The California Attorney General announced Monday that he will be suing charges against 30 detention officers assigned to a Los Angeles area juvenile hall with child abuse that is said to allow and sometimes encourage so-called gladiator fights among young people.
At the heart of the charges of the Great Ju Court are allegations that officers rose up just as the children and teenagers of Los Padrinos boy hall engaged in the fight, the Attorney General’s Office said in a statement. The detention center is located in Downey, about 13 miles south of downtown Los Angeles.
Attorney General Rob Bonta said there were at least 69 fights in the second half of 2023, involving 143 children and teens between the ages of 12 and 18. Some fights have resulted in physical injuries, Bonta’s office said.
In a statement, Bonta said he would “oversee the ‘Gladiators’ Battle’ when it should have been intervened.”
The defendants exploited the victim’s vulnerability and their own position of trust, his office said.
“Today’s accusations are a warning to everyone who abuses their power,” Bonta said. “The California Department of Justice is watching, but we’ll hold you accountable.”
Bonta’s office said the fight caught the attention of the Attorney General and state investigators after the video of one of the arguments was “leaked” in January 2024. Talking to the news media on each video, he explained the violence.
“Foot that was later widely circulated in the media and social media shows the youths in the detention center being attacked by a series of other youths who come to him one by one while detainees are watching,” Bonta said in a video aired Monday by NBC affiliate KCRA in Sacramento. “The officers look like judges and audience members in the awards battle, not adults who care and supervise the youth.”
Stacey Ford, chairman of the LA County Deputy Probation Officers’ Union, is the chairman of AFSCME Local 685, representing 30 officers in labor negotiations, and in a statement the organization “does everything in our power.”
“All Americans are innocent until proven guilty,” Ford said.
He said juvenile detention officers are often tasked with maintaining peace and order among children and teens accused of violent crimes.
“Despite these challenges, our professional peace officers remain committed to maintaining the highest level of professionalism,” he said.
Each of the 30 officers has been charged with felony child abuse under California law, with people convicted of the charges facing two to six years in state prisons, according to the indictment.
According to the documents, one of 30 people faces an additional count of misdemeanor batteries, allegedly using force and violence against unnamed subjects.
Three of the defendants were charged with conspiracy to commit a crime, according to the indictment. Two of them allowed some fights, claiming they knew in advance when they were going to happen, and told the new detention officer not to watch the match but not to report it.
Prosecutors alleged that a third person joined the other two and allowed several fights.
One of the three said nine fights on December 22, 2023 in juvenile facility units were examples of how detainees managed their children.
Twenty-two of the defendants were arrested Monday. The rest will be arrested on April 18th, the Attorney General said.
All defendants are on unpaid leave, the county probation unit said in a statement. In April 2024, probation chief Guiller Moviera Rosa said the officers involved in the alleged abuse captured on video were removed from duties after they asked outside agencies for an investigation.
“We don’t tolerate the cheating that is depicted in the video,” the chief said at the time.
The following month, he said 66 officers were on leave during an internal investigation. Viera Rosa said it would take root in a “culture of violence, drug use, neglect and sexual misconduct in the nation’s largest probation agency,” according to a county statement at the time.
The charges released Monday are examples of the need for a change in the culture of county probation officers, and LA County supervisor Janice Hahn said he supports the dismissal of convicted officers.
“The youths in Los Padrino are not only in our custody, they are taking care of us,” she said in a statement. “It is unacceptable for this responsibility probation officer to use the power to abusive these children.”
