vigil and Velasquez — who, according to court records, have at least three other children — were arrested in March 2021 and charged with child abuse resulting in great bodily harm.

Their cases are still pending in the 8th Judicial District.

Asked to comment on the why the cases have not been resolved, a spokeswoman for the 8th Judicial District Attorney's Office wrote in an email: "The District Attorney's Office is in the final stages of trial preparation. The charges are serious, and the state aims to be as well prepared as possible to proceed to trial."

Attorneys for the Questa couple — who have been released pending trial, court records show — did not respond to messages seeking comment for this story.

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