LOS ANGELES (CNS) - The Los Angeles County Claims Board has recommended a $3.5 million settlement of a lawsuit brought by the father of a 2- year-old boy who died in 2018 after allegedly being physically abused by his mother's boyfriend in Westchester.
The child, Damien Ventura, died at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Westwood on July 3, 2018, days before his third birthday.
Josafat Bonifacio, 27 years old at the time the lawsuit was filed by plaintiff Oscar Ventura in Los Angeles Superior Court in May 2020, had been taking care of Damien and his own then-4-year-old daughter when someone called 911 that evening. Damien was rushed to the hospital with multiple injuries, prosecutors said.
Bonifacio, now 32, was subsequently charged with murder and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison on May 9.
The county Claims Board made its recommendation of a $3.5 million settlement of Oscar Ventura's suit on July 17 and final approval is up to the Board of Supervisors.
"Due to the high risks and uncertainties of litigation, a reasonable settlement at this time will avoid further litigation costs," according to a summary of a County Counsel attorney to the Claims Board.
Damien had split living arrangements between his father and mother, Grace Levine, the suit stated. When Damien was returned to his father after visiting with his mother in January 2018, the boy had bleeding in his eye, bruises on his cheek and forehead and scratches and bruises on his neck, the suit stated.
Damien told his father that "Joe" had hit him, a reference to Bonifacio, according to the suit.
"Instead of investigating the reports of abuse, the social worker accused plaintiff of falsifying allegations of abuse in order to win Grace back," the suit stated.
Levine was dropped as a defendant in the suit on Feb. 15.
Oscar Ventura's attorney, Brian Claypool, said previously that he blamed Damien's death on "ineffective, incompetent Los Angeles County social workers" and the DCFS' alleged refusal to enact change after the torture deaths of 8-year-old Gabriel Fernandez and 10-year-old Anthony Avalos, whose abuses had also been reported to DCFS social workers.
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