Thursday evening, it was the first time that the County Head of San Diego’s county attended a meeting of the board of directors accused of investigating allegations of misconduct against his officers.
Members of the Citizens Law Enforcement Review Board, also known as Clerb, pepper Tamika Nelson with questions on the programs available for people under probation surveillance, the use of body cameras and if the agents have received training On work with young neurodivergentes in police custody.
He was not asked why the Nelson department only recently began to inform Clerb of serious injuries to minors owned in county facilities, despite an old -year rule demanding that information on these incidents be given to investigators from Clerb.
According to a recent report from the Clerb’s workload – a document that the examination committee uses to follow the open cases – last year, there were 28 cases in which a young person suffered large bodily injuries during ‘An interaction involving a probation agent.
Probation spokesperson Chuck Westerheide said that cases did not necessarily imply improper use; More likely, the injury occurred when a probation agent or officers tried to fight.
“The affairs reported in Clerb involve great bodily injuries to the young people in which an officer intervened physically at some point,” he said. “The injury of a young person could be self-inflicted, caused by other young people or the result of staff measures taken during the intervention. Although the cases reported in Clerb involved personnel intervention, young people were not necessarily caused by this intervention. »»
Westerheide said probation defines “great bodily injury” as “a significant or substantial physical injury, in particular, but without limiting a bodily member or an organ.
Of the 28 cases, which all have “Doe” in the name field, six occurred at the County youth transition center in Kearny Mesa and 22 at the Eastern Miners’ Detention Center in Otay Mesa.
Affairs were deposited under a county rule which entered into force in January 2021, giving the board of directors to investigate the force by “peace agents or agents employed employees by the County Sheriff department or the childcare officers employed by … the probation department resulting in large bodily injury.
Paul Parker, executive director of Clerb, when the rule entered into force, said that the two departments had agreed to send a list of incidents each month.
“The Sheriff department was really good to provide information on major bodily injuries,” he said. But the probation service has provided none of this information. Parker said he had met Nelson on this subject, but the department has still not given the records.
We do not know why, at the end of last year, the Probation Department informed Clerb of the 28 cases of bodily injuries. Westerheide, a spokesperson for probation, did not provide any answers to this question.
For the moment, CLERB only has the most basic information on each case, said that the executive director of the board of directors, Brett Kalina, because, also at the end of last year, probation officials Disputed the capacity of the board of directors of files involving minors.
“A request for files was submitted to the probation service,” said Clerb’s October report report. “Clerb received a response from the probation service via the lawyer, opposing the request for several legal reasons. Consequently, Clerb has received no file for this question. »»
The report continues by saying that Clerb’s legal adviser did not agree with the interpretation by the Department of Probation of the State Act which limits the disclosure of information on minors.
Parker said that the examination committee had a permanent order, renewed every three years, the miners’ court which has enabled the probation service to publish files to investigators.
“Because this court order existed, we could get what we wanted,” he said.
Kalina told the Union-Tribune last week that probation officials decided that the permanent order was not valid.
In the future, CLERB will have to file a request to the court for any case involving a minor under probation surveillance.
Kalina said he didn’t know how long each petition would take.
Complaints to CLERB concerning misconduct involving a probation agent are rare, although the Clerb’s conclusions in the past two years reflect an increase in complaints resulting from incidents in minor detention facilities.
In March 2023, CLERB noted that probation agents on the youth transition campus had not carried out appropriate security checks at night, Alan Arguelles, 16, died of a fentanyl overdose.
The staff members did not carry out checks of “proof of life” every 15 minutes, because the regulations of the state and the policy of the department require it, noted the investigators of Clerb.
In August, the County of San Diego agreed to pay $ 1.1 million to settle an unjustified legal action filed by the mother of Arguelles, Brenda.
The conclusions of the employee of June 2023 show that a woman identified as “Veronica B” submitted a complaint in the name of her son, alleging that even if he was held at the detention center for Eastern miners, a Probation agent used magnifications against him, dared the boy hitting him and placed his knee on the boy’s neck.
The board of directors voted to support the conclusion of blasphemies, but determined that there was not enough evidence to prove or refute other allegations.
Last May, the Board of Directors noted that two probation agents used excessive force against a disabled boy for the development hosted on the youth transition campus.
An officer caught the boy’s head and “crushed him on the concrete floor,” said Clerb’s summary on the case. The summary of the case mentions that the officer no longer works for the county.
Sharon Kalish, the boy’s mother, filed the complaint. She testified in the examination committee that her son was not able to deal with what was told of the officers.
Clerb’s October program included two other cases involving East Mesa incidents.
The first, filed by the chairman of the board of directors, Maryanne Pintar on behalf of a complainant who asked to remain anonymous, alleged that a probation agent used the word n and showed explicit films several times To the boys, stopping a film when a naked woman appeared on the screen and shouting “See, look at that!”
The incident’s summary notes that another officer has planned to document the violations but was not for fear of reprisals. Probation officials later informed Clerb that the officer had retired.
Clerb was forced to close the case after probation officials refused to hand over the files.
A second complaint, filed by Yusef Miller, Executive Director of North County Equity & Justice Coalition, was rejected for a different reason. Miller filed the complaint as a result of information on four possible overdoses at the East Mesa establishment.
Probation officials said Miller had no first -hand knowledge of the incident and that allegations were insufficient. They also insisted that hospitalizations did not involve medication.
During the Clerb meeting last week, Miller said that he was concerned about the incident and tried without success to meet probation officials. His concern was reproduced by Paloma Serna, who became a defender of safer childcare standards after her daughter, Elisa, died in 2019 in the female prison of Las Colinas in Santee.
“Here you have around 28 uses of strength (incidents) which lead to large bodily injury,” she said. “It’s very worrying. We need more information on what is not working in the probation service. »»
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