Six months after the fentanyl-related death of an 18-year-old detainee, the Los Angeles County Probation Department plans to create an investigative team to trace the flow of drugs into the county’s juvenile facilities.
At an oversight commission meeting Thursday, Nov. 9, Chief Safety and Security Officer Eric Strong said his boss, probation chief Guillermo Viera Rosa, wants the team to partner with law enforcement agencies, which have expertise and technology, to track down the sources of the drugs and hold them accountable.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s staff, if it’s parents, if it’s vendors, he takes it very seriously and we want to make sure we respond appropriately and adequately to all of those,” Strong told the county’s Probation Oversight Commission.
The department declined to address specific questions about the team, saying only in a written statement that it would continue to collaborate with the District Attorney’s Office, local law enforcement and others to dedicate “additional resources to this effort.”
“The interdiction of narcotics into our juvenile facilities is key to keeping our young people and staff safe,” the statement reads.
The department already has formed an in-house security team to patrol the perimeter, inside and outside of the facilities, to intercept any packages thrown over the fences or dropped by drones, Strong said. Additional work also is underway to install perimeter netting and to add airport-style scanners to the entrances of the juvenile facilities, though Strong suggested a “tedious” bureaucracy at the county level has slowed down those purchases.
A pilot program for a separate unit that will include substance abuse treatment and counseling services is expected to begin within the new few months, officials said.
Son was ‘supposed to be protected’
The department’s efforts follow the May death of 18-year-old Bryan Diaz from fentanyl poisoning at the Barry J. Nidorf Secure Youth Treatment Facility in Sylmar. His mother, Marlen Medina, says she is still waiting for answers — and justice — six months later.
“He was somewhere he was supposed to be protected,” Medina said in Spanish at the oversight meeting. “It was the complete opposite.”
Diaz’s death is under investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department. No charges have been announced and Medina says she has not heard from the Probation Department at all since she received the initial notification of her son’s death.
Diaz, who was charged with attempted murder, had been at the STYF for only about six weeks.
“Unfortunately, his life was taken from me, before he could live,” Medina said through a translator. “They robbed us of the opportunity for us to see him as a good man.”
Consumed blue pill
A juvenile at the facility told investigators he saw Diaz consume an unknown blue pill the night before he was found unresponsive in his room. The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner ruled his death as accidental and attributed it to the effects of fentanyl. Diaz was last seen alone in his room roughly 12 hours earlier, according to the examiner’s report.
At least six youth in custody have been hospitalized in the months since Diaz’s death. Searches at Barry J. Nidorf recovered more than 120 pills “resembling fentanyl” in the first three months of this year, but fentanyl did not turn up in subsequent searches until August, according to a September report by the Office of Inspector General.
The state’s shutdown of two juvenile halls in July may have contributed to the decline. Roughly 300 youth were transferred to a newly renovated Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey as a result. Both Los Padrinos and the SYTF remaining at Barry J. Nidorf have failed state inspections and could face shutdowns if improvements are not made by January.
Prosecution efforts
Probation officials have said they will “vigorously seek criminal prosecution for anyone attempting to introduce contraband into a juvenile facility,” but they have declined to provide details about any prosecutions that may have occurred.
In October, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office charged Nicholas Ibarra, 22, who was in custody at the SYTF, with two counts of possession for sale of a controlled substance and two counts of possession of a controlled substance in a custodial facility. Ibarra, who allegedly was found with fentanyl, has pleaded not guilty.
While transporting Ibarra to Men’s Central Jail, probation officers Reggie Torres and David Corona alleged Ibarra told them about another officer who had been supplying fentanyl specifically to youths at Nidorf.
Torres and Corona, however, were placed on leave after relaying their findings to a superior, according to their attorney, Tom Yu. He declined to identify the suspected officer, but said he is not aware of any charges against that individual.
Yu alleges Torres and Corona are being retaliated against in an effort to silence them.
“They were investigating this officer who was trafficking fentanyl to Ibarra,” Yu said. “You don’t put the investigators on leave, you put the bad guy on leave. That’s just common sense.”
The Probation Department declined to respond to Yu’s allegations. It has also declined to answer questions about Ibarra’s case or other arrests.
Staff scrutiny
Rumors have circulated about staff bringing drugs into the facilities for months. In September, the Office of Inspector General reported that the security checkpoint at Barry J. Nidorf allowed a staff member to bring food in without scanning the container, which the Probation Department “later believed introduced contraband into the facility.”
Probation Oversight Commissioner Don Meredith criticized the department’s current lack of an investigative arm and its lack of follow-through in certain instances. Meredith spoke of a mother who tried to bring in five marijuana vape pens and, instead of being arrested, she was simply kicked out of Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall.
“I’m not seeing a lot of prosecutions of the people who brought it in,” Meredith said.
Commissioner Samuel Lewis, however, said he is aware of ongoing criminal cases against staff members, a youth and family members accused of bringing drugs into the facilities. In a subsequent interview, he declined to provide more details, saying he had brought up the information only to highlight the fact that the department is taking action, even if it isn’t publicizing it.
Though Lewis considered the last two years among the worst since he began visiting the juvenile halls in 2014, he believes the department is making progress.
Lewis, executive director of an advocacy group called the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, said in an interview that he has seen a noticeable difference in his visits to the SYTF in Sylmar over the past month, with far less youth showing signs of drug use.
“It is getting better,” he said. “I don’t see any kids high at the juvenile hall now.”
Diaz served as a catalyst for many of the changes, he said. He also credited the department’s new leadership — and, specifically, Viera Rosa, the new chief — with the turnaround. The facility has more staff, more programming for the youth and less fights, he said.
“There is a lot of change going on and a lot of the momentum is because of Bryan,” Lewis said.