The Los Angeles County Probation Department has placed eight probation officers on leave for allegedly not stopping a group of juveniles from beating a teen at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in December.
In a statement Wednesday, Jan. 10, Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa said he took immediate action against the officers on Jan. 4 after the department’s chief safety and security officer notified him of a “significant incident” of alleged misconduct between the officers and the juveniles.
“I am committed to providing a safe and secure environment that gives the youth committed to our care a clear path to rehabilitation,” Viera Rosa said in a statement. “We are actively identifying and removing those who do not align with our core values and standards to eliminate the negative influences within our organization.”
The department, which touted its commitment to “transparency and accountability” in the announcement, declined to provide any details about what actually occurred.
However, the Los Angeles Times, citing anonymous sources, reported the officers were captured on camera standing idly while the attack took place. The victim reportedly suffered a broken nose and had to be hospitalized, according to one source.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, at Viera Rosa’s request, is handling the investigation instead of Probation’s internal affairs department. The Probation Department, after receiving approval from the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Jan. 9, is assessing the feasibility of using outside organizations to conduct its internal affairs investigations in the future.
Supervisor Janice Hahn, whose district includes the juvenile hall in Downey, said she was briefed about the incident by Viera Rosa and believes “the decision to suspend these eight officers was the right one.”
“I think it is important that the Sheriff’s Department is conducting an independent investigation,” she said.
The discipline comes after a year of turmoil in the county’s juvenile detention system. Last year, state regulators shut down the county’s two juvenile halls over substandard conditions, forcing the department to scramble to renovate and reopen Los Padrinos to house the displaced juveniles. At the same time, a proliferation of drugs in the halls led to the overdose death of a teenager, hospitalizations for half a dozen other juveniles and a crackdown at security checkpoints.
Los Padrinos, initially imagined as a fresh start for the troubled agency, has experienced two violent escape attempts in the six months since it reopened and has failed key inspections from state regulators.
The facility could be forced to shut down too, if the deficiencies identified by inspectors last year are not fixed by the facility’s next inspection.