According to a lawsuit filed Thursday by dozens of former residents, a Los Angeles County-run shelter meant to be a safe place for children while they await placement in foster homes was for decades a den for sexual predators among the staff — and some residents — who preyed on children as young as 5.
At a press briefing, some of the more than 30 plaintiffs wept and trembled as they described abuse and some victims’ efforts to flee the hall’s barbed-wire fences and guarded gates. According to the lawsuit, a 6-year-old kid was molested by a male staffer in 1990, who then put the boy in a closet as punishment for screaming during the abuse.
Jonathan Wright, 39, proudly displayed the T-shirt he received as an 8-year-old when he first visited MacLaren Children’s Center in El Monte. He said that a physician there sexually molested him.
“To this day, I despise being around physicians,” he sobbed.
According to the lawsuit, staff members typically turned a blind eye to the facility’s attacks and abuses, where children were often held in solitary confinement, drugged, and strapped in chairs.
Unless victims of sexual assault give their permission, our reporters will not name them.
Octavia Evans claimed she was abused when she was 12 years old. She got the confidence to report it to her coworkers, who said they passed it on to their boss, who happened to be her attacker.
“We were children, and we trusted you to care for us — not hurt us,” Evans, now 36, spoke to any former MacLaren employees who might have watched the news conference.
The case, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Thursday, asks for a jury trial and unspecified damages. It’s the second lawsuit filed recently against the county over allegations of sexual abuse of foster children at the facility, commonly known as MacLaren Hall.
Attorneys for the victims claim they have more than 200 clients who claim to have been abused at the facility. According to the lawsuit, county authorities inside and outside of the hall either knew or should have known about the abuse and did nothing.
According to the lawsuit, “MacLaren Hall became a dumping ground for society’s most vulnerable, including minors without parents or minors whose parents were unable to care for them.” “Children were often taken from abusive parents and placed at MacLaren Hall, only to be assaulted again.”
The institution first opened in 1961 and was run by the county’s probation department before being taken over by the county’s Department of Children and Family Services in 1976. Before it closed in 2003, the hall had seen over 20,000 children.
Eight women and four men filed a lawsuit in May, including one who claims he was attacked by a male staff member in a lavatory when he was 5 years old in 1988.
Children and Family Services stated in a statement that the charges “would be properly evaluated,” but declined to comment on the case.
“Our department has several protections in place to protect children in our care and hold those who break laws and rules accountable,” according to the statement.
After the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California and other organizations filed class-action lawsuits alleging inhumane treatment of employees and a failure to investigate abuse claims, MacLaren was shut down in 2003. According to an ACLU investigation, the situation is “Dickensian,” with children who have been ignored to the point of “government-sponsored child abuse.”
The lawsuit against Los Angeles County was settled with the ACLU, and some victims were compensated.
Prior to 2001, MacLaren did not undertake background checks on its employees. According to attorney Adam P. Slater, 17 personnel were discovered to have a criminal history that should have barred them from being employed once the checks were implemented.
According to Slater, “MacLaren Hall had more in common with a child prison” than a secure environment for children because of the way it was handled.
Since a California law went into effect in 2020 the plaintiffs were eligible to file claims because the statute of limitations for childhood sex abuse victims was suspended for three years.
When a child victim reaches the age of 40, the statute of limitations for filing some criminal sexual abuse charges in California expires. Requests for comment on whether law enforcement has launched any criminal investigations on behalf of MacLaren victims were not immediately returned by the sheriff’s department, which polices county facilities, and the district attorney’s office.
According to the lawsuit, the victims’ counsel had been unaware of a criminal investigation involving MacLaren since the mid-1980s, when five employees were jailed on suspicion of child molestation and drug sales to youngsters.
