A federal lawsuit filed on behalf of dozens of present and former inmates in Los Angeles County’s ladies’s jail claims male correctional officers watched them bathe, harassed and groped them and retaliated when the alleged abuses have been reported.
The go well with accuses deputies of benefiting from ladies incarcerated at Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood.
The case comes amid renewed scrutiny of how the Sheriff’s Division’s handles abuse claims. Data reviewed by The Instances present jail inmates have made almost 600 allegations of sexual abuse or harassment in opposition to workers since 2021, however none have been referred to the L.A. County district legal professional’s workplace for prosecution.
Brian Dunn, managing associate and lead civil rights legal professional with the Cochran Agency, which introduced the case on behalf of 38 ladies in late October, stated in an interview that dozens of inmates shared “chilling” allegations of “brazen” sexual abuse and harassment.
“It appeared to be taking place with such frequency that it was like a follow. … That is one thing that has been accepted,” he stated. “It’s heartbreaking for me to listen to these ladies crying and the one factor you are able to do is sue.”
The Sheriff’s Division stated in an announcement that, after studying about Dunn’s lawsuit, it “initiated a evaluation of the claims to make sure that all applicable investigative and administrative processes have been adopted.”
“The protection, dignity, and constitutional rights of each particular person in our custody stay our prime precedence,” the division added. “We’re dedicated to clear operations, thorough investigations, and sustaining the best requirements {of professional} conduct.”
The civil grievance filed within the Central District of California says abuses occurred within the Lynwood jail’s administrative segregation unit, also referred to as “the outlet.” The lawsuit claims ladies have been usually despatched there for disciplinary functions — and that deputies would watch as they showered nude. The go well with says the follow violates a federal legislation referred to as the Jail Rape Elimination Act, which prohibits “cross-gender viewing” by workers.
The grievance alleges a “systemic and ongoing follow which issues the cross-gender viewing of fully nude feminine inmates by male correctional officers.”
It describes an space subsequent to the bathe stalls referred to by inmates and deputies because the “cop store,” from which male correctional officers “routinely have interaction in frequent and extended unobstructed viewing of the complete nude our bodies of feminine inmates taking showers.”
Whereas escorting ladies to the stalls, the grievance states, male guards allegedly “deliberately press their crotches in opposition to the handcuffed fingers of the feminine inmates … and deliberately fondle the inmates’ hips, buttocks, and our bodies in a sexual method.”
Deputies “routinely and deliberately set the water temperature at a scalding or near-scalding stage,” the grievance added, “which forces the feminine inmates taking showers to maneuver hurriedly and squirm erratically” and “usually ends in the feminine inmates’ breasts jiggling and wiggling demonstrably in full view of the male correctional officers within the adjoining ‘cop store.’”
Inside of Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood in December.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Instances)
The Sheriff’s Division stated in an announcement that “[t]right here is an ongoing inquiry into the claims” and that it “maintains a zero-tolerance coverage in the direction of any type of sexual abuse or harassment inside its amenities.”
The assertion added that it “takes all allegations of sexual misconduct, abuse of authority, and violations of Division coverage extraordinarily critically.”
The Sybil Model Fee, the unbiased oversight physique for L.A. County’s jails, has documented comparable complaints from feminine inmates in latest months.
The fee, which performs inspections on unannounced visits to the jails, stated in an October report that a number of inmates “allege a deputy observes ladies showering from the decrease stage, escorts ladies whereas leaving them uncovered in bathe, and makes them wait unclothed earlier than returning to their cells. Worry of retaliation deters reporting.”
Fee Chair Haley Broder described the inmates as “among the most susceptible ladies on earth. They will’t do something; they’re locked in cells and being retaliated in opposition to in the event that they report it.”
Defendants within the federal lawsuit embrace L.A. County, Sheriff Robert Luna and three of his predecessors, and a dozen jail staffers.
The Sheriff’s Division stated in an announcement that two deputies named within the lawsuit “are actively working,” with one now at Males’s Central Jail and one other nonetheless in Lynwood.
One of many two males beforehand labored because the Jail Rape Elimination Act compliance supervisor on the ladies’s jail, in accordance with the grievance.
Final month, The Instances reported that out of 592 inmate claims of sexual abuse or harassment by deputies filed since 2021, none have been deemed “substantiated” by Sheriff’s Division investigators.
