Several Los Angeles County probation officers stood by as at least six youths assaulted a 17-year-old at the Los Padrinos juvenile jail in December, with some officers appearing to laugh and shake the attackers’ hands as the beatings progressed, according to images obtained by The Times.
The video shows a teenager being punched and kicked by a series of youths in a “living room” inside the Downey facility. On several occasions, the victim falls to the ground while the police do little to stop the violence. At one point in the video, a female probation officer steps aside while a youth charges at the victim and delivers a running kick.
The videos raise questions about whether the violence was coordinated. Each young person attacks the 17-year-old for a few seconds before calmly returning to breakfast.
The video was first made public during a Sylmar court hearing Thursday morning, when the 17-year-old’s lawyer asked a judge to release his client ahead of his criminal trial, arguing that he was not safe at Los Padrinos. The Times obtained a copy of the video several hours later.
The 17-year-old suffered a broken nose, his public defender, Sherrie Albin, said in court Thursday. Probation officers did not take the teen to receive medical treatment for several days, Albin said.
The video led the Probation Department to suspend eight officers in January, but the agency refused to answer any questions about the incident. Sources who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly told The Times in January that the officers were suspended for failing to intervene in a fight.
“Now that the Times has published this video, it should be abundantly clear why I felt compelled to act quickly once this incident was brought to my attention,” Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa said. in a press release.
After learning of the assault, Viera Rosa said he turned the investigation over to outside law enforcement and began restructuring internal affairs because he was “not happy” with the way whose staff had reported the incident.
A Probation Department spokesperson would not comment on the status of the suspended officers. The video was shared with the Los Angeles County Inspector General’s Office, the spokesperson said.
The California Attorney General’s Office is investigating the incident, according to an attorney general spokesperson. The prosecutor’s office said no criminal case related to the incident had been presented to it.
The approximately six-minute clip shows young people eating in a room filled with Christmas decorations on the morning of December 22, 2023. But things quickly turn violent when a youth charges the 17-year-old and punches him several times. fist to the head. After about 15 seconds, the fight stops and the young person who initiated the attack sits down to eat. Four probation officers can be seen standing around the perimeter of the room watching and doing nothing to intercede.
As the 17-year-old paces and wipes his face, another youth runs into the room and unleashes a flurry of punches, knocking him down and kicking him in the head as a female probation officer standing nearby appears to check the time. watch.
“She allows it,” the 17-year-old girl’s mother said through a Spanish interpreter in the Sylmar courtroom as the video played.
The probation officer who appears to be responsible in the video was identified in court as Taneha Brooks. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Sandy Ser did not allow Albin to question Brooks during Thursday’s hearing. Brooks left the building before a Times reporter could approach her for comment and she did not immediately respond to messages sent on LinkedIn and Facebook that appeared to belong to her.
Albin said it was “clear in the video that Deputy Brooks was laughing” during the beating.
The video stands in stark contrast to Brooks’ own report of the incident. In a Dec. 22 special incident report reviewed by The Times, Brooks wrote that she was the only deputy present at 8:20 a.m. when youths from two different gangs began fighting. She wrote that the youths continued to fight after she gave “a verbal order…to stop the fight.” The young people obeyed after a “second verbal order”.
Brooks wrote that the same pattern — youths from different gangs fighting the teen and stopping after she gave them two warnings — repeated seven more times during breakfast.
As the video continues, one youth after another approaches the 17-year-old and fights with him or hits him. As the teen crumples to the ground under a series of punches, a second probation officer can be seen shaking the hand of one of the previous attackers and smiling.
That probation officer was identified in court as Shawn Smyles. He could not immediately be reached for comment. Both Brooks and Smyles have worked for the agency for more than a decade, according to the county’s public employee database.
“This case is just a microcosm of a larger problem: the failure of the Los Angeles County Probation Department to protect our children,” attorney Jamal Tooson, who represents the family, said Thursday in a statement. “Unfortunately, some who were sworn to protect these minors have become agents of brutal violence. »
Each fight happens one by one, with some youths charging at the teen as soon as he enters the room. The 17-year-old stands his ground and repeatedly punches and shoves in self-defense, and the officers make no attempt to escort him away.
