EXCLUSIVE: Arizona’s Governor Hobbs Was Investigated for Pay-To-Play Violations After a 9-Year-Old Child Died in Sunshine’s Custody

Arizona’s Governor Hobbs Was Investigated for Pay-To-Play Violations After a 9-Year-Old Child Died in Sunshine’s Custody

The Attorney General closed the bribery investigation. But Arizona still does not know what happened between a child’s death, a licensing violation — and Sunshine’s 30% rate increase.

THE CRIMINAL QUESTION MAY BE CLOSED. THE OVERSIGHT QUESTION IS NOT.

Nine-year-old Jakob Blodgett had Type 1 diabetes. In December 2022, only days after entering Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS) custody, he was placed in a group home operated by Sunshine Residential Homes — Arizona’s largest group-home provider. He needed insulin to live. Records reviewed by investigators and reporters describe missed insulin doses, dangerously elevated blood-sugar readings and direct-care workers who later said they had not received formal diabetes training from Sunshine.

On December 21, Jakob was rushed to the hospital suffering from diabetic ketoacidosis. He developed brain swelling and was placed on a ventilator. He died five days later. He was nine years old.

There has been a great deal of discussion about Sunshine since then. Political contributions. Rate increases. Allegations of pay-to-play. A two-year Attorney General investigation. And finally, on August 21, 2026, Attorney General Kris Mayes announced that investigators had found no evidence of the quid pro quo necessary to support a bribery charge.

That answers one legal question…It does not answer what happened inside DCS.

Because after Jakob died, DCS investigated Sunshine’s care and issued the provider a licensing violation. According to recent Associated Press reporting, DCS required Sunshine to take corrective steps — but the agency has not publicly disclosed exactly what those corrective steps were. There was NO fine. NO license suspension. NO license revocation. And then comes the part of the timeline Arizona still needs explained:

The licensing violation was issued roughly two weeks before DCS approved Sunshine for a 30% rate increase in May 2023.

So, What Happened During Those Two Weeks?

QUESTION ONE: WHAT DID DCS REQUIRE SUNSHINE TO FIX?

The public record gives us pieces of the answer. DCS licensing official Myriam Villarreal later testified that Sunshine was asked to make policy changes and that the direct-care employees actually caring for Jakob should have received more diabetes training — not merely management personnel.

She also acknowledged that the agency had not verified that every staff member had the appropriate training. But the actual corrective-action plan has not been publicly disclosed.

What policies were changed?
What training was required?
Who received it?
What deadlines were imposed?

And perhaps most importantly:

Did DCS Ever Verify That Sunshine Actually Completed What It Was Told to Fix?

Those should not be difficult questions to answer when the state is licensing a company to care for children who cannot care for themselves.

QUESTION TWO: WHO KNEW WHAT WHEN THE RATE WENT UP?

The second unanswered question may be even more important. Did The People Recommending and Approving Sunshine’s 30% Rate Increase Know That DCS Licensing Had Just Cited the Provider Over Jakob’s Care? The public record we have reviewed does not establish that they did.

We have not located a public memorandum, email, deposition or rate-review document showing that those decision-makers reviewed Jakob’s death, the licensing violation or Sunshine’s corrective-action history before approving the increase. That does not prove they were kept in the dark. It does not prove they knew. It means Arizona still does not know. And that distinction matters…

The Attorney General investigated whether campaign contributions were exchanged for favorable treatment and concluded there was insufficient evidence of criminal bribery. But there is another question entirely:

When Arizona Decides Whether to Give Substantially More Taxpayer Money to a Child-Welfare Provider, Does the Person Making That Decision Know What the Licensing Side of the Same Agency Knows About That Provider’s Safety Record?

If the answer is YES, where is the record showing it?

If the answer is NO, why not?

AND THEN THERE WAS ANOTHER CHILD

Jakob’s death also raises a question much larger than Sunshine. Less than two years later, 15-year-old Christian Williams, another Arizona child with Type 1 diabetes, died from diabetic ketoacidosis while living in a DCS-contracted group home operated by a different provider.

This is important: Christian was not in a Sunshine home. But the similarities are difficult to ignore. Records reported by ABC15 show that Christian was also permitted to refuse insulin. Weeks before his death, the group home warned DCS that he required a higher level of care. One email reportedly warned that the situation could result in his death. Another asked whether a nurse could be provided because of his high medical needs. He remained at the home.

Christian died in July 2024.

Now we have a broader question: How Many Other Medically Fragile Children Have Been Placed in Group Homes Where the People Caring for Them Did Not Have the Training, Medical Support or Experience Their Conditions Required?

Two deaths do not prove a statewide pattern…But they are more than enough reason to ask whether Arizona knows the answer.

And the concern is not theoretical. A 2023 Arizona Auditor General examination of DCS found problems with the Department’s investigation of complaints, enforcement against licensed out-of-home providers and monitoring of group homes — problems the Auditor General warned could leave children in risky or unhealthy environments.

THE RECORDS HAVE NOW BEEN REQUESTED

We are seeking answers to two very specific questions:

What exactly did DCS require Sunshine to correct after the licensing violation connected to Jakob Blodgett’s death?

And did the officials recommending or approving Sunshine’s 30% rate increase know what DCS licensing had just found?

The records that should answer those questions include the licensing-violation file, the corrective-action plan and closing records, post-incident training and monitoring documents, and the May 2023 rate-review packet.

Those Records May Take Time to Obtain.

What is already public is enough to establish that Arizona still has unanswered questions. The Attorney General may have closed the criminal bribery investigation…But a closed criminal investigation does not close the door on government accountability.

A child died. The state cited his provider. Corrective action was ordered — but its details remain outside the public record. Then, roughly two weeks later, the provider received a 30% rate increase. And less than two years afterward, another diabetic child died in another Arizona group home under circumstances that raised disturbingly similar questions about insulin, staff response and medical supervision.

And until Arizona can explain what it knew, who knew it — and what changed after these children died — we are not finished asking.

A Lingering Narrative – Burying Foster Care Treatment vs. Illegal Immigrant Children Treatment!

Close Your Eyes and pretend that Jakob or Christian were illegals; now, open them up and imagine the media outrage and demand by politicians for criminal action and facility shutdowns! Substandard treatment of children in foster care is not a new revelation; what is though, is the “prioritized” attention given to allegations of substandard treatment of illegal immigrant children.

ASK YOURSELVES WHY?

By Linda Brickman