ANOTHER OF OUR OCCASIONAL REMINDERS OF WHY WE NEED TO BUILD AWARENESS DEPT
In New Mexico, an 8 year old developmentally disabled child is left home alone in a cage, and perhaps knocked out with drugs, while the mom and others in the house go out and enjoy a movie night.  The mom's boyfriends says he knew it was wrong, but, well...   Read more:
"LAS CRUCES — Despite concerns expressed by a son, a Las Cruces woman and her boyfriend left a developmentally disabled girl home alone, locked in what police described as a wooden cage, while they watched a movie.
Cindy Patriarchias, 33, and her 37-year-old live-in boyfriend Edmond Gonzales each have been charged with negligent child abuse, a third-degree felony, for what unfolded Friday evening, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday in Magistrate Court.
That evening, Patriarchias and Gonzales planned to take her three other children to a "movie night" at Columbia Elementary School, where she had worked and volunteered.
One of her sons told police that as the family prepared to leave their mobile home on of the 100 block of Mohawk, he offered to stay with the 8-year-old girl because she was asleep.
He told Patriarchias he was uncomfortable leaving her there alone, police reported. But court documents state Patriarchias told him the girl would be "fine" because "they weren't going to be out long and anyways (sic) she was asleep."
Police eventually arrested Patriarchias and Gonzales on Friday. She is out on bond. He remains in custody at Doña Ana County Detention Center.
A Las Cruces Public Schools spokesman wrote in an email Tuesday that Patriarchias was a part-time lunch monitor and volunteer at Columbia Elementary. He added that she "has been terminated" and is no longer allowed to volunteer at the school.   When asked if the termination came as
the result of the child abuse charges, the spokesman declined to answer, writing that the termination is a personnel matter. He added that Patriarchias did pass all LCPS background checks prior to employment.Patriarchias does not have any prior felony convictions in New Mexico, according to the state courts website.
Court records do show, however, that Patriarchias filed in 2007 for a kinship guardianship petition. The parents of the developmentally disabled child and another child living with Patriarchias are listed as respondents in that case. More detailed court records were not immediately available from the 3rd Judicial District Court.
Attorneys said kinship guardianships are often granted to family members of children, though they don't have to be related, New Mexico statutes state.
Children, Youth and Families Department spokesman Bobby Tafoya said Tuesday that the four children living in the home are in state custody.
Police said that Patriarchias had been trying to legally adopt the 8-year-old girl. Tafoya noted that while CYFD will help with the investigation, his agency has not previously worked with Patriarchias — she has never been a foster parent through the state, he said. Some custody issues, such as private adoptions and some guardianship transfers, don't go through CYFD.
Patriarchias' estranged husband told police he built the wooden cage, which contained a crib-sized mattress, "for her safety." He added that the girl has microcephaly — a rare neurological condition in which the child's head is significantly smaller than that of her peers — and the mental and physical abilities of a toddler.
The estranged husband said the girl had a tendency to leave a standard bed and get into "household cleaning supplies, medicine bottles and cabinets during the night," the criminal complaint states.
He added that while he lived at the mobile home they never used the modified bed for "punishment." He told police he moved out last Dec. 28, after the couple separated, but had returned five times since and had seen the girl in the cage for "misbehaving."
Gonzales told police that he had moved in Jan. 1, and that he knew leaving the girl at home alone was wrong, the complaint states.
It was the estranged husband who alerted authorities Friday, concerned for the welfare of the girl. He had met the rest of the family at Columbia Elementary and asked about her that night.
The other girl living at the mobile home told the estranged husband that the girl was at home because she was "misbehaving," and "mommy gave her some medicine to make her knock out."
That's when he stepped outside and called 911, according to the complaint.
An officer arrived nearly an hour before Patriarchias did. Once she let him in, he found the girl in the cage.
When the officer first saw the cage, the report states, he thought the family had dogs."

"For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it's not the gentle shower, but thunder.  We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake in our hearts."--Frederick Douglass