30 officers accused of facilitating ‘gladiator fights’ amongst minors at L.A.-area juvenile corridor
California’s legal professional basic on Monday introduced the unsealing of an indictment charging 30 detention officers assigned to a Los Angeles-area juvenile corridor with youngster abuse for allegedly permitting and typically encouraging so-called gladiator fights amongst youths.
On the coronary heart of the grand jury indictment is the allegation that officers stood by as youngsters and youngsters at Los Padrinos Juvenile Corridor engaged within the fights, the legal professional basic’s workplace stated in an announcement. The detention middle is in Downey, about 13 miles south of downtown Los Angeles.
The workplace of Lawyer Normal Rob Bonta stated there have been not less than 69 fights within the second half of 2023, with 143 youngsters and youths between 12 and 18 years previous concerned. Some fights, Bonta’s workplace stated, resulted in bodily harm.
Officers, Bonta stated within the assertion, had been allegedly “overseeing ‘gladiator fights’ when they need to have intervened.”
The defendants took benefit of the vulnerability of the victims and their very own place of belief, his workplace stated.
“Let as we speak’s prices be a warning for all those that abuse their energy,” Bonta stated. “The California Division of Justice is watching, and we’ll maintain you accountable.”
The fights got here to the eye of the legal professional basic and state investigators after video of one of many altercations was “leaked” in January 2024, Bonta’s workplace stated. Talking to information media by video, he described the violence.
“The footage, which was later circulated extensively by the media and on social media, exhibits one youth within the detention middle being attacked by a sequence of different youth who come at him one after the other as detention officers stand by watching,” Bonta stated in video aired Monday by NBC affiliate KCRA of Sacramento. “The officers look extra like referees or viewers members at a prize combat, not adults charged with the care and supervision of younger folks.”
Stacy Ford, president of the L.A. County Deputy Probation Officers Union, AFSCME Native 685, which represents the 30 officers in labor negotiations, stated in an announcement that the group “will do all the things in our energy” to help the officers.
“Each American is harmless till confirmed responsible,” Ford stated. “Our members are entitled to this identical presumption of innocence and should be handled with equity and due course of, simply as they supply to these of their custody.”
He stated juvenile detention officers are tasked with preserving peace and order amongst youngsters and youths typically accused of violent crimes.
“Regardless of these challenges, our skilled peace officers stay dedicated to sustaining the very best degree of professionalism,” he stated. “We are going to proceed to advocate for the protection, rights, and integrity of our members.”
Based on the indictment, every of the 30 officers is charged with felony youngster abuse underneath a California legislation geared toward those that allow youngster endangerment, with these convicted of the cost going through two to 6 years in state jail.
One of many 30 faces an extra rely of misdemeanor battery for allegedly utilizing drive and violence towards an unnamed topic, in response to the doc.
Three of the defendants had been charged with conspiracy to commit against the law, in response to the indictment. It alleges two of them allowed a number of the fights, knew beforehand when and the place they’d occur, and informed new detention officers to look at however not report the bouts.
Prosecutors alleged the third joined the opposite two in permitting a number of the fights, one of many which resulted in a damaged nostril for an unnamed sufferer.
One of many three informed new officers that 9 fights on Dec. 22, 2023, in a unit of the juvenile facility, had been an instance of how the detention staff managed the youngsters of their care, in response to the indictment.
Twenty-two of the defendants had been arraigned Monday. The remainder will likely be arraigned April 18, the legal professional basic’s workplace stated.
All of the defendants have been positioned on unpaid go away, the county’s probation division stated in an announcement. In April 2024, probation chief Guillermo Viera Rosa stated officers concerned within the alleged abuse captured on video had been faraway from obligation as he sought investigation from an out of doors company.
“We is not going to tolerate misconduct like that depicted within the video,” the chief stated on the time.
The subsequent month, he stated 66 officers had been positioned on go away amid an inner investigation. Viera Rosa stated he would root out the “tradition of violence, drug use, neglect and sexual misconduct within the nation’s largest probation company,” in response to a county assertion on the time.
Saying the indictment introduced on Monday is an instance of the necessity for change within the tradition of county probation officers, L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn stated she would help firing any officers discovered responsible.
“The younger folks in Los Padrinos aren’t solely in our custody, they’re in our care,” she stated in an announcement. “It’s unacceptable that probation officers who had been entrusted with this accountability would use their energy to abuse these youngsters.”
