Thirty officers at a southern California juvenile detention facility have been charged for their role in facilitating so-called “gladiator fights” between youth in their care, the state’s attorney general said on Monday.
A grand jury indictment alleges the officers at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Los Angeles county allowed and sometimes encouraged nearly 70 fights to take place between July 2023 and December 2023. More than 140 victims between the ages of 12 and 18 were involved.
“We believe that this was planned, it was intended,” the attorney general, Rob Bonta, said. “They often wanted them to happen at the beginning of the day, in a certain time, in a certain place, a space and a time was created for the fights, and the plan was for the fights to happen.”
The officers face charges including child endangerment and abuse, conspiracy and battery.
Twenty-two of the officers were scheduled to be arraigned on Monday at the Los Angeles county superior court.
The investigation began after the Los Angeles Times first obtained and published footage that shows a 17-year-old being attacked by at least six other young people, who come at him one-by-one as officers stand by watching. Some officers appear to laugh and shake hands with the participants in the beating.
The video was first made public during a court hearing at which the 17-year-old’s public defender argued to a judge that he was not safe at Los Padrinos and should be released ahead of his trial.
The indictment singles out two probation officers who allegedly told staff members in advance that fights would occur and “they were not to say anything, write down anything, and just watch”. It also alleges one of the officers told youths involved to “refuse treatment when they went to medical to get treated by nurses”.
The LA county probation department, which runs the facility, said in a statement that it “fully supports and applauds” the attorney general’s office for Monday’s indictments, and that all officers involved were on leave without pay.
“Our department sought the assistance of law enforcement authorities when misconduct was discovered,” the statement said. “Since then, we have fully collaborated with our law enforcement partners … Accountability is a cornerstone of our mission, and we have zero tolerance for misconduct of any peace officers, especially those dealing with young people in our system.”
Jamal Tooson, who represents the 17-year-old and his family in a civil case against the county, called Monday’s indictment “the tip of the iceberg” of a systemic problem in the probation department.
There was a “culture that promotes a lack of accountability, violence and policies that encourage officers to look the other way as evident in the video,” Tooson said. “The reaction of the children who were eating their lunch, they really didn’t seem shocked or surprised, which tells me this is a daily occurrence.”
Tooson represents several other families with children harmed at Los Padrinos, including one who was left with a traumatic brain injury after being knocked unconscious in a classroom, he said.
