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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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  • 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

©2026 Linda Brickman. All Rights Reserved.

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

  1. The tragic deaths of Jakob Blodgett and Christian Williams strip away any illusion that the Democratic Party cares about vulnerable children, exposing the complete moral decay and institutional corruption of Governor Katie Hobbs and her Democratic administration. A nine year old American boy dies a horrific, preventable death from diabetic ketoacidosis while in state custody, and how does Hobbs’s Department of Child Safety respond? They issue a slap on the wrist administrative citation, refuse to impose a single dime in fines, keep the corrective action details completely secret from the public, and then turn around two weeks later to hand that exact same company a massive 30 percent taxpayer-funded rate increase.

    To make the corrupt nature of the Democratic machine even more obvious, Sunshine Residential Homes lined the pockets of Katie Hobbs and the Arizona Democratic Party with over half a million dollars in political campaign, inauguration, and legal defense contributions. When fellow Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes conveniently declines to press bribery charges, claiming the vendor simply had "leverage" over the state, it reveals how the party protects its own. Even worse, what was that "leverage"? The provider explicitly threatened that if the state did not cough up higher rates, they would pivot their group home beds to house illegal immigrant children for the Biden-Harris federal government, which was paying double the rate per bed. The Democratic Party created a system where illegal immigrants are actively commodified and prioritized over native-born American foster children, forcing state agencies to capitulate to wealthy political donors who exploit dead American kids for corporate leverage.

    This entire sickening saga lays bare the catastrophic double standards and fake compassion of the political left. If a single illegal immigrant child suffered even a fraction of this neglect in a federal facility, the Democratic Party and their lapdog media would be staging tearful photo ops at the fence line, crying human rights violations, and demanding immediate prison time for administrative staff. But when American foster children die on Katie Hobbs's watch because underpaid, untrained staff missed basic insulin doses, the story gets swept under the rug, the public records are stonewalled, and the corrupt Democratic machine ensures the campaign checks keep clearing. The Democratic Party does not care about child welfare, accountability, or justice they care about power, protecting their corporate donors, and prioritizing illegal aliens over the very American children they are legally obligated to protect.

    • The party that parties for abortion has never been about the party for children…or workers…or patriots or the military….but the party of welfare the party of anti-American the party of foreigners the party of criminals the party of voter fraud the party of satanic rituals….it is a long list….

    • I just requested additional information on this case. If anything comes back to me, it will be posted here. I can post my letter to DCS if you all want to see it. Thanks for reading this. This story is devastating and Hobbs or Mayes can't get back in office!

    • When the children die from missed insulin shots because the business with the contracts to work for the govt is in bed with the govt and they are both working together to fleece the taxpayers monies with insider schemes that also involves the ones responsible for investigating it then is time to remove them by force and public hanging.

      • We Need to continue to search for the truth, and I for one, will continue to work on this issue until the truth is known a d justice is met! We need good people in office now. The trust is dwindling and so Andy Biggs, Warren Petersen and Alex Kolodin need to fill the empty shoes of those 3 stolen offices!

    • They're leftists. The 30% rate increase was merely a bonus for killing a 9-year-old child so quickly and efficiently (without having to lose, beat, or starve him).

    • They don't care about ANY child. They were questioned in a congressional hearings and was asked where 300,000 illegal children went that were brought here by the cartels and they said they didn't know. They didn't have a list or any legal papers, so no paper trail, they had no idea what happened to them…….. They didn't care where they went.

      Some of the missing illegal children have been found in working in factories, others were rescued in child trafficking raids. I believe they were sold for all kinds of disgusting schemes. So probably they were sold for anything you can imagine, things that can't be said here.

      They don't care about ANY children. They only care about getting their cut and getting votes.

      • The D in democrat stands for Dirt Bag, the O for their intelligence, M obviously for money, C for communist, R for rabid, A for (you know), and T for treacherous.

    • Thank you for your comments. I have e requested information from DCS a d they received it; now, let's see what they will release. I will definitely report to you, Dude, and others with the non–redacted response. All of us need to hear the FULL truth. I refuse to hear or take NO FOR AN ANSWER!

  3. You can be pretty safe in assuming all these Governmentally run agencies involving kids (or anything else) are corrupt to some degree. Deep State made sure of that many, many decades ago. Most are ignorant about it because it's so depressing and "unbelievable" as they want to believe in general, people are "good" when the reality is they're not. Check the Bible and see what God says.

    • Never foprgit well over 100,000 illegal kids are STILL missin and we only find a couple here and there. Once in a while a dozen or so pop up!
      .
      U KNOW at least 5 to 10 thousand were snuffed!
      .
      Pizza, Hot Dog, Jerky Eaters and Grape Soda Drikers are STILL Redacted and NOT Arrested and INdicted!
      .
      Jesus weeps for each and every one!

