The felony charge from 2014 involved drunk driving with her baby daughter in the back seat.<\/p>\n
County Supervisor Sylvia Arenas, who has worked in child welfare and has crusaded for reforms at the county\u2019s child welfare agency, said such a conviction would deem a potential foster caregiver ineligible. Steve Baron, a member of the county\u2019s Child Abuse Prevention Council, called the felony conviction \u2014 easily found in court records \u2014 an \u201cautomatic disqualifier\u201d for the woman.<\/p>\n
![\"Santa](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776374470_858_SJM-JORDAN-1009-9.jpg\")
File photo of Santa Clara County Supervisor Sylvia Arenas during a 2024 Board of Supervisors meeting about the child welfare agency in another case involving child safety. (Dai Sugano\/ Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA felony conviction for something like that anywhere would tend to be a real red flag,\u201d said Baron, who said he was speaking for himself, not the council. \u201cIf a reporter can get the information, why can\u2019t the person who\u2019s responsible for the safety of the child who\u2019s making that decision get that information before that placement is made?\u201d<\/p>\n
Child welfare experts also say that the agency should have had its own record of the drunk driving arrest, since the child in the back seat had been taken to the Santa Clara Police Department that night, which normally triggers an emergency response from the child welfare agency.<\/p>\n
The county declined to answer numerous questions about why Jaxon was ultimately placed with this San Jose cousin and whether social workers were aware of the woman\u2019s criminal history. They also didn\u2019t confirm whether the agency had been involved in the past with this family.<\/p>\n
Instead, in a statement, the county said the case is \u201cdeeply concerning\u201d and, as Baron and Supervisor Arenas had also done, called on the California Department of Social Services to investigate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe County is committed to swiftly investigating every aspect of this horrific tragedy and publicly sharing the results of these investigations when available and to the extent allowable by law,\u201d the county said.<\/p>\n
The Mercury News is not naming the woman to protect the identity of her son, a juvenile who is facing the sexual assault charges. Prosecutors are considering whether to request that the teen, whom relatives said turned 18 days after Jaxon died, be tried as an adult.<\/p>\n
The Department of Family and Children\u2019s Services had been involved with the family, including Jaxon\u2019s father and grandmother with whom he lived, since Jaxon was born nearly 8 weeks prematurely with signs of fetal alcohol syndrome, relatives told the Mercury News this week. Jaxon\u2019s mother was dying of liver and kidney failure last July and the father was battling numerous health problems of his own when social workers arranged a Zoom call with relatives to discuss custody of Jaxon.<\/p>\n
![\"Jaxon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SJM-L-JAXONFELONY-0416.jpeg\")
Jaxon Rey Juarez, 2, in a recent photo while living with his grandfather, died April 9 after moving last month to live with other relatives. A cousin is charged with sexual abuse of a child. (Photo courtesy of family)\u00a0<\/p>\n
In it, relatives from Arizona appealed to have Jaxon placed with them, they said, but were denied because they lived too far away and visits with the father would be impossible. The 40-year-old cousin in San Jose with whom Jaxon was ultimately placed shortly before he died also was on the call, they said, and was discussed as a placement option because she was close to the father\u2019s family. They were unaware of her felony conviction and didn\u2019t know why she wasn\u2019t selected. Instead, Jackson was placed with a foster family unrelated to him for several weeks, then transferred to his grandfather\u2019s custody in Roseville.<\/p>\n
After caring for Jaxon for six months, the grandfather said he could no longer care for the toddler with special needs. That\u2019s when, in late February, Jaxon was placed with the San Jose woman with the felony conviction. Jaxon died six-and-a-half weeks later.<\/p>\n
The child\u2019s death comes as the county is nearing the end of an 18-month oversight by the California Department of Social Services, which found in a 2023 investigation that the county was more focused on keeping families together than keeping children safe. The county, also spurred by a Mercury News investigation over the 2023 fentanyl overdose death of baby Phoenix Castro<\/a>, embarked on extensive reforms, including reversing a trend that had dramatically reduced the number of abused or neglected children being removed from their homes.<\/p>\n