The report from L.A. County probation officer Tanesha Brooks described a sequence of fights throughout breakfast inside Los Padrinos Juvenile Corridor final December. One teenager, she wrote, received into eight separate altercations in simply seven minutes.
However key particulars have been lacking from the doc. Brooks’ report mentioned nothing about accidents, the presence of different officers, or how one youth may get into so many fights in such a short while span.
Video footage, printed final month by The Occasions, revealed a few of what Brooks failed to say.
The 17-year-old, who suffered a damaged nostril, defended himself as one attacker after one other assaulted him with punches and kicks. Six different officers stood by whereas Brooks gave the impression to be checking her watch, as if timing how lengthy every spherical of violence could be allowed to final. A seventh officer might be seen smiling and shaking fingers with one of many aggressors.
The case is one in every of a number of publicized in recent times the place a probation officer’s written description differed tremendously from a recording of the scene, leaving protection attorneys, oversight personnel and even some prosecutors questioning if they will belief reviews coming from contained in the county’s beleaguered juvenile halls.
The reviews can affect whether or not juveniles stay incarcerated and at what safety degree. They typically go unchallenged in courtroom except an lawyer seeks video footage, mentioned Milinda Kakani, a member of the probation oversight committee. With out arduous proof to contradict the officers, she mentioned, the D.A., judges, different officers are likely to take them at their phrase.
“What number of reviews did these officers write?” Kakani requested. “What number of occasions did we simply settle for?”
A number of probation supervisors mentioned throughout an April courtroom listening to that they don’t query officers or evaluation footage earlier than submitting their notes into courtroom filings.
“I’m not searching for fact,” mentioned Officer Jerrod Montgomery, a supervisor who reviewed Brooks’ case notes.
Probation Division Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa declined to be interviewed for this story.
Requested how the probation division vets its officers reviews, a spokesperson pointed to a 2013 “honesty directive” that requires reviews include “truthful, correct, and full” info. A juvenile’s chart should additionally include correct details about their “perspective and habits throughout detention,” based on a latest coverage replace. The company didn’t deal with questions on inaccurate or deceptive reviews filed by Brooks and different officers.
Brooks didn’t reply to a request for remark by way of her union.
The probation division submits a number of totally different sorts of reviews to juvenile courts, and judges weigh them when deciding the size of a teen’s sentence, if a youth needs to be tried as an grownup or if they need to be positioned in a high-security facility.
“At a switch listening to the place the central query is whether or not or not a minor could be rehabilitated, the reviews are extraordinarily essential,” mentioned protection lawyer Jerod Gunsberg. “That turns into the report of how they’re doing within the corridor and the prosecution can actually use something unfavourable.”
Just like the Los Padrinos case, Gunsberg mentioned, he’s had shoppers who have been written up for preventing however later proven in video footage to have acted in self-defense.
Stacey Ford, president of Native 685 which represents rank-and-file probation officers, issued a press release this week pushing again on testimony within the Los Padrinos case, claiming supervisors are purported to evaluation officer reviews earlier than they’re submitted in courtroom.
“It’s the duty of Supervisors and Administrators to evaluation such reviews for accuracy, together with immediately interviewing minors and reviewing video that’s solely accessible for evaluation by the supervisors and/or administrators, ” his assertion learn.
Sherrie Albin, the deputy public defender who represented the teenager within the Los Padrinos video, mentioned it might be inconceivable to subpoena footage to problem each report. Juveniles in custody are additionally typically hesitant to report mistreatment or inaccuracies, fearing they are going to be labeled a snitch or face retaliation from officers, she mentioned.
Albin mentioned she solely pursued the latest video after seeing a January Occasions report on officers permitting a youth to be overwhelmed contained in the Downey facility.
She mentioned of her younger shoppers: “Quite a lot of them are like, ‘I don’t need to make a giant deal about this,’ and we’ve got to ensure they’re snug sharing issues with us.”
The teenager from Brooks’ report has since struck a plea deal for the tried homicide cost that landed him in Los Padrinos, Albin mentioned. His household has filed a discover of declare towards the probation division, which alleges officers “organized and inspired” the fights that have been captured on video. The California Division of Justice has launched a prison investigation.
Discrepancies between what probation officers allege in reviews and what movies present have been laid naked in a number of use-of-force incidents.
In October 2020, division supervisor Oscar Cross submitted a one paragraph bodily intervention report about an incident in Malibu’s Camp Kilpatrick the place he described “gaining management” of a youngster’s legs as he kicked at officers after a dispute.
Greater than two years later, video confirmed the scrawny teen calling out for his mom as 5 officers piled onto him. Cross might be seen bending the boy’s legs over his head, practically folding him in half. The footage was by no means shared with prosecutors or the oversight committee, however the Los Angeles County district lawyer’s workplace charged Cross with assault final yr, after The Occasions printed footage of the incident.
In July 2022, an L.A. County inspector normal report discovered that officers breaking apart a struggle in Central Juvenile Corridor fired an pointless burst of pepper spray right into a youth’s face. One officer’s report mentioned the youth was resisting and being violent, however video confirmed him “turning away from the officer with out clenching his fists” when he was sprayed, based on the watchdog’s findings.
One other inspector normal’s report from 2023 mentioned an officer fraudulently claimed two teenagers attacked him, main him to deploy chemical spray. Video confirmed that not solely was that description inaccurate, however the officer had didn’t doc the usage of spray on a 3rd youth, based on the report.
Samuel Leonard, the pinnacle deputy public defender overseeing juvenile circumstances in a lot of L.A. County courthouses, mentioned the division has but to reveal the names of six of the officers concerned within the Los Padrinos incident.
Leonard mentioned he’s involved over the continued use of officer notes towards youths in courtroom when there isn’t a video corroboration.
“The probation officers know the place there are cameras and the place there aren’t, so a lot of this stuff occur the place there aren’t cameras, deliberately,” he mentioned.
Larry Droeger, who oversees juvenile circumstances as director of specialised prosecutions for the district lawyer’s workplace, mentioned whereas the Los Padrinos and Cross incidents raised considerations in regards to the accuracy of probation reviews, such paperwork are thought of “rumour” and would by no means be the only real foundation for a prison submitting.
“It’s a problem throughout the prison justice system. The credibility of witnesses is topic to the frailties of [them] probably not telling us the reality,” he mentioned. “So the adversarial system itself is meant to ferret that out.”
Droeger mentioned the district lawyer’s workplace locations probation officers discovered to be dishonest on an inside checklist of witnesses with credibility points. The D.A.’s workplace rejected a public information request for knowledge exhibiting what number of probation officers are on that checklist.
The probation division introduced it has suspended 66 officers for misconduct within the juvenile halls this yr — together with the eight concerned within the Los Padrinos incident — however didn’t say if any of these officers face accusations of dishonesty.
Leonard, the general public defender, has accused probation officers of making an attempt to intimidate youths who may communicate out.
Earlier this month, Leonard mentioned, officers approached a youth outdoors the presence of their lawyer at Barry J. Nidorf Corridor in Sylmar and requested them to signal an affidavit confirming the accuracy of a report. A probation division spokesperson mentioned the matter is below investigation.
“It’s circle the wagons and safety of the established order somewhat than do one thing proactive to enhance the state of affairs and shield the youngsters,” Leonard mentioned.
Occasions employees author Rebecca Ellis contributed to this report.
