Digre Ally Makes Deal on Charges

Allegations that a foster mother politically connected to the head of the county’s child welfare agency physically abused her own children have been dropped as part of a deal sustaining other charges against her, the mother’s attorney said.

Attorney Emma Castro said that her client, Sandra Rodriguez, did not admit any wrongdoing. She said the Dependency Court referee hearing the case in closed court sustained only “allegations related to the conditions of the home and control of two children who were not her own.”

Castro declined to be more specific, but reports from Los Angeles County’s child welfare unit, filed before Rodriguez’s children were taken from her in December, alleged that her home was roach-infested with exposed wiring.

Castro said Rodriguez was happy with the deal. “The allegations that my client was most concerned with were the allegations of physical abuse,” Castro said. “She is attempting to move forward with her life.”

The Rodriguez case has become a political hot potato because the La Puente mother, 29, is head of a foster parents group allied with Peter Digre, director of the county agency that investigates child abuse.

Both the Los Angeles County auditor-controller’s office and, sources say, the Sheriff’s Department are probing whether Digre prevented his own investigators from taking action against Rodriguez, whose care of her two sons and numerous foster children were scrutinized for years before social workers pulled them from her home.

Digre has denied the allegations.

An indication of the matter’s sensitivity is that Orange County attorneys and social workers took over the case in January on the basis that Los Angeles County’s entire child welfare agency--the nation’s largest--has a conflict of interest.

The attorneys filed a complaint in Dependency Court, where a referee was to decide how much contact Rodriguez should have with her biological children, boys ages 5 and 3, and an 11-year-old boy of whom she is the legal guardian.

As the trial was about to begin last Tuesday, Castro and attorneys representing Orange County and the children agreed to a deal that essentially amounted to a plea bargain and eliminated a need for the projected four-day trial.

Digre was not scheduled to testify during the trial, Castro said, although some of the children said that he was a guest at Rodriguez’s house. Digre has said that he was only there once, although neighbors say that he was a frequent visitor.

“He had no knowledge of any of the allegations in the petitions,” Castro said.

The next step is a psychological fitness hearing March 29 to determine the terms under which Rodriguez can regain custody of the children.

Castro said Rodriguez has been a victim of the byzantine internal power struggles in the county’s child welfare office.

The 11-year-old boy, Castro said, has run away from the county’s home for abused children twice and is desperate to be reunited with Rodriguez.

“She got caught in the cross-fire of all these political conflicts,” Castro said.