Walquiria “Kia” Cassini has not seen her two younger sons in nearly three years, even though prosecutors dropped every criminal charge against her back in October 2025. A Palm Beach County judge is scheduled to hear arguments Thursday at 9 a.m. on whether to dissolve the protective injunction that has kept her from her boys since March 2024, when she was first arrested on child sex abuse allegations that stemmed from a bitter custody dispute.
Cassini, her adult son Matthew Cassini, and her fiancé Ryan Londono were originally accused of sexually abusing Cassini's two younger sons and live-streaming the abuse for financial gain, according to WPTV. The Boca Raton mother told the station she is fighting to reverse the consequences of a case that fell apart just weeks before it was supposed to go to trial. According to WPTV, defense attorneys have said the allegations arose out of a custody fight that boiled over around Thanksgiving 2023.
A Custody Fight That Spiraled Into Criminal Charges
The dispute traces back to November 26, 2023, when Cassini messaged the boys' father dozens of times demanding to know where her children were and called the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office non-emergency dispatch line, per WPTV's reporting. That same day, Marion County deputies responded to the father's home in Ocala after he reported allegations against Cassini. WPTV reports that deputies from both Marion County and the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office actually questioned the allegations against her at the time.
Cassini was arrested in March 2024, and an injunction barring her from contacting her sons followed that same month. During initial court proceedings, defense counsel emphasized that law enforcement had found no physical or digital videos of abuse on the defendants' confiscated devices, according to Local 10 News. Prosecutors originally sought mandatory life sentences before the case unraveled.
Charges Dropped, But the Boys Remain Isolated
The Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office dropped all charges against Cassini two weeks before the October 2025 trial after determining that new evidence left prosecutors without a good-faith basis to proceed, per WPTV's reporting. The two younger boys, now 16 and 9, have lived with their father in Ocala since being removed from Cassini's custody, and WPTV reports they have lived in a senior citizen community since November 2023, home-schooled by their father, who the outlet says has not responded to calls or texts from the station seeking comment. Cassini's attorneys have described the boys as intentionally isolated from the outside world.
Cassini has said she is willing to undergo reunification therapy and any process required by the court to see her sons again. According to WPTV, attorney Matthew Goldberger has requested that the Florida Department of Children and Families agree to dissolve the injunctions, and he provided DCF with supporting materials in a binder and a flash drive. Goldberger said DCF closed its file without further investigation, while the agency has said it is looking into the issue. WPTV reports that DCF has not reinvestigated the underlying case.
Federal Lawsuit Accuses Detective of Fabricating Evidence
On the two-year anniversary of the arrests, Cassini, her son Matthew, and Londono filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida against Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw and Detective Amy Hoffman, court records show, per Justia Dockets. The complaint alleges Hoffman fabricated material evidence in her arrest affidavit, gave false testimony at a May 2024 pretrial detention hearing, and withheld 31 pages of supplemental investigative reports along with a cellphone extraction report, according to WPBF.
The lawsuit against Sheriff Bradshaw in his official capacity also alleges the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office maintained no policy requiring detectives to proactively disclose newly discovered exculpatory evidence to prosecutors after an arrest, the same WPBF report states. The Sheriff's Office has said the deputy is the subject of an internal affairs investigation, and the agency confirmed in October 2025 that Hoffman became the subject of that probe the same month prosecutors dropped the criminal charges. WPTV separately reported that the deputy was placed on paid administrative leave.
Before the case collapsed, Cassini spent 135 days incarcerated in the Palm Beach County Jail and 473 days under house arrest with a GPS ankle monitor, while her son Matthew spent 178 days in jail and 80 days under house arrest, according to the same WPBF account. Hoffman had served as a Special Victims Unit investigator with the Sheriff's Office and was nominated in both 2021 and 2022 for the Palm Beach County Sexual Assault Response Team's Member of the Year award, according to meeting minutes posted by the Palm Beach County SART.
Why the Injunction Still Stands
Under Florida Statute § 39.504, courts may issue protective injunctions against alleged child abuse upon petition by state authorities or law enforcement, and those orders remain legally binding until formally modified or dissolved by a court, according to the Florida Senate. That statute explains why the criminal case's collapse did not automatically restore Cassini's contact with her sons — the family court injunction operates on its own legal track, separate from the now-dismissed prosecution. Cassini's ex has custody of the boys, and it is that civil order, not any remaining criminal case, that Thursday's hearing in Palm Beach County will address.
