California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Monday announced charges against 30 detention services officers who allegedly oversaw “gladiator fights” between minors at a juvenile detention facility.
This development comes after leaked video footage showing one of the fights went viral on social media. The officers are facing a slew of charges, including “child endangerment and abuse, conspiracy, and battery,” according to a press release.
The indictment alleges that the officers allowed and, in some instances, encouraged 69 fights to occur between youths at Los Padrinos during the period from July 1, 2023, to December 31, 2023. The indictment stems from an investigation launched by the California Department of Justice after video footage of one of the so-called "gladiator fights" leaked in January 2024. Twenty-two of the 30 officers were arraigned today at Los Angeles Superior Court. The remaining officers will be arraigned on April 18, 2025.
Bonta said correctional officers “have a duty to ensure the safety and well-being of those under their care” and that the defendants “did just the opposite – overseeing ‘gladiator fights’ when they should have intervened.”
The video footage showed multiple youths taking turns punching and kicking a teenager in a “day room” in the facility. The officers can be seen standing around doing nothing to stop the assault. Some of them laughed and shook hands with the juveniles involved in the violence.
30 California correctional officers are facing charges of child endangerment and abuse, conspiracy, and battery after it was revealed that they held "gladiator fights" among minors in a juvenile detention facility. pic.twitter.com/v9YK4CoLm6
— Jeff Charles, The Nullifier🏴 (@jeffcharlesjr) March 4, 2025
The Los Angeles Times obtained a copy of the video after the 17-year-old victim’s attorney requested that he be released before his upcoming trial because he was not safe at the facility.
The indictment alleges that the officers not only allowed the fights to occur – they actively supported it. One inmate suffered a broken nose and head trauma.
The officers allegedly doctored reports to give alternate explanations for the injuries the juveniles sustained from the fights. Officer Taneha Brooks in a report characterized one of the more severe assaults as a mutual fight that she stopped after intervening. Yet, the video footage clearly shows her doing nothing.
Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall has an extensive history of safety violations and operational problems, according to the Los Angeles Times.
California’s Board of State and Community Corrections ordered Los Padrinos closed late last year after it repeatedly failed inspections and was deemed “unsuitable” to house youths. The majority of the juveniles incarcerated in Los Angeles County are housed in Los Padrinos because the board previously shuttered the county’s other two juvenile halls — Barry J. Nidorf in Sylmar and Central Juvenile Hall in L.A. — following increases in violence and instability in the halls exacerbated by a staffing crisis.
The probation department refused the state’s order to close Los Padrinos, and state board members have said they don’t know what legal recourse they have to enforce it. The California Attorney General’s office has previously declined to address the issue.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Miguel Espinoza is weighing a request from the L.A. County public defender’s office to remove all of its clients from Los Padrinos, based on the board’s finding that its unsafe for youths.
“The probation system and its underlying culture are broken,” Los Angeles County Public Defender Ricardo Garcia said in a statement Monday. “Accountability for those who have failed to protect our youth is long overdue—there is no justice in a system that abuses the very youth it is entrusted to care for.”
The LA County Probation department released a statement in which it claimed “accountability is a cornerstone of our mission, and we have zero tolerance for misconduct of any peace officers, especially those dealing with young people in our system.”
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