New Mexico agency settles lawsuit over failures to protect siblings.
New Mexico’s Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD) has agreed to pay $1.4 million to settle a lawsuit accusing the state agency of failing to protect two siblings from years of severe abuse while they were living with their adoptive family in Taos. The settlement was reached in late July in First Judicial District Court. Each child will receive $700,000. The lawsuit, filed in 2022, claimed the New Mexico agency received several reports of possible abuse but failed to take action that could have removed the children from the home sooner. The siblings had been placed in state custody after concerns about abuse and neglect involving their biological parents, and CYFD placed the children with a family during the adoption process in 2014.
Concerns about the home were reported to the New Mexico agency as early as 2017. The report involved physical abuse and what was described as improper discipline. The lawsuit states that CYFD found safety concerns during its investigation but did not confirm the abuse allegations. The case was closed without investigating further, and the family was directed to community services instead.
The children were later adopted by the family, with CYFD approving the adoption, according to the lawsuit. In 2019, another report was made concerning physical abuse and discipline. Again, the agency closed its investigation and referred the family to services, the lawsuit states. The complaint also alleges that CYFD failed to properly respond when the family did not follow through with those services.
The situation became more serious in 2020, when one of the children’s schools contacted CYFD with concerns about possible abuse and neglect. School officials reportedly told the agency that the boy’s adoptive parents were keeping food from him. The boy was 11 years old at the time and weighed less than 70 pounds. Despite the concerns reported by the school, the case was yet again closed without taking proper action to protect him.
The boy later described being denied food as punishment. He said his adoptive parents sometimes gave him only one hot dog at lunch and another at dinner. At one point, he reportedly had gone two days without eating. The lawsuit also states that he was kept in his bedroom and was not allowed to leave to use the bathroom. The boy further reported being beaten by older children in the home. His sibling was also allegedly subjected to physical and sexual abuse. CYFD eventually confirmed allegations of physical abuse and neglect. The adoptive parents were then charged with multiple crimes involving child abuse, and the father also faced a charge of first-degree criminal sexual penetration of a child, along with other charges.
Both parents later entered no-contest pleas to lesser charges through agreements with prosecutors. The mother received a nine-year prison sentence, while the father was sentenced to 20 years. Attorney F. Michael Hart, who represented the children, said the legal case offered some hope that other children might not face similar treatment. CYFD spokesperson Jake Thompson said the agency does not admit wrongdoing when settling lawsuits. He said the department reviews each case based on the facts and the possible risks of taking the matter to trial. In this case, Thompson said CYFD decided that settling before trial was appropriate.
The settlement comes as the New Mexico agency faces continued questions about its handling of children in state care. A New Mexico Department of Justice investigation released in April found broad problems within the child welfare system, including missed interviews, incomplete home visits and problems with safety checks. The report said those failures had placed children at risk. CYFD has also been under court oversight as part of efforts to improve New Mexico’s foster care system.
The payment closes the civil case, but it does not erase the years of harm described by the children or the questions raised about how repeated reports of abuse were handled by the agency.
Sources:
CYFD settles lawsuit alleging foster parents starved, abused children for $1.4 million
CYFD to pay $1.4M to kids whose abuse was ignored
Secret CYFD settlements, a rising trend, hit nearly $16M in fiscal year 2026
Join the conversation!