Los Angeles County is poised to pay almost $2.7 million to a youngster whose violent beating at a juvenile corridor launched a sprawling prison investigation into so-called “gladiator fights” contained in the troubled facility.
Video of the December 2023 beating, captured on CCTV, confirmed Jose Rivas Barillas, then 16, being pummeled by six juveniles at Los Padrinos Juvenile Corridor as probation officers stood idly by. Every youth attacked Rivas Barillas for just a few seconds earlier than returning to breakfast. Two officers, later recognized as longtime probation officers Taneha Brooks and Shawn Smyles, laughed and shook palms, encouraging the brawl.
“What made this distinctive is the video,” mentioned Rivas Barillas’ lawyer, Jamal Tooson, who mentioned his consumer suffered a damaged nostril and traumatic mind harm. “The whole world obtained to witness the brutality that’s happening with our kids by the hands of the Los Angeles County Probation Division.”
The video, first reported by The Instances, prompted a prison investigation by the state lawyer basic’s workplace, which later charged 30 probation officers — together with Brooks and Smyles — with permitting and inspiring fights amongst teenagers inside county juvenile halls. California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta referred to the coordinated brawls as “gladiator fights” and mentioned his workplace’s CCTV assessment had turned up 69 such fights in the course of the chaotic first six months after the corridor opened in July 2023.
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Footage obtained by the L.A. Instances reveals a December 2023 incident through which staffers might be seen permitting no less than six youths to hit and kick a 17-year-old.
On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors will vote on whether or not to approve the $2.67-million settlement to Rivas Barillas and his mom, Heidi Barillas Lemus.
In response to a public abstract of the “corrective motion plan” that the Probation Division should produce earlier than a big settlement, officers did not assessment CCTV video of the struggle and waited too lengthy to move the teenager to a hospital and notify his household.
CCTV screens at the moment are “staffed routinely,” and officers are engaged on conducting random audits of the recordings, in keeping with the plan. A spokesperson for the Probation Division didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Instantly after Rivas Barillas arrived on the Downey juvenile corridor, Brooks demanded to know his gang affiliation, in keeping with the declare filed with the county. Brooks mentioned she had heard that Rivas Barillas, who’s Latino, was from the “Canoga” gang and that she “hoped he might struggle” earlier than directing the opposite juveniles, all of whom had been Black, to assault him within the day room, the declare acknowledged.
After the video made headlines, accounts of teenagers pressured by probation officers to struggle have trickled out of Los Padrinos. A teen informed The Instances in March that officers at Los Padrinos rewarded him with a fast-food “bounty” — In-N-Out, Jack within the Field, McDonald’s — if he beat up youngsters who misbehaved. {The teenager}, who had beforehand been housed in the identical unit as Rivas Barillas, mentioned staffers would additionally arrange fights when somebody arrived who was considered affiliated with a gang that didn’t get together with the youths inside.
“We get a brand new child, he’s from the hood. We now have different hoods in right here. We’re going to get all of the fights out of the best way,” he mentioned on the time. “They had been simply setting it as much as management the scenario.”
One other teenager, recognized in court docket filings as John (Lohjk) Doe, alleged in a lawsuit filed in February that quickly after arriving at Los Padrinos in 2024, he was escorted by an officer to the day room. The officer, recognized solely by the surname Santos, informed a youth contained in the day room that “you will have eleven (11) seconds” and watched because the youth attacked Doe, in keeping with the lawsuit.
On one other event, the identical officer threatened to pepper-spray Doe if he didn’t struggle one other youth for 20 seconds. The teenagers who fought had been rewarded with further tv and extra outing of their cells, the go well with alleged.
After the teenager informed a feminine officer concerning the two coordinated brawls, he was transferred to solitary confinement, the go well with alleged.
Instances workers author James Queally contributed to this report.
