Key Takeaways
- Riverside County faces a lawsuit over the death of 7-month-old Emmanuel Haro of Cabazon.
- The complaint says DPSS caseworkers botched abuse investigations and ignored Jake Haro's violent history.
- Jake Haro previously caused catastrophic injuries to another child, leaving her paralyzed and blind, according to the lawsuit.
- A caseworker closed a neglect investigation in July 2024 and declared the family stabilized before Emmanuel was born.
- The caseworker's risk assessment gave the family a low risk score, despite previous abuse investigations and a felony conviction, the lawsuit alleges.
- Attorneys argue a correct risk assessment would have opened a court case and likely saved Emmanuel's life.
Lawsuit Claims DPSS Ignored Red Flags
The abuse and death of seven-month-old Emmanuel Haro at the hands of his parents transfixed and horrified the nation. A lawsuit filed Monday, July 27, 2026, on behalf of the 3-year-old daughter of Jake and Rebecca Haro accuses Riverside County of negligence. The complaint was filed in Riverside County Superior Court by attorney Roger Booth, appointed at the request of the girl's guardian.
The suit alleges that if county social workers had done their jobs properly, Emmanuel would still be alive.
The girl is not named in the filing due to privacy concerns. In a statement, Booth said, "Our purpose in bringing this case is to seek justice for our 3-year-old client, but also to shine a light on a tragic failure by the Riverside Department of Public Social Services to protect a child who desperately needed protection."
Booth added, 'DPSS knew as well as anyone that Jake Haro was a very dangerous person and was not safe to be around children.'
Emmanuel Haro died in 2025 at 7 months old. His parents are now in prison.
What the Complaint Alleges
According to the lawsuit, child welfare authorities had received three reports alleging Rebecca Haro abused and neglected her two children by the time she and Jake Haro began dating in 2020. The couple married in 2021.
The couple's daughter, on whose behalf the lawsuit was filed, was born in July 2023. At the time of the June 2024 report, she was less than a year old.
In June 2024, when the girl was less than a year old, a child abuse hotline call reported potential neglect of her and her 17-year-old half-sister. The person who filed the report noted that law enforcement had recently found an illegal gun in Rebecca Haro's purse during a probation-compliance search of Jake Haro, which violated his probation stemming from his 2023 felony willful child cruelty conviction. A DPSS caseworker later visited the family and, according to the complaint, took no steps to verify Jake's claim that his child endangerment charge was false, nor did she raise questions when Jake lied about the nature of his criminal record.
"They were dealing with a guy, Jake Haro," Booth said. "Someone who had caused really catastrophic injuries to his child in 2018. This girl ended up paralyzed. She ended up blind."
The lawsuit says the caseworker recorded that Jake never physically injured a child, even though the county knew he had violently abused a daughter from a previous marriage. The 3-year-old plaintiff was developmentally delayed, could not use a spoon, cried uncontrollably, was afraid of men and had difficulty sleeping, the complaint states.
Emmanuel's sister was placed in foster care after her brother's death in August 2025.
The lawsuit also states the girl was unable to speak. It further alleges that the social worker answered numerous questions incorrectly on the risk assessment form. She recorded zero prior abuse investigations when records showed there were at least two, one of which involved the near-death of an infant and a felony conviction. As a result, the household was given a 'low risk' score, and the county was not required to open a case that would have allowed court oversight.
The complaint alleges: 'There should have been no question that Jake Haro was a very dangerous man and that [Emmanuel's sister] needed all the resources of child protective services. Instead, DPSS performed a perfunctory and grossly inadequate investigation.'
A different caseworker took over in July 2024 and closed the case, finding the allegations against Rebecca substantiated but saying the situation had stabilized. No monitoring of the family followed, including after Emmanuel was born in December 2024, less than a year after the gun was found in June 2024.
The lawsuit also alleges that Emmanuel's sister continued to suffer physical abuse and neglect by both parents, Jake and Rebecca Haro, after the investigation was closed.
The June 2024 report required a response within 10 days, according to the complaint, but the caseworker's visit came 18 days after the report was filed. She determined there were no safety threats at the home even though the firearm was accessible to the child. She also ignored the fact, or was not aware of the fact, that Jake Haro had been convicted of child cruelty.
The complaint also notes that the gun was an illegal firearm that was fully accessible to the children.
Booth added that the girl was not only taken from Jake's custody, but his two other children at the time were also taken from his custody permanently.
