At least two teenage boys were sexually abused by female staffers at a Chatsworth group home earlier this year, leading one of the women to become pregnant, according to a civil claim filed this week.
One employee at the facility, known as Rancho San Antonio, abused a 15-year-old boy over a five-month span both at the Chatsworth campus and again at the victim’s home while his mother was out of the house, attorney Jamal Tooson said during a news conference Thursday, echoing allegations in the civil claim.
At least one other boy was abused at the facility recently, according to the notice of claim, which is a precursor to a lawsuit.
“This conduct was not an isolated incident, but part of a broader pattern of inappropriate and abusive relationships between staff and minors at Rancho San Antonio,” the claim read. “Other instances of egregious misconduct at the facility include a staff member becoming pregnant by a minor juvenile while in Rancho San Antonio’s care.”
The victims in both cases are under 16, while the staff members are in their late 20s or early 30s, according to a source with direct knowledge of the situation who requested anonymity in order to discuss an ongoing investigation.
A Los Angeles Police Department spokesman said a criminal investigation has been launched. The department was notified of the abuse allegations on May 4.
Rancho San Antonio has been under contract with the L.A. County Probation Department since 2008 to house youths who are transitioning out of the county’s juvenile halls. Vicky Waters, a spokeswoman for the L.A. County Probation Department, said the agency has stopped all transfers to the facility.
“The individuals connected to the allegations were contractors, not Probation Department employees, and are no longer employed at the facility,” Waters said in a statement. “The Department is and will continue to fully cooperate with an ongoing external law enforcement investigation.”
Tooson said the 15-year-old’s mother had him placed at Rancho San Antonio for help dealing with a mental health issue. He was allowed to go home on weekends, according to Tooson, and the alleged abuser “snuck into” the family’s residence during one of those visits. The victim’s 12-year-old sister was also home at the time, Tooson said.
“He was violated by a system that was designed to protect him,” Tooson said.
The second victim is not represented by Tooson, and the lawyer would not say how he learned of the pregnancy that was described in the legal claim. In a statement, the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office said it was looking into “allegations of serious sexual abuses of our clients.”
“These allegations, if true, reflect serious and ongoing systemic failures in safeguarding youth under the Probation Department’s care and underscore the urgent need for change to ensure that youth are not placed at continued risk,” the statement said.
The claim names the probation department and the L.A. County Department of Child and Family Services as defendants.
A Child and Family Services spokeswoman said the agency does not currently have any foster children at Rancho San Antonio and did not believe any youth in its care were impacted. The spokeswoman said the department was “deeply concerned” about the allegations.
Rancho San Antonio is a “multi-service non-profit organization that provides both traditional and non-traditional trauma-informed therapeutic services to youth and families,” according to its website.
“We are a community that is mission-driven and have provided quality services for decades,” the website read.
Calls to the facility seeking comment were not immediately returned on Thursday.
Rancho San Antonio is home to a “Short Term Residential Therapeutic Program,” in which youths who have completed their time in L.A. County’s juvenile halls are housed in what’s commonly referred to as a “step down” setting before they are released to the public. While a change in state law championed the use of such programs in 2017, concerns have been raised that the programs are overcrowded and sometimes dangerous.
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