Nicholaus Contreraz - After The Death

After The Death

The conclusion of the California Department of Social Services report was that Contreraz's death was the result of "medical neglect and physical abuse".

Bob Thomas, the president of the facility, claimed that abuse experienced by Contreraz never happened, and that a subsequent report of the incident from California, although he had not read it, was constructed to make the facility look bad, adding that the publication of Contreraz's autopsy pictures, which appeared on the front page of Phoenix's newspapers, was "in very poor taste". He further stated "It comes to this: Who do you believe, the staff or the kids?"

The Arizona Department of Economic Security's report stated that 17 former Arizona Boys Ranch staff members were placed on the Arizona Child Abuser Directory as a result of their treatment of Contreraz. (In Arizona, inspection, supervision and certification of such juvenile detention facilities is the responsibility of the Department of Economic Security.)

It was soon revealed that in the past five years, almost 100 complaints of child abuse had been made about the facility, including a report of a staff member hitting a boy on the head with a shovel, and another in which a boy was burned with hot water so severely that he had to have skin grafts.

Four of five other similar facilities in Arizona were closed, and the employees implicated in Contreraz's death were dismissed, laid off, or resigned. The facility lost its license on August 27, 1998. Thomas stated his intention to appeal the license removal, but was later placed on administrative leave by the Ranch's board of directors.

Five employees were criminally charged for Contreraz's death, including Babb, who was charged with one count of manslaughter and one count of child abuse for allegedly clearing Contreraz for exercise with reports to staff members urging them to "hold Contreraz highly accountable" for his "negative behavior."

However, the Pinal County district attorney dropped all charges, and no one involved served jail time or was legally punished. Everyone charged got off on a technicality: The court ruled that because the staff depended on Babb (who was allegedly absent most of the time) for information about Contreraz's condition, and she claimed there was nothing wrong with him, they were not responsible for his death. Paradoxically, the court ruled that because Babb did not have enough information about Contreraz to know his life was threatened (due to her absence), she wasn't guilty either. The extent of any further legal repercussions for the facility were that California canceled its contract with it, and ceased funding.

The state of Arizona and Sacramento County settled out of court with Contreraz's mother for more than a million dollars. She told The Arizona Republic, "I feel like he was sacrificed, and some good things changed for the better because of him. But nobody really paid a price for his death."

The Oracle facility is closed, but the Queen Creek facility is now in operation again, under the name Canyon State Academy.