Gomez trial pushed back until May

EPHRATA — The trial date for a 31-year-old Ephrata mother charged with first-degree manslaughter in the death of her toddler, Rafael "Raffy" Gomez, has been rescheduled.

The mother, Maribel Gomez, appeared in Grant County Superior Court on Tuesday and received a May 9 trial date. The scheduled date has been reset more than a dozen times in the case since she was first charged in May 2004.

Raffy Gomez apparently received the injuries leading to his death when Maribel Gomez was feeding the 2-year-old dinner in early September 2003. She told authorities he threw himself on the floor three times, banging his head each time. Raffy Gomez's father, Jose Arechiga, was not home when his son suffered the head injury.

The boy was soon taken to Columbia Basin Hospital by his parents. He was then airlifted to Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, where he died the next day.

An autopsy in Spokane concluded Raffy Gomez died as a result of blunt force injuries to the head by means of homicidal violence.

Prosecutors claimed he could not have died due to accidental causes and were unsatisfied with his mother's explanation.

The state Department of Social and Health Services intervened prior to his death and removed Raffy Gomez from his parents' care four times because of suspected child abuse. The state, though, continued to return him to his parents after stints with foster parents.

Authorities investigated after Raffy Gomez suffered broken legs and other injuries while being cared for by his mother. At the time, officials decided there was not enough evidence of abuse to file charges.

In June 2004, the state released a child fatality review completed by a team of 13 experts who spent six months investigating Raffy Gomez's death. The experts concluded social workers ignored evidence of abuse and acted with bias in favor of the parents. Social workers kept pushing for reunification with Maribel Gomez when the risks were numerous, the report concluded.

"There was enough information known about Rafael to rule out accidental or self-inflicted injuries," the report stated. The social workers "ignored or dismissed glaring signs Raffy was in danger in (his parents') care."

The report placed much of the blame on Murray Twelves, a Moses Lake-based caseworker for DSHS.

At the time, Denise Griffith, Raffy Gomez's foster mother from Royal City, filed a civil lawsuit in US District Court in Spokane against both Maribel Gomez and Twelves. She has since withdrawn the lawsuit, she said.

"You can't sue the state, they have a way around everything," Griffith said.

Griffith said she has been disappointed with the number of continuances in Grant County Superior Court.

"It's been continued so many times," she said. "It hasn't really gone much of anywhere."

She believes the case has been "set aside" for other cases "because he (Raffy Gomez) has no voice."

Raffy Gomez spent more than a year living with Griffith.

"People just think he's somebody else's kid," she said.

Grant County Prosecutor John Knodell said delays moving the case to trial have been at Moses Lake defense attorney Bobby Moser's request.

"The continuances have been allowed to ensure the defense is absolutely prepared to go to trial," Knodell said. "Whether or not it should have taken this long, I don't know about that."

Numerous calls to Moser's office seeking comment about this case were not returned.

Knodell said it's important to have a solid conviction once the case is decided by the jury and to ensure no mistakes are made in the process.

"We need to have a record that's going to stand up on appeal," he said.

Superior Court Judge Evan Sperline said the number of delays in the case are not unusual in a case in which there is a person charged with responsibility for a death.

"In this particular case, a lot of the delay has been related to the necessity for the defense to obtain and consult with an expert on subjects of infant death," Sperline said.

He also noted Maribel Gomez's current pregnancy for contributing to the most recent delay. Maribel Gomez is currently about eight months pregnant. It will be her sixth child.

"When we set the trial date in the Gomez case the last time we were trying to work around her anticipated delivery of a child," Sperline said.

The conditions of Maribel Gomez's release require her to be supervised around children. Sperline said it was unclear what impact the birth of her next child will have on those conditions.

"It's one of those issues that would come up, not because the court or the judge raised it, but because the lawyers address it," Sperline said. "I don't think it has been addressed."

Ephrata attorney Doug Anderson, who represents Maribel Gomez in dependency matters on four of her children, said Raffy Gomez's siblings remain in foster care while she awaits trial. The conditions of her release, including not being able to be around children without supervision, remain in place, he said.

She currently gets two supervised visits each week, he said.

The separation has proven extremely difficult for Maribel Gomez.

"Not a day goes by where she's not worried about their specific welfare," Anderson said.

He was also not sure what the custody status would be of her unborn child.

"I don't imagine they will allow her to keep the child," Anderson said.

Moses Lake-based case worker Rocky Terry, who Anderson said is assigned to Maribel Gomez's children, could not provide details about the children's custody.

"I can't comment on any of my cases," Terry said.