The abuse and death of seven-month-old Emmanuel Haro at the hands of his parents transfixed and horrified the nation.
Now, a lawsuit filed in Riverside County Superior Court alleges that if county social workers had done their jobs properly, he would still be alive.
The suit, filed Monday on behalf of Emmanuel’s 3-year-old sister, claims that the Riverside County Department of Public Social Services failed to properly investigate a 2024 report of abuse in the Haro household.
As a result of the county’s negligence, the lawsuit alleges, Emmanuel died and his sister continued to suffer physical abuse and neglect by their parents, Jake and Rebecca Haro. The girl was not named in the filing due to privacy concerns.
“Our purpose in bringing this case is to seek justice for our 3-year-old client, but also to shine a light on a tragic failure by the Riverside Department of Public Social Services to protect a child who desperately needed protection,” attorney Roger Booth said in a statement. “DPSS knew as well as anyone that Jake Haro was a very dangerous person and was not safe to be around children.”
A DPSS spokesperson said Friday that the county has yet to receive the lawsuit, but noted that it takes every allegation of child abuse or neglect seriously and is deeply concerned when any child is harmed.
Emmanuel’s sister, who was placed in foster care after his death in August 2025, was significantly behind developmentally, unable to speak or use a spoon, the lawsuit alleges. She also suffered an intense fear of men, uncontrollable crying spells and insomnia.
In June 2024, when she was less than a year old, Riverside County received a child abuse hotline call reporting potential neglect in the Haro home.
At the time, Jake Haro already had a history of child abuse dating back to 2018, when social services received a report that he and his then-wife, Vanessa, had physically abused their 2-month-old daughter, the lawsuit states.
A medical assessment in 2018 revealed that the girl had a brain bleed causing seizures, a skull fracture, shaken baby syndrome and multiple rib fractures, among other injuries, according to the complaint. As a result, she was rendered quadriplegic and blind.
The Riverside Juvenile Court subsequently terminated Jake and Vanessa’s parental rights to their three children. Jake was arrested and later convicted of felony willful child cruelty.
In July 2023, he went on to have Emmanuel’s older sister with his new wife, Rebecca.
The person who filed the June 2024 hotline report noted that law enforcement had recently found a gun in Rebecca’s purse, which violated the terms of Jake’s probation.
Though the report required a response within 10 days, it took 18 days until a social worker visited the home, according to the complaint.
“There should have been no question that Jake Haro was a very dangerous man and that [Emmanuel’s sister] needed all the resources of child protective services,” the complaint alleges. “Instead, DPSS performed a perfunctory and grossly inadequate investigation.”
The social worker allegedly did not raise questions when Jake lied about the nature of his criminal record, nor note any safety threats being present in the home, even though law enforcement had recently discovered an illegal gun that was “fully accessible to the children,” the complaint alleges.
The lawsuit further alleges that the social worker answered numerous questions incorrectly on the risk assessment form. For example, she recorded zero prior abuse investigations when records showed there were at least two — one of which involved the near-death of an infant and a felony conviction. She also recorded that Jake had never physically injured a child, the lawsuit alleges.
As a result, the household was given a “low risk” score of future abuse and the county was not required to open a case, which would have led to active monitoring of the family and a possible court order to remove children from the home.
A few months later, in December 2024, Emmanuel was born and Jake went on to physically abuse both children, according to the complaint and law enforcement officials.
Evidence presented in the criminal case against Jake and Rebecca Haro showed that Emmanuel exhibited signs of head trauma and brain damage, was unable to completely open his eyelids and had an inability to sit or support his own head.
He died as a result of his injuries in August 2025, authorities say. His parents initially attempted to cover up his death by falsely claiming he had been kidnapped.
His body was never found.
Jake Haro was sentenced to 25 years to life in November after pleading guilty to second-degree murder, assault of a child under age 8 and false reporting of a crime to police. Rebecca Haro was sentenced to 12 years and eight months in prison in May after pleading guilty to felony child abuse causing great bodily injury to a child under the age of 5 with an enhancement allegation of involuntary manslaughter.
Booth said that when DPSS was called to Jake Haro’s home in 2024 and learned he had a new baby, they should have realized there was a “disaster waiting to happen,” but instead did nothing.
“As a result, that baby and her brother Emmanuel (born later in 2024) were subjected to physical abuse by Jake, and Emmanuel was eventually killed,” he said. “This was a tragedy that was preventable.”