      • The Lord knows where all his children are. This is a condemnation of all involved in trafficking children.
        Hello, John Pdesta?! Hilariously is calling.

        • We will ALL be Judged as a NATION by G-d.
          .
          At least da Philistines and Canaanites sacrificed children dey LOVED as a supreme sacrifice to Baal.
          .
          Des scum Molest, Torture, Sacrifice, Harvest and Eat these poe children and our officials turn a blind eye to it ALL!

      • "Its kabalistic". You slanderous, ignorant dolt. Admit you know nothing about Kabbalah- not even the meaning of the word. If you mean cabal, then you are ignorant of the difference between the two words. Get an education.

  5. This is an obviously ignored issue by HOBBS….she wants it to go away, but a 30% increase right after an investigation and pay to play sure does seem logical. If it walks like a pig, oinks like a pig, and is covered in mud, there is a 99% chance it is a pig. Investigations are not thorough enough…dig deeper, and find the smoking gun….it's there somewhere.

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

    …and then what happened?
    Nothing…as usual.
    A democrat got away with another crime…as usual.

    • WHATS YOUR PROBLEM" WE INVESTIGATED" AND FOUND THERE WAS JUST THE ONE BLOODY KNIFE WITH DNA FROM ALL PARTIES WITH VIDEO OF THE CRIME AND CONFESSIONS.
      HOW DO YOU EXPECT A JURY TO CONVICT HER SHE JUST SAID ASHE DOES NOT RECALL.

      MY GOD YOU PEOPLE…;))

  8. Hobbs is very crooked….she was secretary of state and in charge of electons and mysteriously found enough votes after about 10 days after the election so she could declare herself and her buddies fontes and mayes the winners and the courts don't think counting mail in ballots that come in after the election is a problem…..and arizonans had a big audit on that election and found massive fraud but the politicians and courts never cared….

  9. THE NEW HAIR CUT ISN'T GOING TO HELP YOU KATIE WHEN YOU RUN, WE'RE GONNA FIND YOU AND EVERY CORRUPT ARIZONA POLITICIAN WHO WAS FRAUDING US IN 2020, 2022, AND 2024 AND EVERY ONE OF YOU ARE GOING TO PRISON …

    THEY SHOULD SEND ALL OF YOU TO CECOT !!!

  12. The whole system is rigged, from big pharma, to food to even the water and voting!
    And it is rigged by and for GREED! Bring back the ANTITRUST LAWS! At least that would be a step in the 'right' direction!!

  14. If a parent did what that agency (meaning the actual people in charge) did to that boy, the parent would be in jail.
    Double standard as usual.

  19. Why were these children even in these group homes?? Their parents managed to keep them alive, so why were they taken & placed in an environment where they died?

  20. The much bigger question is, what triggered DCS to remove these children from their parents? Child protective services are notorious for abusing their authority. They are staffed by incompetent and often tyrannical people that don't really care about kids.

    That children die after being taken by them is not all that surprising.

  25. This IS called a "righteous sacrifice" BY the demonrat practitioners IN the gov'ts around the states, this was DONE by the clinton cabal after 2000, like Richardson to N.mexico……
    clinton also supervised the "righteous sacrifice" at OKC Murrah for wray and garland.

    Hope this helps.

  26. The Demonrat party of Arizona is Corrupted by the debt they owe the Sinaloa Cartel, no self serving investigation will change what the Cartel wants and gets, and the Cartel wants Hayes and Hobbs.

  27. A little scrutiny from the IRS directed at many of the individuals in politics whom we suspect (know but haven't yet proven) of wrong doing involving money, might go a long way. They've certainly had the manpower and time in years past, to audit little fish, whose finances popped up on their radar with some anomaly. When I say "little fish," I'm referring to people I have known whose annual incomes were measured in the tens of thousands, not hundreds of thousands, or millions. Sifting through these crooked politicians finances, is almost certain to turn up something in most or many of these cases, as the temptation to live a life of luxury, or have possessions that exceed their ability to own, based on their household incomes, is too attractive. When people live a champagne lifestyle on a beer budget, it shows, it's just a matter of finding out where the champagne money came from.

  30. Everyone knows there was a quid pro quo & these two women are protecting each other, go find the emails, money trail, etc to prove it.

  32. Gov. Hobbs is nothing more than DEEP STATE GARBAGE. Along with the DEEP STATE AG Chris Mayes. They both need to be GITMO'D like yesterday.