Over that interval, in accordance with a evaluation of D.A.’s workplace data by The Instances, the Sheriff’s Division referred none of these circumstances to L.A. County prosecutors, who resolve whether or not there may be sufficient proof to file fees.
“The DA’s workplace has introduced no circumstances in opposition to sheriff’s deputies for sexual assault crimes dedicated in opposition to inmates” since 2021, the workplace confirmed in an e-mail. It added that it’s “not conscious of any such circumstances not too long ago offered by LASD for submitting consideration involving deputies accused of sexually assaulting inmates.”
The Sheriff’s Division stated in an announcement that since 2021 it has despatched 9 circumstances for evaluation by both its Inside Affairs or Inside Felony Investigation bureaus, all of which “are nonetheless being actively investigated.” It added that “[o]nce a prison investigation is accomplished, investigators will current the case to the District Legal professional’s Workplace for submitting consideration.”
The division has acted in opposition to at the least one deputy in response to an inmate’s claims of sexual misconduct in recent times. In November 2023, deputy Jonathan Tejada Paredes was arrested on suspicion that he sexually assaulted an inmate whereas he was working within the ladies’s jail in Lynwood.
However court docket data present that no county or federal fees have been filed in opposition to Tejada Paredes. The D.A.’s workplace stated it “has not obtained this matter for charging consideration.”
Jacqueline Sparagna, an legal professional for Tejada Paredes, denied any wrongdoing by her consumer and confirmed that he has not been charged. She added that whereas the federal government goes out of its solution to totally examine allegations in opposition to legislation enforcement officers, “there are probably issues with the” Paredes case, similar to an absence of corroborating proof or credibility questions.
Requested concerning the standing of the declare in opposition to Tejada Paredes, the Sheriff’s Division stated an “investigation is at the moment ongoing.”
Previously, the Sheriff’s Division has referred a lot of circumstances of deputies accused by inmates of sexual assault for prosecution. As an example, Giancarlo Scotti, who labored on the Lynwood ladies’s jail, was charged by the D.A.’s workplace in 2018 with assaulting six inmates there after being arrested and positioned on administrative go away by the Sheriff’s Division the prior 12 months whereas the division investigated the allegations.
In 2019, court docket data present Scotti pleaded no contest to 6 counts of sexual exercise with an inmate, ward or parolee. A choose sentenced him to 2 years in state custody, with a suggestion that his time period be served in a state fireplace camp.
A evaluation of county data exhibits that the Sheriff’s Division has referred a lot of deputies for prosecution on sexual abuse fees since 2021 — simply not in circumstances with inmates as alleged victims.
Final 12 months, in accordance with a D.A.’s workplace memo, the workplace declined to carry prison fees in opposition to a correctional officer after a Sheriff’s Division investigation discovered he had allegedly dedicated sexual battery in opposition to a feminine colleague at Twin Towers Correctional Facility in 2022. The D.A.’s memo cited questions on whether or not the deputy’s conduct constituted sexual battery, the alleged sufferer’s response and whether or not there was sufficient proof to corroborate her claims.
The dearth of transparency round how jail sexual abuse claims are investigated has raised alarms amongst native watchdogs.
“The general public shouldn’t be getting the reality from the Sheriff’s Division. We deserve actual, correct information about individuals being raped or assaulted in our jails, not hogwash,” stated Hans Johnson, chair of the Los Angeles County Sheriff Civilian Oversight Fee.
Max Huntsman, who retired as L.A. County inspector basic earlier this month, advised The Instances in November that he believes the Sheriff’s Division is “not in compliance with PREA in lots of senses,” together with its inner insurance policies and the bodily state of its growing older jails.
An April report by Huntsman’s workplace “discovered that many allegations stay unresolved in quarterly studies, elevating issues concerning the thoroughness of investigations” below the federal legislation.
Some investigations, the inspector basic’s workplace wrote, didn’t embrace “a radical description of bodily and testimonial proof,” and investigators “didn’t seem to interview all potential concerned individuals” in some circumstances.
The cross-gender viewing allegations on the Lynwood ladies’s jail are “one in every of many instances when the county may have averted litigation by merely correcting circumstances,” Huntsman stated.
As of Oct. 27, 30 of the 38 ladies who signed on to the lawsuit alleging rampant cross-gender viewing on the Lynwood jail remained incarcerated there.
“Behind each a kind of paragraphs in that grievance is a human story,” stated Dunn, the lawyer representing the feminine inmates.
