SB judge denies county’s claim for immunity in 90’s foster care sex abuse case

On July 10, San Bernardino Superior Judge Carlos Cabrera denied San Bernardino County’s request to throw out a case that alleges sexual abuse in the county’s foster system three decades ago. 

The plaintiff filed his case on Oct. 16, 2024, alleging negligence and breach of mandatory duties. He claims that his foster father repeatedly assaulted him beginning in 1993, when the plaintiff was nine-years-old. The plaintiff said he reported the abuse to four different social workers and therapists on at least five separate dates, but that no action was taken. After he was placed with his grandmother, he claims that county employees warned his grandmother that he might make up abuse allegations against his foster father. The alleged abuser would call the plaintiff at his grandmother’s house.

Riverside County asked for the case to be thrown out because of discretionary immunity and derivative public entity employer immunity. 

Cabrera found that discretionary immunity only applies after a judge finds that the public employee consciously exercised discretion. The complaint did not provide enough details for Cabrera to make that determination, he ruled.

He also found that the county did not prove its employees’ actions were exempt from mandatory reporting laws.

“The County does not offer any argument to establish that these provisions do not impose a mandatory duty on the County to require its social workers to report suspicions of child abuse to relevant law enforcement agencies,” Cabrera wrote.

Case no. CIVSB2431429.