A number of L.A. County probation officers stood by as at the least six youths assaulted a 17-year-old inside Los Padrinos juvenile corridor in December, with some officers showing to giggle and shake palms with the assailants because the beating progressed, in keeping with footage obtained by The Occasions.
The video reveals a teen sustaining punches and kicks from a sequence of youths in a “day room” inside the Downey facility. On multiple event, the sufferer falls to the bottom whereas officers do little to cease the violence. At one level within the video, a feminine probation officer steps out of the best way as a youth fees the sufferer and delivers a working kick.
The movies increase the query of whether or not the violence was coordinated. Every youth assaults the 17-year-old for a number of seconds earlier than returning calmly to breakfast.
The video was first made public throughout a court docket listening to in Sylmar Thursday morning, when the 17-year-old’s legal professional requested a choose to have her shopper launched forward of his legal trial, arguing that he’s not protected at Los Padrinos. The Occasions obtained a replica of the video hours later.
The 17-year-old sustained a damaged nostril, his public defender, Sherrie Albin, stated in court docket Thursday. Probation officers didn’t take the teenager to obtain medical therapy for a number of days, Albin stated.
The video led the probation division to droop eight officers in January, however the company has declined to reply any questions concerning the incident. Sources who requested anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to talk publicly advised The Occasions in January that the officers had been suspended for failing to intervene in a struggle.
A probation division spokesperson stated Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa “took speedy motion upon studying of the incident and observing the footage.” The spokesperson wouldn’t touch upon the standing of the suspended officers. The video has been shared with the L.A. County workplace of the inspector normal, the spokesperson stated.
The roughly six-minute clip reveals youths consuming in a room crammed with Christmas decorations on the morning of Dec. 22, 2023. However issues rapidly flip violent when a youth fees the 17-year-old and throws a number of punches at his head. After about 15 seconds, the struggle stops and the youth who initiated the assault sits all the way down to eat. 4 probation officers standing across the perimeter of the room might be seen watching and do nothing to intercede.
Because the 17-year-old paces and wipes at his face, one other youth runs into the room and unleashes a flurry of punches, knocking him down and kicking him within the head as a feminine probation officer standing close by seems to examine the time on her watch.
“She’s permitting it,” the 17-year-old’s mom stated by way of a Spanish interpreter within the Sylmar courtroom because the video was enjoying.
The probation officer who seems to be in cost within the video was recognized in court docket as Taneha Brooks. Los Angeles County Superior Courtroom Choose Sandy Ser didn’t permit Albin to query Brooks throughout the Thursday listening to. Brooks left the constructing earlier than a Occasions reporter may method her for remark and he or she didn’t instantly reply to messages despatched on LinkedIn and Fb that appeared to belong to her.
Albin stated it was “clear within the video that Deputy Brooks is laughing,” throughout the beatings.
The video stands in stark distinction to Brooks’ personal report of the incident. In a Dec. 22 particular incident report, reviewed by The Occasions, Brooks wrote that she was the one deputy current at 8:20 a.m. when youths from two completely different gangs started preventing. She wrote that the youths continued to struggle after she gave a “verbal command … to cease preventing.” The youths complied after a “second verbal command.”
Brooks wrote that the identical sample — youths from completely different gangs preventing the teenager and stopping after she gave them two warnings — performed out seven extra occasions over breakfast.
Because the video continues, one youth after one other method the 17-year-old and wrestle with or punch him. As the teenager crumples to the bottom beneath a sequence of punches, a second probation officer might be seen shaking palms with one of many earlier attackers and smiling.
That probation officer was recognized in court docket as Shawn Smyles. He couldn’t instantly be reached for remark. Each Brooks and Smyles have been with the company for over a decade, in keeping with the county’s public worker database
“This case is only a microcosm of the larger downside—a failure of the Los Angeles County Probation Division to guard our youngsters,” legal professional Jamal Tooson, who’s representing the household, stated in an announcement Thursday. “Regrettably, some who’ve sworn to safeguard these minors have as an alternative grow to be brokers of brutal violence.”
Every brawl occurs one after the other, with some youths charging the teenager as quickly as they enter the room. The 17-year-old stands his floor and punches and shoves in self-defense on a number of events, and the officers make no try and escort him out.
