More than 300 victims allege sexual abuse from staff in LA juvenile camps
Kaelan Deese
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A lawsuit filed earlier this month pushes the tally to more than 300 plaintiffs who allege they were subjected to a pattern of decadeslong sexual abuse by probation and detention officers at Los Angeles County juvenile camps.
Attorneys for 279 plaintiffs filed a lawsuit on Dec. 20 detailing allegations of unchecked abuse by the L.A. County Probation Department, which operates juvenile detention camps and halls. The recent suit piles on top of a previous complaint from August, which alleged 70 girls were sexually assaulted at several of the same facilities.
INSIDE LA’S OUT-OF-CONTROL JUVENILE JAILS WHERE VIOLENCE RULES IN THE NEWSOM ERA
The alleged assaults date back to the 1970s all the way through 2018 and span several of Los Angeles County’s once-populated and now mostly shuttered juvenile facilities, including girls facilities such as Camp Scott and Camp Kenyon Scudder. Other facilities named in the suit are Challenger Memorial Youth Center, Los Padrinos, Central, and Barry J. Nidorf juvenile halls.
One man said that in 2004 when he was 17, he was forced to commit sex acts regularly with both female and male probation officers at Nidorf, which is located in Sylmar.
“The county has essentially created a safe haven in which these abusers have been able to hunt … victims in a closed environment much like a bird in a cage,” said the lead lawyer involved in the matter, Douglas Rochen of the ACTS firm.
“The fact that it has gone on for as long as it has, despite all of the complaints and knowledge, whether actual or constructive by the county, is a testament to a system that has failed,” Rochen added.
The new lawsuits were made possible by a 2020 state law that allowed a three-year period for individuals to sue over sexual abuse claims from decades ago.
Prior to the latest lawsuit, L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn said the allegations stemming from the city’s facilities were “stomach-churning.”
“The officers responsible for this abuse need to be held accountable,” she told the Los Angeles Times. “They have no business working for the county, and they should face criminal charges.”
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A similar lawsuit was filed in March, where 20 women said they were sexually assaulted over the course of several years at an all-girls juvenile detention facility. That lawsuit has since been replaced by a pair of separate lawsuits that expanded on the accusations.
The Washington Examiner contacted the L.A. County Probation Department for response.