Los Angeles County is set to pay $4 billion to resolve roughly 7,000 claims of childhood sexual abuse that allegedly occurred within juvenile facilities, and warns the largest sexual abuse settlement in US history.
Mammoth settlement that must be approved by both counties Request Committee County supervisors are $1 billion more than county officials had. prediction The worst-case scenario for resolving the surge in litigation, and was paid to victims much more than other organizations known for allowing unidentified sexual abuse.
In comparison, American Boy Scouts I agreed to pay $2.46 billion. Archdiocese of Los Angeles He paid about $1.5 billion for alleged abuse at the hands of a Catholic priest. USC gynecologist George Tyndal’s victims $1.1 billion. Michigan State University paid 500 million dollars To the victim of Team Doctor Larry Nasser.
An unprecedented settlement is AB 218, a 2020 State Law That gave victims of childhood sexual abuse a new window to sue despite the restrictions laws expired.
Many California counties responsible for caring for children in foster parents and boys halls saw an increase in lawsuits. For LA County, it was a huge flood that had not stopped yet.
Thousands Men and women He was jailed as children in a vast network of county juvenile halls and camps, saying they had been abused and raped by probation staff decades ago.
Thousands were now shy and suspected of sexual abuse McLaren Children’s Centera county-run home for foster children, compared by plaintiff’s lawyers to a “home of horror.” The report found that the facility has been decades without checking its staff’s criminal history.
Taken together, thousands of cases paint a picture of a government that failed to intervene as the facility was transformed into a hunting ground for predators who held enormous power within the supervision, in thousands of cases that involved alleged abuse in the 1980s and 2000s.
“On behalf of the county, I sincerely apologize to everyone who has done harm to these reprehensible conduct,” LA County Chief Executive Fesia Davenport said in a statement.
She said the county has been working in recent years to crack down on sexual abuse of minors. Improvements Advertised by the county Includes strengthening reviews of foster parents and probation staff and involves the use of group homes such as the McLaren Children’s Center.
Davenport I made a headline in 2023 When she estimated at a public budget hearing that the county could consider $1.6 billion to $3 billion in liability for about 3,000 sexual abuse claims expected.
Her estimates were filled with shock and skepticism from experienced lawyers suing the county.
Thousands of additional victims have been sued since then, moving even further each month. In addition to creating a three-year window for the victims, End of 2023under new state law, the plaintiff sued if he was under 40 years of age or discovered abuse he had suffered as a child recently.
The county said the $4 billion settlement covers most of the child sexual abuse lawsuits. Some attorneys are not willing to participate in the “global mediation process,” and in that case the plaintiff will be part of another settlement, according to the county.
Patrick McNicholas, whose law firm represents 1,200 plaintiffs, said in the settlement debate he is careful to reach out to figures that will bring justice to thousands of casualties without bankrupting the county, which serves as a social security net for the region. He reasoned that the government could maintain the solvent with a $4 billion payment, but it was still the biggest sexual abuse payment he’d ever heard.
“This is a historic settlement,” he said. “It recognizes the terrible harm that has been done.”
Painted around the age of 11, Dominique Anderson is one of the thousands of plaintiffs who accused of abuse in the county’s juvenile department. Anderson said when she was 13, her probation officer boss abused her in a motel room.
(Dominique Anderson)
The $4 billion payment will already be a big blow to the county Turbulent financial waters, It’s thanks to the threat of funding cuts from the Trump White House and the costs of recovering from the devastating Palisade and Eton wildfires. Davenport warned the county. governmentwith a budget of around $49 billion, and unless jobs are frozen, they could face a “fiscal crisis.”
County officials say it comes from emitting the county’s rainy day fund, cutting the department’s budget and stealing bonds. The county is expected to owe hundreds of millions of dollars in interest on bonds that need to be paid back by 2051.
The county said it would pay the settlement between January 2026 and January 30, 2030, providing billions to “independent allocators” who will decide how to divide it between the approximately 6,800 plaintiffs.
There were few criminal charges for county officials accused of abuse in the lawsuit. The Probation Department presented evidence to the LA County District Attorney’s Office in December 2023 against two staff members, Thomas Jackson and Altvis Abner. The status of these cases was not immediately available.
Some of the employees accused of being the most prolific abusers were participating in the county salaries until recently. Jackson She resigned from the probation department in the fall of 2023, ending her 33-year career, accusing at least 20 women of sexually abusing them as girls.
