Records obtained by The New York Times show that social workers in Washington were confused about the status of a 2014 investigation into abuse in Mr. Gonzales-Mugaburu’s home across the country. At that time, they continued to actively guide Mr. Gonzales-Mugaburu in his efforts to adopt a third boy because they did not know details of the investigation.  “#1 Do you know anything about the investigation,” Amy Herring, a social worker in Washington, wrote in an email to Erin Coyle, who at the time was a director at SCO Family of Services, a nonprofit foster care agency in New York that monitored Mr. Gonzales-Mugaburu on behalf of Washington. “#2 Do you know when the adoption paperwork may be done by?”  Ms. Coyle “is no longer employed by the agency,” SCO said. Ms. Coyle did not respond to requests for comment through messages left by phone and sent via Facebook.  For his part, Mr. Gonzales-Mugaburu, who was licensed to run a therapeutic home for special needs children, continued to be paid. From September 2010 through January 2016, when he was arrested, he received nearly $145,000 from Washington for caring for children placed with him, in addition to money he received from New York City for caring for local foster children.  Mr. Gonzales-Mugaburu has pleaded not guilty to charges of sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. His lawyer, Donald Mates Jr., said the allegations were false.  The first mention of Mr. Gonzales-Mugaburu’s name in Washington State’s records was in late 2009, and was positive. He was interested in adopting a boy listed on an adoption website.  Lori Whittaker, a social worker, wrote in a case file in December 2009 that the staff thought he would be a “good placement.” Also, Mr. Gonzales-Mugaburu had told them that none of the child’s special needs “scare me.”  (The children’s names, as well as confidential information, were redacted from files given to The Times.)  Soon after, on Feb. 3, 2010, another social worker, Veronica L. Mo, wrote something similar and said he had also asked about another child. Mr. Gonzales-Mugaburu traveled to Washington to meet one of the boys, according to the records. He soon took another child.  Mr. Gonzales-Mugaburu was a one-man operation used by several different agencies that considered his home a safe haven for boys who were developmentally or physically disabled, or had severe behavioral problems.  That dependency proved blinding for those agencies, law enforcement officials have said.  Mr. Mates said nothing was overlooked; his client is innocent. Over the past 20 years, Mr. Gonzales-Mugaburu had been the subject of 30 to 40 complaints about abuse or other mistreatment of children, and the police or social services had investigated them all, Mr. Mates said. “Each and every time that an investigation was done, no charges were brought,” he said.  And records suggested that the authorities at Washington’s child welfare agency were more directly involved in monitoring Mr. Gonzales-Mugaburu than New York City’s child welfare agency. Although New York’s agency sent more than 90 boys to him, it had outsourced oversight of Mr. Gonzales-Mugaburu to the nonprofit SCO Family of Services.  Through the years, there were several different agencies involved, like the boys’ schools, hospitals where they went for care, and a residential treatment center called Little Flower in Suffolk County.  A developmentally disabled boy from Washington whom Gonzales-Mugaburu adopted left his direct supervision to live at Little Flower. There, in 2014, he told a psychotherapist about horrific abuses inside Mr. Gonzales-Mugaburu’s home on a quiet cul-de-sac. The therapist, Amy D’Antonio, alerted the authorities about the allegations, prompting an investigation by Suffolk County Child Protective Services.  Ms. D’Antonio had helped the young man, who was 18 years old at the time, reconnect with his biological family in Washington. She said Mr. Gonzales-Mugaburu objected, once approaching her in the parking lot of the treatment center and telling her that the teenager did not have the mental capacity to make such a decision.  Mr. Gonzales-Mugaburu told her the boy was a “compulsive and pathological liar,” said Ms. D’Antonio, who in March sued Little Flower, her former employer, saying the agency should have acted more quickly to prevent further abuse of children in his care. Little Flower has disputed the claims in her lawsuit and says it “fully supported” her efforts to contact the authorities.  Yet, while that investigation was underway, social workers in Washington were trying to place a third child with Mr. Gonzales-Mugaburu.  At the same time, Washington officials began to question why the state was paying Mr. Gonzales-Mugaburu for a child who was no longer in his direct care. Questioned, Mr. Gonzales-Mugaburu became indignant, according to entries that social workers placed in his case file. He told Ms. Herring he resented being treated “like a crook and it hurts him.”  “He reported that it also angers him deeply. They make him feel ‘dirty and undervalued,’” the entries read.  Washington later found that Mr. Gonzales-Mugaburu had, in fact, been overpaid. But Mr. Gonzales-Mugaburu continued to complain. On January 12 this year, Mr. Gonzales-Mugaburu told Ms. Herring, of SCO, that he felt “once again insulted” over the disputed payments, according to records.  But two days later, Mr. Gonzales-Mugaburu shifted the conversation.  He told Ms. Herring that he was under investigation. “He reported that two ‘troubled boys’ are causing problems for him, and he wanted to make sure that the SW was aware of what is going on,” she wrote, using shorthand for social worker.  At that point, one young man after another, including the 18-year-old adopted son from Washington, were coming forward with allegations of abuse.  Two boys, 11 and 13, told the authorities about sexual misconduct in the home. Unlike boys in the past, their allegations were believed, mostly because the boys did not have severe disabilities or emotional problems, said Detective Lt. Robert Donohue, commander of Suffolk County’s special victims unit.  Much of the blame for the failure to alert other agencies has been placed on SCO Family of Services in New York, which coordinated the placement of boys in Mr. Gonzales-Mugaburu home, with most coming from Long Island and the surrounding area. It has acknowledged that it could have taken more aggressive action after previous complaints.  “Internal and external reviews have concluded that SCO had no knowledge of sexual abuse or misconduct in this home,” the agency said. “Our review of this former foster parent, however, suggests that there were other issues with the home, and in retrospect and knowing what we know now, a decision to close the home should have been made earlier.”  It was child welfare officials in Washington who were most dependent on getting straight answers and accurate updates from SCO about conditions at Mr. Gonzales-Mugaburu’s home and the status of investigations. Norah West, a spokeswoman for the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, said, “We rely on information from the agency that is contracted to ensure the well-being of the child in that receiving state.”  The mother of the 18-year-old boy, who The Times is not naming to protect her son’s identity, grew up in the foster care system herself. She said she had struggled with mental illness and substance abuse, and could not believe her son had suffered in a system that she thought would help him.  “I can’t believe they put him with someone like that,” she said. “Look what I did to my son.”
The case of Cesar Gonzales-Mugaburu, a longtime foster father who is charged with abusing children in his care, shows that distance can make monitoring children’s welfare even more complex.