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Thousands of documents that could contain important details about rampaging childhood sexual abuse within the disabled Santa Clarita detention camp, including so-called “grooming drawings,” remained scattered throughout the facility and were not handed over to victims’ attorneys.
As part of preparing for the looming June trial, lawyers for law firm Manly, Stewart and Finaldy visited Camp Scott on April 15th.
The facility has records that the county should have been handed over to the company more than a year ago through its discovery, said Attorney Courtney Tom, whose name is around 150 civil cases alleging sexual abuse by county probation staff.
“I can understand my shock when I walked around a place where my client was raped as a child.
Tom said he discovered thousands of paper complaints, a locked file cabinet labeled “HR File Camp A-W,” and a painting that Thomas Jackson believed to have signed.
The drawings included in the court filings appeared to be signed by “Jackson. T” with the name “Tami” blocking large orange letters.
Attorney James Sargent, who represents the county and accompanied Tom for the tour last week, called her claim “inflammatory and false.”
“They want to air what they consider dirty laundry,” Sgt.
He also didn’t draw, he said. Tami Wilson, a former camp supervisor, told him he recalled being given hand-drawn cards by the young man, he wrote in his court application.
The county announced earlier this month that it planned to pay $4 billion to resolve 7,000 alleged sexual abuse claims inside the county’s juvenile facilities and foster parents. The settlement is considered to be the biggest sexual abuse settlement in US history – arising from Congressional Bill 218, a 2020 state law that gave victims of childhood sexual abuse a new window into filing civil lawsuits against predators and agencies who allegedly hired them.
A handful of prominent companies, including Manly, Stewart and Finaldy, refused to participate in the settlement and filed continued lawsuits.
In the aftermath of AB 218, state legislators introduced several bills to help governments and school districts deal with financial fallouts from the flood of lawsuits.
One of these bills, SB 577, is set for Tuesday’s hearing. Senator John Laird, author of the bill, said the law aims to “restore balance” and reduces the financial impact on public institutions while maintaining the right to litigation.
County lawyers argue that changes to state law are one of the reasons for such catastrophic financial sacrifices. This is because many of the records they need to fight cases from decades ago have long gone. Attorney John Manley claimed that his company flew in the face of what he saw at Camp Scott.
The county “we’re telling everyone in Sacramento that they don’t have documents,” Manly said. “We need to be able to share this with lawmakers.”
Riff agreed to the county’s request that the video from Camp Scott inside remains confidential for now due to security risks, but he instructed both sides to try to find common ground as to whether certain videos could be published. Camp Scott has not been used to house young people for years, but Sgt. writes in a filing that could soon change.
LA County Superior Court Judge Miguel Espinoza ordered the county to prepare to close the Los Padrinos boys hall (the county’s last remaining boys hall).
“The youth in Los Padrino need to go somewhere right now. If there are people in Camp Scott, publishing photos and videos can be very harmful,” Sgt wrote.
Tom noted that both reporters and television crews are allowed to broadcast footage shot inside the camp, including the 2001 documentary “Camp Scott Lock-Up.”
“The LA Times was there for the photo,” Tom said. “MTV filmed more videos than we did.”
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