Because the video ends, the attacking youths are allowed to depart the room with out incident. The 17-year-old finally sits down at a desk. Nobody instantly checks to see if he’s injured.
In court docket Thursday, Albin stated Brooks “instigated” the incident, claiming the officer advised the assailants that the 17-year-old was a racist primarily based on his gang affiliations and the place he lives. The entire assailants had been Black, and the 17-year-old is Latino. Albin stated Brooks “picked my shopper out and advised the youths he was racist” on Thursday.
In his discover of declare towards L.A. County, which is a prelude to a lawsuit, Tooson stated the officers “organized and inspired a sequence of brutal fights and assaults.” Tooson stated a feminine officer — whose title is redacted from the submitting — claimed the teenager was a member of the “‘Canoga’ gang, and commented that she ‘hoped he may struggle.’
Along with the damaged nostril, Tooson stated the teenager suffered “inner accidents, extreme bruising, and reasonable traumatic mind harm,” in keeping with the discover of declare.
Ser, the choose at Thursday’s court docket listening to, referred to as the video “extraordinarily regarding,” and stated Brooks “shouldn’t be employed by the probation division.”
The teenager is awaiting trial for a theft and taking pictures that left one sufferer in a wheelchair for months, prosecutors stated. Ser declined to launch him, despite the protection considerations raised in court docket. The teenager has been transferred out of the unit the place the struggle occurred, however stays housed at Los Padrinos, Ser stated in court docket.
Albin stated he stays unsafe there as different probation officers consistently monitor his telephone calls and claimed officers have branded the teenager a “snitch” to different youths, a distinction that dangers extra violence .
Throughout the listening to, Albin questioned a number of probation division supervisors concerning the info offered by Brooks, asking if any makes an attempt had been made to corroborate her account. A number of supervisors acknowledged they by no means query officers’ observations or evaluation video when compiling stories and offering them to the court docket.
“I’m not searching for reality, I’m not searching for falsity, I’m trying to document what’s been recorded,” Officer Jerrod Montgomery, a supervisor who reviewed Brooks case notes when compiling a report on the incident, testified on Thursday.
The probation division didn’t reply to questions on what, if any, steps it takes to confirm the accuracy of “case notes” submitted by probation officers about incidents within the halls. From the bench, Ser decided that Brooks’ report was “inconsistent” with the video.
The identities of the opposite officers suspended haven’t been made public. Albin stated she filed a subpoena for his or her identities, however the county has not responded.
The clip has additionally been offered to the Los Angeles County district legal professional’s workplace, which didn’t reply to a request to remark about doable fees towards the officers or any of the youths within the video.
The clip was made public simply hours earlier than the Board of State and Group Corrections, which oversees correctional services statewide, narrowly voted to maintain Los Padrinos open.
The facility — which was reopened final summer time after the oversight physique ordered the probation division to shutter its different juvenile halls — has handled a staffing scarcity and “excessive ranges of youth on youth assault” because it was re-opened, in keeping with an inner probation division memo obtained by The Occasions earlier this yr.
Los Padrinos’ struggles have included a riot, an escape try and the invention of a gun on the grounds in lower than a yr of operation. Chief Deputy Kimberly Epps advised the state board Thursday that there had been additionally points with employees bringing in contraband.
“Sadly, we’ve had arrests of employees. We’ve had arrests of oldsters,” she stated. “These issues aren’t any secret.”
Some members of the state oversight board had been involved concerning the Los Padrinos video and requested to evaluation it earlier than Thursday’s vote, in keeping with two folks with direct data of the state of affairs who requested anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to talk to the media. However the vote was forged with none such evaluation.
The probation division stated the board didn’t request a replica of the video. A spokesman for the state board didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Sean Garcia-Leys, a board member, expressed frustration that the oversight physique used what he seen as extraordinarily slim parameters when assessing the suitability of Los Padrinos. The brutal assault, he stated, was not an element of their choice.
“Inspectors had been laser targeted on solely what they noticed throughout the two weeks they had been there, not issues that had occurred in December,” he stated in an e-mail. “That’s my criticism of how this went down. The employees put pointless blinders on the Board to get the consequence they did.”
