Former Child Welfare Worker Wins Settlement
A former investigator for Los Angeles County’s child welfare department, demoted after launching a 1998 investigation that touched the agency’s former boss, won a $450,000 settlement from the county Tuesday.
When Rebecca Lizarraga refused to back down in her 10-month investigation of Sandra Rodriguez, a foster mother closely allied with a former director of the Department of Children and Family Services, her superiors launched a harassment campaign that ended with her demotion to social worker, she alleged in two lawsuits.
“I put my job on the line. I was told I would be protected ... and I wasn’t,” Lizarraga told county supervisors after they approved the settlement.
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