DALLAS – Two Child Protective Services workers were fired and a third resigned after the agency was accused of failing to prevent the beating death of a 4-year-old North Texas girl last month.
Leiliana Wright died March 13. Her mother, 30-year-old Jeri Quezada, and her boyfriend, 34-year-old Charles Phifer, are accused of felony injury to a child in connection with the death.
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Authorities allege the two beat Leiliana with a belt and bamboo stick because she'd been drinking her brother's juice.
Leiliana's paternal grandmother told NBC 5 that she contacted CPS to report her concerns.
"I'm trying to fathom how did this happen?" Alisa Clakely said. "You get pictures sent to you of a child with black eyes and cracked lips and a massive green bruise across her face, and how do you pass that up? How do you?"
According to an arrest affidavit, police allege the couple used heroin and repeatedly beat and restrained the girl before she stopped breathing.
Quezada is being held on $500,000 bond while Phifer is being held on $1 million bond.