South Bay Toddler Placed With Woman Convicted of Child Endangerment Before Death

Santa Clara County’s embattled child protection agency placed a 2-year-old boy in foster care, where he died this month, with a relative despite the woman’s prior felony conviction for child endangerment.

Just weeks after coming under the care of Bridget Michelle Martinez, the boy, Jaxon Juarez, died in a hospital on April 9. Authorities charged Martinez’s then-17-year-old son with six counts of sexual assault of Juarez.

A felony child endangerment conviction prohibits the county’s Department of Family and Children’s Services from placing a child in her care, even in an emergency, according to the county’s own policy.

Family members of the toddler are outraged and said they plan to sue the agency because he never should have been allowed to be placed in the home, given her record.

“It is completely unacceptable,” Riley Wallace, Jaxon’s aunt who lives in Arizona, said. “They did not protect a child and that’s their job, that’s what they took the child for, to protect him. And  they failed him so terribly.”

It’s unclear how Juarez came to be placed with Martinez and the county did not explain.

But Steve Baron, a member of the county’s Child Abuse Prevention Council and a child welfare expert, said the agency should be reviewing any policies or procedures that could have led to such an oversight and making changes immediately.

“Were they aware of those records? And if not, why not? Because they should have been,” Baron said, adding that he was speaking for himself and not the council.

“If they were aware of those records, and they placed the child there anyway, what was their rationale for doing that in the light of those records, which indicated that there might be a safety issue?” he said.

The county said this week that both enforcement and the Department of Family and Children’s Services are investigating the case, and the county has asked the state’s Department of Social Services to conduct its own independent investigation.

In a statement, the county said this is a “deeply concerning case,” and vowed there will be transparency. “The county is committed to swiftly investigating every aspect of this horrific tragedy and publicly sharing the results of these investigations when available and to the extent allowable by law,” the statement said.

The revelations are renewing scrutiny of the agency, which has been under state oversight following the deaths in 2023 of two other young children under its supervision.

State and child safety experts have recognized the county for making progress under a corrective action plan, including by attempting to rebalance its prior focus on family reunification with the safety of children.

But even as Baron credited the agency for its work to make changes, he called what happened to Juarez “a horror story.”

“It’s critical that whatever placement they decide, the first consideration should be, is it safe? And are the people there capable of meeting this child’s needs?” Baron said.

According to police and court records, Martinez was stalled in the right lane of San Tomas Expressway in Santa Clara on Saturday night, April 26, 2014, when police officers pulled over to check on her.

“The arrestee had red watery eyes, slurred speech and a strong odor of an intoxicating beverage,” a police summary said. Martinez’s one-year-old daughter was in the car.

She was later charged with felony child endangerment and misdemeanor DUI, including aggravating factors such as a blood alcohol content of 0.15% or more. At the time of her arrest, she was driving with a suspended license, which stemmed from a prior DUI conviction in 2011, court records show.

She pleaded no contest to the charges later that year, and was sentenced to probation with an  order that she not be allowed to drive with a child in the car unless she was sober.

In July of 2014, less than three months after the charges were filed against her, records show that court officers successfully petitioned to change the conditions of her release while awaiting hearings, because she “falsified an alcohol monitoring test by having her juvenile son take her alcohol test,” filings show.

Martinez was also charged with a DUI in 2020 in Stanislaus County.

After Jaxon was born, he lived with his mother, Brianna Burton, and his father, Albert Juarez, according to Wallace.

Wallace said Jaxon’s mother passed away last year due to alcohol abuse, and around the same time, the county took custody of the child. Jaxon lived initially with another foster family, Wallace said, before being placed with his maternal grandfather near Sacramento for six months.

Due to the distance from the boy’s father in the South Bay, where the county agency required the grandfather to bring the boy regularly for visits, Jaxon’s grandfather was unable to continue serving as a guardian, Wallace said. Jaxon was transferred in late February to live with Martinez, a cousin of Albert Juarez.

Wallace said her family in Arizona asked the county to let Jaxon live with them, but they were turned down due to the distance from Jaxon’s father and told they’d need to wait for Jaxon to be put up for adoption.

Wallace said her family would have taken him “in a heartbeat” and provided a good home for him.

We have the room. We have the capability of taking him,” she said. “With this case, nothing made sense.”

Martinez’s son, charged with sexual assault, is set to appear in juvenile court on Monday, April 20. Martinez was also arrested earlier this week, but as of Friday afternoon she was no longer in custody.