At the end of the video, the young attackers are allowed to leave the room without incident. The 17-year-old eventually sat down at a table. No one immediately checks to see if he is injured.
In court Thursday, Albin said Brooks “incited” the incident, saying the officer told the attackers the 17-year-old was racist because of his gang affiliations and where he lives . All the attackers were black and the 17-year-old is Latino. Albin said Brooks “picked on my client and told the kids he was racist” on Thursday.
In his notice of claim against Los Angeles County, which is a prelude to a lawsuit, Tooson said the officers “staged and encouraged a series of brutal fights and assaults.” Tooson said a female officer – whose name is redacted from the file – claimed the teen was a member of the “Canoga” gang and commented that she “hoped he could fight.”
In addition to the broken nose, Tooson said the teen suffered “internal injuries, severe bruising and moderate head trauma,” according to the notice of claim.
Ser, the judge at Thursday’s hearing, called the video “extremely concerning” and said Brooks “should not be employed by the Probation Department.”
The teenager is awaiting trial for a robbery and shooting that left one victim in a wheelchair for months, prosecutors said. Ser refused to release him, despite security concerns raised in court. The teenager was moved out of the unit where the fight took place, but remains housed at Los Padrinos, Ser told the court.
Albin said he was still not safe there because other probation officers constantly monitored his phone calls and claimed officers referred to the teen as a “snitch” to other young people, a distinction which risks more violence.
During the hearing, Albin questioned several probation department supervisors about the information provided by Brooks, asking if any attempts had been made to corroborate his account. Several supervisors acknowledged that they never questioned the officers’ observations or watched the videos when they wrote reports and submitted them to the court.
“I’m not looking for truth, I’m not looking for falsity, I’m looking to record what was recorded,” Agent Jerrod Montgomery, a supervisor who reviewed the Brooks case notes while drafting the case, testified Thursday. a report on the incident. .
The Probation Department did not respond to questions about what steps, if any, it takes to verify the accuracy of “case notes” submitted by probation officers regarding incidents in the hallways. From the bench, Ser determined that Brooks’ report was “inconsistent” with the video.
The identities of the other suspended officers have not been made public. Albin said she filed a subpoena seeking their identities, but the county has not responded.
The majority of members of the Board of Supervisors said Friday that they were disturbed by the video, with Supervisor Holly Mitchell calling the conduct “staged fighting.” All three supervisors described the conduct as a symptom of a broken culture within a long-troubled department.
“The actions of deputy probation officers are horrific and unconscionable,” said Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who chairs the board. “These agents must be held accountable”
The clip was made public just hours before the Board of State and Community Corrections, which oversees correctional facilities across the state, narrowly voted to keep Los Padrinos open.
The facility – which was reopened last summer after the watchdog ordered the Probation Department to close its other juvenile centers – has faced staff shortages and “high levels of young victims of juvenile assault” since its reopening, according to an internal report. Probation Department memo obtained by The Times earlier this year.
Los Padrinos’ struggles included a riot, an escape attempt and the discovery of a gun on the grounds in less than a year of operation. Chief Deputy Kimberly Epps told the state board Thursday there have also been issues with staff bringing in contraband.
“Unfortunately, we have had staff arrests. We have had parents arrested,” she said. “These things are not a secret.”
Some members of the State Board of Supervisors were concerned about the Los Padrinos video and asked to view it before Thursday’s vote, according to two people with direct knowledge of the situation who requested anonymity because they do not were not authorized to speak to the media. But the vote took place without such scrutiny.
The probation department said the board did not request a copy of the video. A spokesperson for the state board did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sean Garcia-Leys, a member of the Probation Oversight Commission who regularly testifies at state meetings, expressed frustration that the state agency used what he considers extremely narrow parameters when assessing the suitability of Los Padrinos. The brutal assault, he said, was not a factor in his decision.
“The inspectors were focused only on what they saw in the two weeks they were there, not what happened in December,” he said in an email. “That’s my criticism of how it happened. The staff put unnecessary blinders on the board to get the result they got.
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