Child Welfare Worker Sues County, Agency

A former investigator for the Los Angeles County child welfare department filed a federal lawsuit Friday that accused her superiors of trying to stop her 1998 probe of an abusive foster care mother closely allied with the department’s former boss.

When Rebecca Lizarraga refused to back down in her 10-month investigation of Sandra Rodriguez, her superiors launched a harassment campaign that ended in April with her being demoted to social worker, she alleged in a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles District Court.

During her investigation--which ended with Rodriguez being terminated as a foster parent--Lizarraga said she was made to feel like a troublemaker by colleagues trying to protect Peter Digre, whom she accused of covering up abuses by Rodriguez. Digre was the former director of the county Department of Children and Family Services.

“If you care about your career, I would put a rubber band around it and put it back in the cabinet,” a colleague allegedly told Lizarraga regarding a file of abuse claims against Rodriguez.

Lizarraga’s suit named the county, the Department of Children and Family Services and Gene Gilden, an immediate supervisor, as defendants. Her attorney, Dan Stromer, said she will seek roughly $2.5 million in damages.

The suit is part of a swirl of litigation surrounding Digre, who, though not yet named, is expected to be added soon as a defendant, said Lizarraga’s attorney, Stromer.

Digre could not be reached for comment Friday. County officials investigated Digre’s actions earlier this year and found that he had given “no favorable treatment” to Rodriguez.

Digre was accused earlier this year of improperly financing a 15th birthday party given by Rodriguez with department funds.

Digre resigned last spring, and has since filed his own lawsuit against the county. He alleges that the county has not adequately represented him in three claims that challenged his actions as head of the agency. Digre’s attorney, Gregory Bright, did not return phone calls for this story.

In her lawsuit, Lizarraga alleges that Gilden ordered her to destroy records that accused Digre of having an inappropriate relationship with Rodriguez and of failing to intervene when he saw Rodriguez physically abusing one of her foster children.

Gilden declined to comment Friday, deferring questions to county counsel Lloyd W. Pallman, who did not return phone calls.

Rodriguez has been accused of molesting and physically abusing at least 20 foster children--as well as her two biological children--since the early 1990s.

Child abuse allegations against Rodriguez were filed by the district attorney’s office earlier this year, then dropped in a plea bargain.

Lizarraga alleged in her investigation that Digre frequently visited the Rodriguez household, witnessed the squalid conditions in which the children were living and ignored them, telling his subordinates, “They’re fine.”

“There were cases where the children were unkempt, not allowed to bathe, slept on the floor and had swollen and bleeding gums,” said Lizarraga. “How could the director of the largest child care agency in the world see those problems and not do something about them?”

Lizarraga said that when she tried to expose the conditions, Digre worked through her superiors to suppress her investigation.

County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said the allegations made by Lizarraga are fallout from previously poor management at the department, now headed by Anita Bock.

Spurred by a highly critical internal assessment of the department presented Wednesday to supervisors, Bock hopes to “get things back in order very quickly,” said department spokesman Neil Rincover.