The lawsuit states the substantiated neglect involved an improperly secured gun in the home.
Booth said Jake Haro physically abused the children after the investigation. His team added that Emmanuel's sister was subjected to horrific abuse and watched her brother die.
In an emailed statement, Booth Law, which also represented families in the Turpin case, said: "Our purpose in bringing this case is to seek justice for our 3-year-old client but also to shine a light on a tragic failure by the Riverside Department of Public Social Services. They performed a perfunctory, inadequate investigation and did nothing to protect Jake Haro's new baby. This was a tragedy that was preventable."
Local California Context
The family lived in Cabazon, a community in Riverside County. The lawsuit targets the county's Department of Public Social Services, the agency responsible for investigating child abuse reports in the area.
County spokesman Gene Kennedy said Wednesday that the county had not received the lawsuit. "Riverside County is deeply concerned whenever any child is harmed and takes every allegation of child abuse or neglect very seriously," he said. A DPSS spokesperson said Friday that the county has yet to receive the lawsuit, but noted that it takes every allegation of child abuse or neglect seriously and is deeply concerned when any child is harmed.
Background: Abuse History Before Emmanuel's Death
Jake Haro pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and assault on a child under 8 causing death. Rebecca Haro admitted to an involuntary manslaughter enhancement. Both were sentenced to prison.
Both parents entered guilty pleas, avoiding criminal jury trials. Jake Mitchell Haro entered a surprise guilty plea to second-degree murder, child assault causing death, and filing a false police report. He admitted to severely abusing Emmanuel and claimed he placed the child's body in a trash can. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison.
Rebecca Renee Haro reached a plea agreement with the Riverside County District Attorney's Office. She pleaded guilty to felony child abuse causing great bodily injury to a child under the age of 5 with an enhancement allegation of involuntary manslaughter, and serving as an accessory after the fact. She was sentenced to 12 years and eight months in state prison.
Jake Haro received his 25-year-to-life sentence in November, and Rebecca Haro received her 12-year-and-eight-month sentence in May.
On August 14, 2025, Rebecca Haro falsely reported to police that a stranger had attacked her and kidnapped baby Emmanuel from her arms in a Yucaipa sporting goods store parking lot. Detectives quickly uncovered inconsistencies in the couple's timelines. Investigators proved that Emmanuel had already died from sustained, severe physical abuse days before, likely around August 5, 2025. The parents were arrested at their home in Cabazon on August 22, 2025. Despite extensive searches by local law enforcement, Emmanuel's remains have never been found.
Evidence presented in the criminal case against Jake and Rebecca Haro showed that Emmanuel exhibited signs of head trauma and brain damage, was unable to completely open his eyelids and had an inability to sit or support his own head.
The 2018 case involved his then-wife, Vanessa. A medical assessment revealed that their 2-month-old daughter had suffered a brain bleed causing seizures, a skull fracture, shaken baby syndrome, and multiple rib fractures, among other injuries. She was rendered quadriplegic and blind. Jake Haro was arrested and later convicted of felony willful child cruelty in connection with the 2018 abuse. Riverside Juvenile Court subsequently terminated Jake and Vanessa's parental rights to their three children.
Public officials also heavily criticized a 2018 judicial decision that granted Jake Haro probation rather than prison time for a previous child abuse conviction involving a different child. They said Emmanuel would still be alive had the system functioned properly.
The lawsuit argues that a correct risk assessment would have produced a score showing a very high risk of future abuse. That would have required DPSS to open a juvenile dependency case, allowing court supervision and possibly removing the children from the home. The county later petitioned a judge to remove the 3-year-old from the home, citing events that predated Emmanuel's death.
"Had she done the risk assessment correctly, it would have come out at the end with a score indicating there was a very high risk of future abuse," Booth said. "By their own policies, that would have required them to open a case, meaning go to court. Get the judge involved, and exercise oversight over this family. And they didn't do that."
Conclusion
"The county's failure to timely intervene cost the 3-year-old girl her relationship with her brother and Emmanuel his life," the lawyers wrote.
According to the complaint, law enforcement found the illegal gun in Rebecca Haro's purse in June 2024, less than a year before Emmanuel was born. A child abuse hotline call was made that same month, yet a social worker did not visit the family until 18 days later. By the end of July, the case was closed.
The allegations in the lawsuit have not been proven in court.
The case now moves through the Riverside County court system.