Alameda County agreed to pay $12 million to settle claims its social workers failed to heed warning after warning about the safety of Sophia Mason, the 8-year-old Hayward girl whose emaciated body was found rotting inside a Merced bathroom.
The county’s Board of Supervisors announced the deal in a late-night release Tuesday, spelling the end of a lawsuit filed by Sophia’s grandmother that accused child welfare workers of botching several complaints that the girl was being abused throughout the 14 months that proceeded her death in 2022.
The settlement also spelled out plans for a memorial bench at San Felipe Community Park in Fairview, just outside of Hayward’s city limits. It was a critical addition for Sophia’s grandmother and her aunt, who personally called in several of the reports that county social workers later bungled, according to Carly Sanchez, the relatives’ attorney…