A child welfare caseworker at the Boulder County Department of Human Services was charged with lying on official documents at least five times and sending confidential information to her personal email.
Stephanie Perez, 56, was charged in Boulder County with one misdemeanor count of abusing public records by making a false entry and two misdemeanor counts of first-degree official misconduct in her role in the department that handles family, food, financial, older adult, health and education support in the county, online court records show.
In May 2026, a father told Human Services management that an audio recording of the meeting he, his daughter and Perez had, did not reflect the report Perez made, according to a Boulder County District Attorney’s Office news release.
Instead, Perez reported that the meeting lasted 50% longer than it did and that she talked with the father and daughter about truth-versus-lie, specific allegations, a custody schedule and other topics that were not heard in the audio recording, according to an arrest affidavit. Perez also did not specify in the report that she violated department protocol by asking the daughter about her father hitting her in the stomach, the affidavit says.
Department protocol prohibits caseworkers from using an alleged perpetrator and a physical act, like hitting, in the same statement unless a child made that connection first, the affidavit says.
Perez also lied when she falsely reported that she spoke with the daughter individually, according to the affidavit.
When her supervisors looked into the other cases she handled, they found four other instances of Perez lying about the circumstances of a case, the affidavit says.
In one case, Perez reported she met with a family at a motel in May, but she later admitted to never meeting the family in person in violation of department policy, the affidavit says. Perez told supervisors she was given the wrong motel address and decided to mark the meeting as in person because she drove all the way to the wrong place.
In a January case, Perez reported she met with two daughters of another family in person, and that one of the meetings was at the child’s school, the affidavit says. But the family told her supervisor that Perez only spoke with them on the phone, according to the affidavit.
In February, Perez did the same thing and lied in a report about meeting a father in person, the affidavit says.
Then, in March, she told a mother over the phone that she would need to pursue full custody of her children, before telling the father that the custody push was already underway even though it wasn’t, according to the affidavit. Perez’s statements caused conflict in the couple’s divorce and custody proceedings, according to the affidavit.
The internal investigation into Perez happened mostly while she was on leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act starting May 11, the affidavit says. When Perez came back to work on July 6, supervisors put her on a day’s leave ahead of an interview the next day regarding the investigation.
That’s when Perez illegally forwarded 39 emails that had protected child information to her personal email address, creating the basis for the official misconduct charges, the affidavit says.
When confronted with the allegations that she broke department policy and lied several times in official reports, Perez deflected blame onto her supervisor’s lack of support and Perez’s two-month leave, while denying some claims, the affidavit says.
Perez told her supervisors that in one case, she marked it a face-to-face meeting because she saw a father outside his home leaving the area, ahead of a phone call, the affidavit says. Perez also said she used a voice-to-text feature to submit information to the department’s online database for reports, which she knew could make frequent mistakes.
She did not review the text automatically made from those recordings, Perez said, according to the affidavit.
Every time a caseworker opens the departmental system, they must accept that they “are attesting that the information is true to the best of your knowledge and you understand that falsifying this information is punishable by law,” the affidavit says. Perez told supervisors she used her phone to submit reports and didn’t see that message.
However, one of her former colleagues told investigators that she’d seen Perez make reports on her computer, the affidavit says.
Perez was terminated on July 7, according to the affidavit. Boulder County spokesperson Gloria Handyside would not confirm the date of Perez’s employment.
When the department finds possible record falsification, staff will investigate it, correct anything that was wrong, notify the state Department of Human Services Division of Child Welfare and refer the incidents to law enforcement, according to Handyside. The department also notifies the court and any family members related to the affected cases, Handyside wrote in a statement.
“Boulder County Human Services is committed to the safety and well-being of children and to the accuracy and integrity of child welfare records,” Handyside wrote. “These steps are designed to ensure and protect the accuracy of the record, support the rights of affected families, and maintain public trust in the child welfare system.”
Perez turned herself in on Oct. 19 before posting $5,000 in bail the next day, according to court records and the release.
“Our community relies on the integrity of public servants, especially those entrusted with the safety and well‑being of families,” Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty wrote in the release. “Accurate documentation and the protection of confidential information are essential to maintaining public trust and it is especially important when working with families in need.”
Perez is scheduled to appear for a hearing on advisement on Nov. 3 in Boulder County court.
