CPS ‘failed’ girl beaten to death in Grand Prairie, memos state

Child Protective Services acknowledged in agency memos that local caseworkers “failed to eliminate danger indicators” before a 4-year-old girl was beaten to death in Grand Prairie in March.

The heavily redacted memos released Friday show that Claudell Banks, the investigator assigned to Leiliana Wright’s case, “had not made adequate attempts” to locate and ensure the girl’s safety.

“There is no indication that attempts to locate [Leiliana] were made within policy timeframes, or at different hours of the day and night,” CPS administrator Stacy Reynolds wrote March 17 in a recommendation to fire Banks.

Banks, a CPS employee since 2013, took 36 days to check on Leiliana after receiving a referral from law enforcement, according to The Dallas Morning News. CPS requires caseworkers to check on children within 72 hours.

Banks and his supervisor were fired last month, and another investigator resigned.

Leiliana died March 13 of blunt-force trauma to her head and abdomen.

The girl’s mother, 30-year-old Jeri Quezada, and Quezada’s boyfriend, Charles Phifer, were arrested on felony injury to a child charges. Both remain in custody at Dallas County Jail.

The couple, according to an arrest warrant affidavit, shot up heroin and beat Leiliana with a bamboo stick at Phifer’s home in the 2200 block of 14th Street on March 12. Phifer later forced Pedialyte down Leiliana’s throat and locked her in a closet, the affidavit said.

When Quezada was getting pajamas for Leiliana as the girl showered early the next morning, she told police she could hear Phifer in the bathroom, saying “Get you some of this” followed by the sound of the girl falling. Leiliana was taken to Medical Center of Arlington, where she died.

Grandparents contacted CPS

Amber Davila, Banks’ supervisor, said Banks “should have recognized and immediately acted upon the information provided” about Leiliana, Reynolds wrote in a recommendation to fire Davila on March 21.

The next day, Rodney Fortner, a CPS special investigator, resigned in a brief email to Sharon Cager, the director of Dallas County special investigators.

CPS had received a referral from law enforcement to check on Leiliana, according to the memo.

Craig Clakley, Leiliana’s paternal grandfather, said he and his wife tried to tell CPS of the abuse Leiliana was suffering and even sent pictures to the agency.

The Clakleys raised the girl until she was about 2. Quezada, who gave birth to Leiliana while in prison for burglary, gained custody of her daughter when she was released in 2013.

Agency under scrutiny

CPS received heavy statewide criticism because of Leiliana’s death, but also from a recent increase in child abuse and death cases, caseworker turnover, children sleeping in state office buildings, and a court ruling that said Texas’ foster care system often releases children “more damaged than when they entered.”

Meechaiel Criner, the teen accused in the killing in Austin of a University of Texas student found dead April 5, had gone missing from a foster home in Killeen in March, according to the Austin American-Statesman.

Gov. Greg Abbott announced April 11 that former Texas Rangers Chief Henry “Hank” Whitman had been chosen to lead the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, which oversees CPS.

The state announced March 4 that current DFPS leader John Specia will be resigning in May.

This report includes material from Star-Telegram archives.

This story was originally published April 22, 2016 at 2:32 PM with the headline "CPS ‘failed’ girl beaten to death in Grand Prairie, memos state."