Yolo County officials released their records Thursday regarding the Child Welfare Services investigation of Woodland infant Justice Rees and his family.
Requested by The Davis Enterprise and other news outlets following the baby’s February 2015 death in a Knights Landing slough, the case file documents were withheld pending the completion of mother Samantha Green’s criminal proceedings in Yolo Superior Court.
Justice Rees lived only 19 days. Courtesy photo
Green, 24, was convicted of second-degree murder on Sept. 16 following a monthlong trial. Her sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 1.
Heavily redacted in some areas to withhold names and other identifying information, the records outline social workers’ involvement in the case from Justice’s Feb. 5, 2015, birth — when both he and Green tested positive for methamphetamine — to his death just 19 days later after Green kept him in the slough overnight while high on meth.
Much of the information contained in the documents was disclosed during Green’s trial or in court documents filed beforehand.
“The Board of Supervisors is currently in the middle of a comprehensive process to fully understand California’s Child Welfare Services system and the performance of Yolo County’s Child Welfare Division with the assistance of the Child & Family Policy Institute,” Yolo County Counsel Philip Pogledich said in an email accompanying the newly released records.
“Measures have already been taken to strengthen Yolo County’s program and will continue as further recommendations are formulated.”
Read the department’s investigative narrative here: Investigative Narrative