Four social workers charged in connection to the death of an eight-year-old boy in California are now off the hook.
The social workers each faced one felony count of child abuse and one felony count of falsifying public records in the case of Gabriel Fernandez. The boy's mother and her boyfriend were convicted of murdering him in 2013. Prosecutors said in the trial the couple tortured the boy for months before his death because they thought he was gay.
Gabriel's case was open with the Department of Child and Family Services for more than six months before his death. In 2016 the district attorney charged the social workers involved in Gabriel's case.
But in January the Los Angeles Times reported an appeals court ruled the social workers couldn't be charged because they couldn't control the abusers and did not have custody of Gabriel.
Thursday the judge officially dismissed the case against them.
