The New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department is denying accusations that it abuses confidentiality laws to shield itself from accountability and to retaliate against critics, according to a document filed last week.
The agency’s answer to a state Department of Justice lawsuit also denies CYFD obstructed Attorney General Raúl Torrez’s efforts to investigate the state’s child welfare system, among other allegations.
CYFD’s answer, filed Thursday in First Judicial District Court in Santa Fe, asks Torrez’s lawsuit be dismissed with prejudice, meaning it would not be able to be refiled.
CYFD spokesperson Jake Thompson declined to elaborate on the agency’s denial of the allegations, writing in an email CYFD “looks forward to addressing issues in the case in court.”
A Justice Department spokesperson did not respond to an email seeking comment. It was not immediately clear what the next steps are in the case, which is being heard by state District Court Judge Kathleen McGarry Ellenwood.
Torrez filed suit in April, at the same time releasing a more than 200-page report from a yearlong investigation by his department that alleges several systemic issues in New Mexico’s child welfare system. The lawsuit alleges CYFD obfuscated the Justice Department’s probe by resisting or outright refusing efforts to obtain information.
The Justice Department also accused CYFD of using state confidentiality laws as a way of improperly refusing to disclose information, including in incidents in which children come to harm or are killed, and wielding them as weapons to retaliate against or otherwise silence critics.
The misuse of state laws amounts to a “shroud of secrecy over government indifference,” the Justice Department wrote in its April complaint.
“The New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department (CYFD) shields itself from scrutiny and accountability by hiding its work behind a cloak of confidentiality,” the complaint states. “With its darkest secrets hidden, CYFD uses confidentiality to cover up systemic failures that result in preventable harm to children and to avoid correcting those failures.”
Thompson at the time wrote in a statement that acting CYFD Cabinet Secretary Valerie Sandoval “has said on numerous occasions that CYFD has zero tolerance for retribution or retaliation.”
