Editorial: CYFD absent, again, in gruesome death of disabled child abqjournal.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from abqjournal.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Then-gubernatorial candidate Michelle Lujan Grisham, May 28, 2018
It’s a tragic and familiar story that writes itself in New Mexico every few years, regardless of the administration – each time serving as a call for change in how New Mexico protects, or doesn’t, its vulnerable children.
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In this case, allegations in a lawsuit filed over the brutal beating death of a 4-year-old Albuquerque boy who was left in his mother’s care by the state’s Children, Youth and Families Department (despite repeated abuse and neglect referrals) detail a monumental failure of protection and oversight.
James Dunklee Cruz
The short and tragic life of James Dunklee Cruz ended on Dec. 10, 2019. He died minutes after arriving at University of New Mexico Hospital with multiple injuries to his head and chest. His mother had left him with a friend, Zerrick Marquez, who is jailed on a no-hold bond pending trial on a charge of felony first-degree child abuse resulting in d