Justin Bulley had been in the custody of the Los Angeles County child welfare system, but during an approved visit with his mother, the boy somehow came into contact with the county's deadliest drug.
Within hours, the 1-year-old boy was dead.
The cause: A lethal dose of fentanyl, the synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin, was found in the boy's bloodstream.
“I was robbed,” said Montise Bulley, Justin's father. He and the boy's mother were estranged, she said, but when she lost custody of Justin to the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, so did he. At the time of the boy's death, he had been fighting to gain full custody of his son, she said.
Bulley, a truck driver, said at a news conference Wednesday that he was still in shock over Justin's death in February.
“I just miss my son,” Bulley, 51, said. “I cry almost every day.”
She blames the Department of Children and Family Services for not protecting her son.
Brian Claypool, an attorney representing Bulley and two of Justin's brothers, filed a notice of claims with Los Angeles County this week seeking $65 million in damages, with the intention of filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the Department of Children and Family Services.
“How the hell did this happen?” Claypool said. “There is an answer: because we have a pathetic Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services in Lancaster. “It's absolutely horrible.”
Claypool called Justin's death the latest in a series of tragedies in which children in the Antelope Valley have died under the department's supervision. Despite several tragic cases, which prompted investigations and leadership changes, Claypool said Justin's death shows that necessary changes in the nation's largest child welfare system have yet to occur.
“What happened that day shouldn't have happened,” Claypool said. “They throw unattended children under the bus.”
Claypool also represents the relatives of Noah Cuatro, the 4-year-old Palmdale boy whose parents tortured and killed him in 2019, and 10-year-old Anthony Avalos, who died after enduring prolonged torture and abuse in his Lancaster home, a despite many warnings to DCFS.
But the lawyer called Justin's death “the worst case of misconduct I have ever seen in my entire life.”
The Los Angeles County medical examiner found this month that Justin's death on Feb. 18 was caused by the “effects of fentanyl,” and ruled it an accidental death. The boy died at Antelope Valley Medical Center in Lancaster, where he was taken after the family found him unresponsive at his mother's home and called 911, according to the autopsy report.
Paramedics who responded to the home attempted to use naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal medication, on the child, according to the report.
According to the medical examiner's investigation, his mother told officials that she had been drinking alcohol while Justin and his two brothers, ages 3 and 5, were visiting the home, and that his grandfather had been smoking fentanyl. The report noted that there were “various versions of what occurred at the scene,” but the grandfather told officials that the boy had an “interaction with fentanyl at some point,” according to the report.
The autopsy found no other trauma. The toxicology report found Justin had 25 nanograms per milliliter in his blood. A Delaware medical examiner's report noted that just 4 nanograms per milliliter can cause death from overdose in an otherwise healthy person.
Officers who later searched the home found “glass pipes, baggies containing unknown substances and other drug paraphernalia,” including some in “areas accessible to children,” according to the medical examiner's report.
No arrests have been made in Justin's death, but the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department continues to investigate the case, according to Lt. Michael Gomez, who heads the agency's homicide division. Gomez said detectives were working with the district attorney's office to make an upcoming determination on whether charges would be filed.
In Claypool's notice of damages, he alleged that a DCFS worker had been at the home supervising visitation on the day of Justin's death, but that the employee fled the scene when the boy was found unconscious. The document, filed with the county Board of Supervisors, a required first step before a civil lawsuit, claims that Justin's siblings had also ingested fentanyl.
According to Lt. Gomez, DCFS tested the other children in the home for fentanyl at the time of Justin's death, but declined to share those results. He said he didn't know a DCFS worker was at the home the day of Justin's death, but said that could be part of the investigation if it happened.
Shiara Dávila-Morales, a spokesperson for Los Angeles County DCFS, declined to comment or respond to any allegations in the case, citing pending litigation. The Times was unable to reach Justin's mother, Jessica Darthard, for comment.
As Bulley spoke Wednesday about the upcoming lawsuit, he held up a photo of himself with his son and kissed the image of the boy's face.
“I don't care about the money, I love my son,” Bulley said.
Claypool maintains that Justin and his siblings should not have been allowed to visit their mother, given her past, which includes convictions for drunk driving and child endangerment in 2023, according to court records. He also cited the grandfather's criminal history, which includes drug-related arrests.
“For years, the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services was aware of the danger to the children and allowed their mother and grandfather to continue to have access,” Claypool wrote in the damage notice.
“There were huge red flags in this case,” Claypool said. “In this matter, DCFS played Russian roulette with the lives of Justin” and his siblings.
