CPS Fires Two Texas Workers, One Resigns Following Girl’s Fatal Beating

Two workers from the Grand Prairie, Texas, Child Protective Services office have been fired and another worker resigned after the agency was accused of not preventing the fatal beating death of a 4-year-old little girl in March.

A caseworker and her supervisor were fired in connection with the case of Leiliana Writght’s beating death in March. The girl’s mother, Jeri Quezada, 30, and a man who was described as her friend, Charles Phifer, 34, have been arrested and charged with beating the young girl with a belt and a bamboo stick, according to the Dallas Morning News.

The Grand Prairie CPS office had been in contact with the girl and her family prior to the beating death. An investigation is on-going to determine whether the staff dropped the ball and contributed to a situation where the girl was left in danger.

An investigator who was also working this case has resigned, the Dallas newspaper reported.

The child’s paternal grandmother complained that CPS did not do enough to protect Leiliana.

“I took pictures and sent them to CPS,” Clakley said in an interview with KXAS-TV (NBC5) last week. “If we had done something sooner, I don’t know. I don’t know.”

Despite the staffing changes, Mrs Clakley found little comfort. “It makes me wonder how many people have gone through this,” she told the reporter while sobbing.

Craig Clakley told reporters that CPS had failed Leiliana, but the firings and resignation will not help anything.

“By firing these people, all they’ve done is increase the caseload on the other people,” he told the reporter.

The Dallas newspaper reported that an unusual number of CPS workers have been resigning in Dallas County, where Grand Prairie is located. They reported that turnover in the latest period available was at a 57 percent per year rate. Other CPS workers from across Texas have been brought in to help fill the gap.

No report was made about who will pick up the caseload of those workers temporarily moving to Dallas County.