Foster Father Is Innocent in Killing, Lawyer Says

GLENDALE — An attorney for a Glendale man accused of killing a 19-month-old foster child said his client is “absolutely innocent” and the death may have been hastened by the birth mother’s addiction to crack cocaine.

H. Russell Halpern, lawyer for Fernando Enriquez Paz, made the comments Friday after Paz, 34, and his wife, Maria Del Carmen Elizabeth Paz, 29, pleaded not guilty to one count each of murder and child abuse in Glendale Municipal Court.

Halpern contended that police rushed to judgment in accusing the couple in the Dec. 29 death of toddler Julio Gonzalez.

“It is premature at this point to say what caused the death of this child,” Halpern said in an interview. “The remains still have not been examined by specialists. And when you consider that he was premature and that he was a crack baby and born addicted to cocaine, it remains to be seen whether that was a factor.”

Halpern said Paz and his wife had cared for Julio and his twin brother for about five months and intended to adopt them. He said the children were malnourished and “very unhealthy” when placed in the home, and suffered from poor physical development in their feet, making it difficult for them to learn to walk.

“They took the twins to see doctors regularly, and they were making amazing improvement,” Halpern said. “But they were not normal, healthy children.”

Maria Paz’s attorney, public defender Robert Conley, would not comment on the case, but said she “categorically denies” all the charges.

Neither Cheri Lewis, the prosecutor, nor social workers would comment.

Julio Gonzalez was hospitalized Dec. 27 after the Pazes called 911 because the child was choking, and died Dec. 29 at Huntington Memorial Hospital. The couple was arrested after an autopsy concluded the child’s death was a homicide caused by head trauma.

The Pazes were foster parents for about nine months, and until November had two other foster children, who were relocated for unrelated reasons.

The couple also have two biological children, a 9-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl who, along with Julio’s brother, have been placed in protective custody, authorities said.

County and foster-care officials said the couple were “exemplary” foster parents. In addition, police said they had no record of previous reports of abuse or domestic violence at the couple’s home on East Windsor Avenue.

A pediatrician who examined the twins earlier in December reported that they were basically healthy and well cared for, authorities said.

Police were summoned by doctors who noticed “suspicious bruises” on the child. Investigators later said the boy had injuries all over his body, and there was “clear indication that [he] was seriously abused.”

Julio and his brother were born four months premature and had been in foster care since birth, authorities said. They had been in the Pazes’ home since July.

On Friday, a court commissioner also refused defense attorneys’ requests to release the couple on their own recognizance, although he reduced bail to $585,000 each. The Pazes will return to court Friday, when a judge will consider Halpern’s request to appoint a pathologist to examine the child’s remains.

Relatives and supporters of the couple filled the courtroom Friday.

“He [Paz] is someone we all absolutely support, and is not the kind of person the police have made him out to be,” said Ernest Reynolds, an emergency room nurse at Santa Marta Hospital in East Los Angeles, where Paz works as an insurance verifier. “I have been with him and his family and children, and I know how much he cares for them.”