Female officer arrested for molesting minor

Jason Henry (jhenry@scng.com), Pasadena Star News, 3/11/24 (UPDATED 3/13/24); Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells, Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The female perpetrator, Officer Jane Doe, has been arrested but has not been publicly named.

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You will respect my authority and get naked.

In another black eye for the troubled Los Angeles County Probation Department, a female probation officer has [essentially confessed and] been charged with having sex with a minor [a.k.a. "child molestation" or "statutory rape" unless it's done by police, in which case it's called "having sex"] in custody at the Dorothy Kirby Center in Commerce, Los Angeles.

The female perp officer, who has not been identified [because her identity is being withheld to protect her from embarrassment because she's still an officer], was charged with:

• arranging a meeting with the minor for a lewd purpose,
• sex with an inmate [forcible rape of a detained person],
• bringing contraband [drugs] into a jail, and
• unauthorized possession of a cellphone in [jail used to produce child pornography, flirt, sexting, and arrange abusive sexual meetings] a secured area.

On the right day, Los Angeles is a beautiful place, natural and manmade, but oh the smut!

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The Probation Department’s Juvenile Safety and Welfare Task Force, [just] formed in February to combat the spread of drugs and other contraband, will forward the case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office once the investigation is complete, according to the department.

Investigators discovered the [sexual] relationship [between the female officer and underage male victim] while investigating a phone recovered from a youth at the facility on March 7, 2024, according to a statement from the department.

The Dorothy Kirby Center is a co-ed facility that houses “adjudicated youth with mental health issues,” according to the Probation Department. [So does that mean it would have been rape even if the minor were of consenting age because he is not of sound mind on the best of days?

“Information supported by a warrant led investigators to communications between the detained youth and Probation Officer,” the statement reads. “Some of these communications appeared to have occurred while the employee was [on the clock] at work and there were [child porn] photos that are sexual in nature.”

The employee allegedly gave statements during [interrogations] interviews with investigators that confirmed the conversations were with her.

Investigators found [an illegal] cellphone, which is not permitted inside the facility, and [illegal drugs consisting of] a prescription pill container “with different types of pills in varying quantities” in her [the female officer's] possession.

The department declined to comment further on the incident as it is “an ongoing investigation involving [a child molesting] employee and a minor [being detained against his will, drugged, and not in his right mind due to mental illness].”

First arrest by task force

It is the first arrest — at least made publicly — by the Juvenile Safety and Welfare Task Force. Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa formed the task force in Feb. 2024 to investigate and prosecute drug traffickers within the juvenile justice system.

Last year, LA County’s juvenile facilities experienced at least half a dozen overdoses, including the death [or murder by poisoning by the peddler] of an 18-year-old in custody at the Barry J. Nidorf Secure Youth Treatment Facility in Sylmar.

A report from the Office of Inspector General found that [drug dealing by staff and] drugs, fentanyl in particular, had spread throughout the facilities due to lax security.

Since then, the department has increased the frequency of room searches and intensified its security checkpoints.

It planned to install airport-style scanners at its largest juvenile hall, Los Padrinos in Downey, in early 2024.

Latest setback

The arrest marks the latest stain on the embattled Probation Department, which has been under fire from the state for its substandard operation of juvenile facilities.

Last year, the state shut down two of the county’s juvenile halls over deplorable conditions, forcing the department’s leadership to scramble to reopen Los Padrinos to house the hundreds of youth impacted by the decision.

Now, Los Padrinos and the SYTF at Barry J. Nidorf, could suffer the same fate.

Probation officials have until April to bring both locations back into compliance with the state’s minimum standards, or those facilities will be emptied, too.

Rumors of employees [guards] bringing [illegal street] drugs into the [protected] facilities have circulated for months.

Last year, the department arrested Nicholas Ibarra, 22, a youth who was in custody at the SYTF, for drug possession following a series of overdoses.

Two officers assigned to transport Ibarra later alleged he gave up [ratted out] the name of an officer who had been supplying fentanyl to youths at Barry J. Nidorf, but they were placed on leave for trying to investigate, according to their lawyer, attorney Tom Yu.

In September, the Office of Inspector General reported that security at Barry J. Nidorf allowed a staff member to bring food in without scanning the container, which the Probation Department “later believed introduced contraband [illegal street drugs] into the facility.”

[Officers raping children in custody for decades?]

The department has declined to comment on those incidents. Los Angeles County is already facing hundreds of lawsuits from former juvenile detainees who alleged they experienced sexual abuse within the juvenile halls dating back to 1972.

Los Angeles County CEO Fesia Davenport estimated the county could be forced to pay $1.6 billion to $3 billion for “more than 3,000 claims alleging childhood sexual assault [a.k.a. child molestation and rape] at various County and non-County facilities,” according to a 2023 budget.

• RELATED LINKS
• Nearly 600 former detainees have sued LA County over sexual abuse in juvenile halls
• State orders shutdown of LA County’s two largest juvenile facilities
• State orders LA County to close juvenile halls within 60 days
• Early troubles plague newly reopened Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall
• Fake food deliveries, drones and lax security: how drugs get into L.A. County’s juvenile halls

Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis called on the department to “thoroughly investigate this incident and discipline all, including [law enforcement] staff who continue to harm our youth.”

“The County of Los Angeles is contending with lawsuits from the past about allegations of sexual trauma in our facilities and yet, there continues to be a disturbing pattern of staff, who are in roles to protect, preying on those that need guidance and protection,” Solis said in a statement. More