After hearing a tearful apology from Sylvia Vasquez for her
violation of a court order that specifically barred her from
communicating with her adopted children, Judge Joseph Lodge was
sufficiently moved to reduce her bail last Thursday from $5
million, a county record, to $1 million, effectively releasing
Vasquez, 50, from county jail. The former childcare provider and
foster mother was charged earlier this year with child abuse and
neglect after Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s deputies found three
of her children living in sometimes filthy conditions and
periodically under confinement, while a fourth child was allegedly
injected with an antigrowth hormone. Vasquez’s preliminary hearing
is scheduled for Feb. 24.