    • PUT EM IN A DC JAIL LIKE THEY DID OUR POWS. LETS TRUMPS ADMIN VISIT HER AND DO PHOTO OPS. WHEN THEY LEAVE TURN THE STROBE LIGHTS AND TECHNOMETAL UP TO MAX AND PEE IN HER FOOD TRAY…..COUPLE OF DAYS LATER DO IT AGAIN …REPEAT UNTIL IT STOPS BEING FUN…THEN GET CREATIVE. DO A TRIAL IN 3 SEPARATE STATES CONVICTING HER 1 MONTH BEFORE 2028 ELECTIONS

  35. There’s NO TELLING what really happened to this child… When you consider the kind of people this illegitimate, evil-to-the-bone “governor” is tight with, one can only hope this kid didn’t suffer beyond one’s wildest imagination the entire time of the custody.

  37. What's up with oinker Hobbs hair do……….one day she has a long bob and next day she looks like she got it butched.

  42. Endless investigations with no accountability. Democrats know that they can get away with these kind of crimes because nothing will happen to them.

    • Yep — Just tell the wide-eyed masses that there's an investigation underway and (regardless of the outcome or lack thereof) the matter becomes history.

  43. Endless investigations with no accountability. Democrats know that they can get away with these kind of crimes because nothing will happen to them.

  44. ROOKIE. VHS TAPES IN YOUR MOTHERS BEST FRIENDS BASEMENT IN A FIRE PROOF BOX. YOU MAKE A VERY LOW QUALITY VERSION OF DIGITAL AND LEAVE THAT TO BE "FOUND".
    DO YOU NEED THE REFRESHER COURSE ? ;))

  54. Number 1, I have lived in Arizona since 1954. I have never even heard of this case, this child, or this Sunshine outfit. If it was ever in the leftist news rag known as The Arizona Republic, I sure as hell didn’t see it, read about it, or watch it on any AZ TV news station.

    Number 2, Attorney General Kris Mayes is part and parcel of the Soros funded rigged and stolen Katie Hobbs led Democrat ticket of 2022, and there is no frickin’ way Mayes will ever move to indict her pal crooked Katie Hobbs.

    And that’s all I have to say about that.

    —Honest AZ Cop, thankfully retired and alive to talk about it—

  55. This is an easy one. Democrats endorse the deaths of "problematic" children of all ages. If they're harder to care for, remove them. I'm sure Katie Hobbs agrees.

    Evidently, children in America are now considered to be expendable.

    • WORSE THEY ARE THE PROPERTY OF THE STATE AND YOU HAVE TO FIGHT TO KEEP THEM UNDER YOUR ROOF. THERE IS NO DUE PROCESS AND CPS CAN SNATCH THEM AT WILL W/O SO MUCH AS A COURT ORDER. IMAGINE EXPLAINING TO A GIMMEDAT HOW YOU HAVE DONE NOTHING WRONG BUT BE WHITE WHILE THEY TAKE YOUR KID FOR YOUR SAFETY. I HAVE NEVER EXPERIENCED IT BUT THESE EXTREME CASES ARE HOW THEY HAVE GIVEN OVER CONTROL OF YOUR CHILDREN TO DEI SOCIAL WORKERS. CHILD TRAFFICKERS THAT FORCE GOOD FOSTER PARENTS OUT FOR BEING CHRISTIAN WHILE PEDOS ARE THE PREFERRED "CARE GIVERS" {FOR THE CHILDREN} THEY ALWAYS SAY RIGHT.

  58. Wow! The lesbo haircut really brings out the corrupt nature of her wicked soul. Bravo to the hairdresser. I know they all strive to exhibit the nature of their clients being. Kudo's! Satan could not be more pleased.

  62. what do you expect from a fat woman she is so dumb her husband hides all the time from this woke sl ut and she did take a traitors place as we won't mention the dead here

  64. Another excellent article by Linda Brickman! AZ is a cabal run state so nothing that happens there is surprising.

  65. Cartel Katie's campaign ads are now claiming she led the way on border security, no tax on tips and overtime and most of the other policies that originated in the Trump Whitehouse. She is a total fraud and congenital liar. She ran from reporters to avoid questions and refused to debate Kari Lake. She has no moral character.

  67. The Hobbs’ Administration, including AG Mayes and SOS Fontes, is an illegitimate, fraudulent entity. Mayes buried the investigation in order to protect the Administration’s power structure. Dems doing Dem tricks. Public hangings should be reinstated.

  69. Hobbs appears to have a sizeable lead on Andy Biggs.
    Would be nice if the RNC antes up and President Trump drops by for some rallies.
    Cause none of these gotcha headlines will have any effect.

  70. This vicious cμnt needs to be arrested, tried, convicted and executed for election fraud, treason, extortion, and grand theft. Ditto, Adrian Fontes and Kris Mayes. Let's throw commie "senator" Mark Kelly and Rubin Gallego in there too. Add Gallego's ex, the current "mayor" of Phoenix for good measure. Livestream their Gitmo executions.

  71. According to the demonrats he was still developing, not a full grown human being, therefore the death should not can not be investigated!

  72. Let's ask this question, Did the Health care system Deny the insulin? I have seen it before. You only get so much and then they cut you off.

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