Pearl's history with the department goes back at least 10 years, when her oldest son, wearing no seat belt, suffered a head injury in a car accident. A report surfaced a year later that Pearl was beating the son and no longer wished to care for him, but the complaint was "unfounded." Pearl also told social workers of her history of gang involvement, drug use and mental problems. Another complaint surfaced in 2007 that she was starving one of her daughters and threatened to break the girl's jaw for crying. She also spent time in jail in Texas for using a weapon in a reckless manner.
Yet somehow she regained custody of Fernandez and his two siblings in October