This afternoon, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the unsealing of a grand jury indictment against 30 detention services officers from Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall on charges of child endangerment, abuse, conspiracy, and battery.
The indictment alleges that the officers allowed—and, in some instances, encouraged—69 fights to occur between youths at the Downey-located youth hall during the period from July 1, 2023, to December 31, 2023.
Today’s indictment grew out of an investigation launched by the California Department of Justice after video footage of one of the so-called “gladiator fights” leaked last year.
The multiple beat-downs shown in the video in questionappeared to be officiated by a group of probation staff members, who motioned to first one youth, then another to commence slugging the lone boy, who tried to fight back.
Each beat-down lasted for what appeared to be a prescribed number of seconds. When that time was up, each youthful attacker was told to stop, at which time the attacker ceased and desisted, then walked over to grab a prepared meal from a supply of meals, and sat down.
Rinse and repeat until all the youthful attackers had taken their turn.
As WLA reported last April, the beat-down video had been floating around for a while, according to youth defense attorneys, who described to WLA what it contained. Then, nearly a year ago, some attorneys played the video for those present during a hearing in a Sylmar courtroom, It showed the youth as he was physically attacked by one kid after another, in a dayroom at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall.
Yet, according to today’s indictment, that particular, “gladiator fight,” was only one of the alleged episodes of violence overseen and encouraged by a distressing number of Los Angeles County probation officers.
The indictment makes for uncomfortable reading as it identifies 69 incidents over a six-month period where probation officers facilitated and permitted youths in their custody to beat each other down. These fight-club-like “gladiator fights” resulted in physical harm to youth involved, some of the harm reportedly serious.
“If the charges are proven,” wrote the AG, “they were a dereliction of the officers’ duty to protect those in their care.”
Twenty-two of the 30 officers were arraigned today, Monday, at Los Angeles Superior Court.
The remaining officers will be arraigned on April 18, 2025.
Suitable/unsuitable
As mentioned above, the Grand Jury’s indictment, which readers can find here, is disturbing.
The BSCC, as many WLA readers may remember, is the state’s independent statutory agency, which provides oversight for adult and juvenile criminal justice systems in California’s counties.
In mid October of 2024, the BSCC informed LA County Probation, and also the LA County Board of Supervisors, that if the county didn’t fix a list of things that are going wrong in LP—as Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall is known for short — in the next 60 days following the date of the notice, the unsuitable designation would kick-in, and any and all young people living there must be placed somewhere else that met the BSCC’s requirements.
Weirdly, instead of announcing how they intended to address the problems head on, the members of the Board of Supervisors instead voted on Tuesday December 17, 2024, that the people to blame for the unsuitable rating for LP, was not LA County, but the BSCC.
Blown away by the stance taken by the supervisors, two days later, on December 19, 2024, the BSCC took the completely unprecedented step of publishing a public statement about the matter on their website.
It begins as follows:
Los Angeles County has failed to meet minimum standards for more than half a decade and continues to attempt to shirk its responsibilities
SACRAMENTO (December 19, 2024) – The Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC) convened yesterday to discuss the continued, serious noncompliance with regulatory mandates by the Los Angeles County Probation Department at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall. Since 2018, Los Angeles County has failed to consistently meet minimum state-required staffing standards and has continued to fall below minimum standards despite continuous technical assistance to improve operations.
Los Angeles County reopened Los Padrinos in 2023 to house youth due to an inability to provide adequate safety and security at both the Central and Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Halls. However, Los Angeles County has failed to maintain a safe environment for the young people in the facility. Los Angeles County’s failure has resulted in severe deficiencies, most significantly with staffing which remains in violation of minimum state-mandated staffing requirements. BSCC’s inspections of Los Padrinos have uncovered a multitude of similar issues:
- Youth spending inordinate amounts of time in room confinement, without access to programs, recreation, and outdoor exercise.
- Youth unable to get to school, medical appointments, delayed security checks
- Youth being forced to urinate in receptacles, and feces and urine-soaked towels found on the floor of children’s rooms because there were no staff available to escort them to the bathroom safely.
In June 2024, BSCC inspectors noted that facility staff were documenting youth participating in programs but found discrepancies when corresponding video was reviewed. Facility staff were falsifying activity logs so that they appeared to be in compliance with minimum standards.
In response, BSCC has found Los Padrinos noncompliant with the Board’s minimum standards during almost each inspection since its reopening. BSCC staff have continued to offer the county guidance and the BSCC Board has allowed additional time for the county to come into compliance with the law. When offered technical assistance, the county has frequently ignored opportunities to make improvements, and continues to remain noncompliant, putting the children in its care in danger.
“The Board has made every attempt at approaching this situation collaboratively and has provided ample time for Los Angeles County to fulfill its responsibility in providing safe and appropriate housing for the young people in their care,” stated BSCC Board Chair Linda Penner. “While they have made some progress, the systemic, continued violations are unacceptable. We are disappointed to learn that rather than correcting their ongoing failures, Los Angeles County Probation Department is instead is attempting to shirk its responsibility and blame the state for taking action to protect the children that the county was meant to care for. This is truly inexcusable behavior by the county.”
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There’s more. But you get the picture.
This brings us back to the AG’s Monday announcement:
At the end of press release about the indictments, the AG’s office wrote that, “separate and apart,” from Monday’s announcement of the criminal prosecution of the 30 LA County employees, Attorney General Bonta wishes to “address systemic shortfalls in Los Angeles County juvenile halls and to protect the health, safety, and wellbeing of the youths under their care.”
Well, as luck would have it, it appears that the BSCC already has a lengthy To Do list to get AG Bonta started.
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