A prominent law firm suing L.A. County over childhood sexual abuse is pushing for a federal investigation into how so many children were harmed on the government’s watch.
The county agreed in April to a $4 billion settlement to resolve roughly 7,000 cases of sexual abuse inside the county’s juvenile detention facilities and foster homes dating back decades.
But attorney John Manly, who has about 200 cases against the county, said despite the eye-popping sum, there’s still no clear picture of who is responsible for the rampant abuse. No one has been criminally charged since the deluge of cases began.
“This is essentially Epstein Island being supervised by Los Angeles County probation officers,” said Manly, referring to Jeffrey Epstein, the notorious financier who died by suicide while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. “It’s shocking, and there’s no outrage, none, zero. It’s like, ‘Oh yeah, okay, we’ll just take $4 billion of public money and we’ll settle, and then it’ll be gone.’ No, we want answers.”
Manly served as lead counsel for victims abused by USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar and former USC gynecologist George Tyndall. His firm, Manly, Stewart & Finaldi, is one of several firms that are not part of the L.A. County settlement. The first trial for his cases is set to begin this month.
In a letter addressed to U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli, Manly wrote that he wanted to see the U.S. Attorney’s Office conduct an “immediate investigation” into any federal crimes committed by staff within the L.A. County Probation Department, which is responsible for overseeing the juvenile facilities where much of the alleged abuse took place.
“The sad and unbelievable truth is these camps were dens of sexual predation where LA County probation officers in charge of helping these children get on track turned them into human sex toys,” the Aug. 4 letter stated. “The lack of interest in prosecution of those literally engaged in a massive human trafficking operation where thousands of vulnerable children were savaged sexually reeks of politics, corruption and a malignant indifference to the children.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
The deluge of litigation against the county is rooted in a change in state law, known as AB 218, which gave victims of childhood sexual abuse a new window to sue their abuser. Since then, the county, along with many school districts, have been flooded with lawsuits, some dating back to the 1950s.
A county spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The county has said in the past they’ve taken many steps to try to prevent abuse in recent years, including strengthening the vetting of foster parents and probation staffers and winding down the use of group homes, where some of the alleged abuse took place.
County officials have said it has been nearly impossible to defend themselves against these cases because many of the records were discarded long ago. Prosecuting those cases has been similarly difficult, as many victims, who were children at the time of the abuse, never knew the first names of their abusers. The perpetrators are usually identified in the lawsuits as some variation on John Doe, with few identifying details.
Since the flood of lawsuits began, county officials referred only two of the cases to the District Attorney’s Office for investigation: Altovise Abner, a probation supervisor who was investigated for having sex with a minor at a camp in 2006, and Thomas Jackson, a former probation official who was accused by more than two dozen women of sexually abusing them when they were minors. Jackson resigned in 2023 after three decades with the county.
The cases against both were outside the statute of limitations, according to a memo by the DA’s office explaining the decision not to prosecute.
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