L.A. County Juvenile Hall 'Gladiator Fights' Yield Indictments

Fights between teens inside Los Angeles County's juvenile halls were allowed, even sometimes encouraged, by county probation officers, the state attorney general announced with the unsealing of an indictment charging 30 officers with a variety of charges including child abuse, conspiracy and battery, the Los Angeles Times reports. The indictment focuses on a series of fights that took place between July and December 2023. Two officers — Taneha Brooks and Shawn Smyles — are accused of telling other officers not to intervene or make reports when fights happened, according to the indictment. California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta referred to the coordinated brawls as “gladiator fights.” “The officers look more like referees or audience members at a prizefight, not adults charged with the care and supervision of young people,” Bonta said at a news conference. “The officers don’t step in, don’t intervene and don’t protect their charges.”

The indictments were the result of a California Department of Justice investigation launched after state investigators were leaked security footage — published last year by The Times — that shows eight probation officers standing idly by while a group of teens attacked a 17-year-old inside Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey. The teen suffered a broken nose and a “traumatic brain injury,” according to a civil claim filed last year. Bonta said the office reviewed videos and found 69 fights that occurred between 143 youths who were between the ages of 12 and 18. The fights took place at Los Padrinos in the chaotic first six months after the hall opened in July 2023. Bonta said prosecutors believed the fights were orchestrated by the probation officials. “We believe that this was planned. It was intended. There was a desire on the part of the juvenile probation officers for these fights to occur,” he said. “They often wanted them to happen at the beginning of the day and a certain time in a certain place.” Brooks ignored questions from a reporter in the courthouse on Monday. Smyles declined to comment through his attorney. Retired officers appeared in in court in support of the defendants, arguing their colleagues were victims of a chronically understaffed and mismanaged agency that put them in an impossible job. “Our members have been working under extremely difficult conditions — understaffed and ill-equipped facilities that house individuals accused of murder, sexual assault, terrorism, and other serious crimes,” Stacey Ford, president of AFSCME Local 685, the union that represents probation officers, said in a statement. “Despite these challenges, our professional peace officers remain committed to maintaining the highest level of professionalism while upholding their sworn duties.”