Reply #55: Him and the mother both had priors involving PCP [View All]

[chatnoir]

Why was that poor child still in the home??

After two neighbors found the injured child in the apartment he shared with his father, witnesses told authorities that a man in a wheelchair who turned out to be Mendoza was in the backyard of a nearby vacant home hacking his own legs with an ax, police said. Mendoza was arrested a week later.

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The case has raised questions about whether the child was being adequately monitored by Kern County's Child Protective Services department. Mendoza and the child's 23-year-old mother were charged with being under the influence of PCP in 2006 and pleaded no contest to child cruelty charges in that case, court records show.

Police said the mother, Desirae Marie Bermudez, was not present when the child's eyes were injured. There is a $15,000 warrant for her arrest for failing to complete a drug treatment program last year, according to court documents.

Mendoza has a criminal record going back to 1997 that includes convictions for selling alcohol to a minor, battery and check forgery.

Officials with Child Protective Services declined to comment on the case.

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