The woman and her partner abused her 11-year-old niece for about a year while the girl lived in their custody, say authorities.
SALIDA, Calif. — A Stanislaus County child abuse investigation has drawn added scrutiny because one of the defendants, authorities say, worked as a child and family services case manager while she and her partner allegedly abused an 11-year-old girl in their home.
That employment detail does not change the filed charges, but it changes how the case lands. Prosecutors accuse Priscilla Mestaz, 37, and Anthony Machuca, 36, of torturing Mestaz’s niece, keeping her in unsafe sleeping areas, withholding proper nutrition and using violence and threats over a period authorities place roughly between January 2025 and January 2026. The case now sits at the intersection of criminal prosecution and public trust. Investigators say there is video evidence from the home, two younger children have already been taken into protective custody, and more charges could still follow as detectives keep reviewing evidence.
Authorities first presented the matter as a direct response to a child in crisis. On Jan. 31, 2026, deputies were told an 11-year-old girl was refusing to return home because her aunt had been physically abusing her. That refusal, more than any outside complaint, appears to have broken the case open. Detectives learned the child had been staying with Mestaz and Machuca since the summer of 2024. As they investigated, they came to believe the girl had endured abuse over at least a year. The allegations were severe: strangulation, punching, slapping, criminal threats, forced exercise until exhaustion and dragging with a dog leash. Yet what gave the case its wider public impact was not only the alleged violence. It was the later disclosure that Mestaz worked in a family-services role while the abuse was allegedly happening behind closed doors.
Officials have released only a limited public description of that employment. They said Mestaz served as a child and family services case manager with a local organization. They have not publicly identified the organization in the reports reviewed, nor have they said whether she has been suspended, fired or placed on leave. They also have not said whether the job required background checks, home visits, reporting duties or direct case contact with minors. Those unknowns matter because they frame the broader institutional questions that often follow cases like this, but they remain unanswered in the public record so far. What is known is that authorities say the child was not staying in an ordinary bedroom. Investigators described her as living mainly in a backyard and an unfinished, uninsulated garage that lacked heating, air conditioning and proper bedding.
The conditions inside the property sharpened the contrast between duty and conduct. Prosecutors allege the girl was denied adequate nutrition and became malnourished. They say she was made to sleep in the garage during winter without bedding or heat and at times in the backyard, exposing her to unsafe temperatures year-round. Detectives later executed a search warrant and reported finding surveillance cameras inside and outside the home. According to the sheriff’s account, the footage backed the child’s statements. Officials have not said whether anyone who worked with Mestaz through her job noticed injuries, changes in her behavior or other warning signs at the time. No public report reviewed here says whether workplace authorities or licensing bodies have opened a separate inquiry. For now, the public case is focused on the criminal allegations and not yet on any administrative consequences.
The arrests themselves unfolded in an uneven but documented sequence. Machuca was arrested at the residence when authorities first came to the home, investigators said. Mestaz was not immediately taken into custody because she was in an advanced stage of pregnancy. After giving birth about six weeks later, she was arrested on March 12. Prosecutors then filed a criminal complaint on March 16 charging both defendants with 27 felony and misdemeanor counts. The list includes torture, conspiracy to commit torture, child endangerment under circumstances likely to cause great bodily injury or death, inflicting injury on a child, assault with a deadly weapon, assault likely to produce great bodily injury and criminal threats. Both were reported to be jailed on $1 million bail. Authorities said the investigation remained active and that additional charges were possible.
The effect on the household was immediate and concrete. A 4-year-old child present in the home and the newborn later delivered by Mestaz were removed and placed in protective custody through Stanislaus County Child Protective Services. Officials have not publicly said where the 11-year-old is now, whether she has been reunited with family members, or whether she is receiving long-term medical and counseling support. The absence of those details leaves a quiet gap in the story: the criminal case is visible, but the recovery path is not. Public statements by authorities have instead centered on the defendants, the home and the evidence. The broad outline they have described is one of private authority turned abusive, then exposed after the child refused to go back.
While the case moves forward, the courtroom will address the criminal counts, but outside it there may be parallel questions about how someone employed in child and family services could face such allegations. As of the latest reports, those questions were still open, while the defendants remained jailed and prosecutors prepared for the next hearing in Stanislaus County.
Author note: Last updated April 9, 2026.