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Los Angeles County is poised to pay around $2.7 million to teenagers who have launched a vast criminal investigation into what is called “gladiator fights” within a facility where violent assaults in the juvenile hall are troubled.
A December 2023 beat video filmed on CCTV showed 16-year-old Jose Rivas Barilas was subsequently attacked by six boys at Los Padrinos Juvenir Hall while a probation officer was standing vaguely. Each young man attacked Rivas Barilla for a few seconds before returning to breakfast. The two officers were later identified as longtime probation staff, Taneha Brooks and Shawn Smyles, who shook their arms with encouragement and laughter.
“It’s the video that made this unique,” said Jamal Tooson, a lawyer with Rivas Barillas, who said his client had a broken nose and a traumatic brain injury. “The whole world has come to witness the atrocities happening with children at the hands of the Los Angeles County Probation Department.”
The video, first reported by the Times, prompted a criminal investigation by the state attorney general’s office, later claiming 30 probation officers, including Brooks and Smile, allowing and encouraging fights among teens within the county’s juvenile hall. Atty, California. General Rob Bonta called the coordinated brawl a “Gladiator Fight,” and said CCTV reviews of his office announced the 69 battles that were chaotic six months after the Hall opened in July 2023.
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Video obtained by the LA Times shows the December 2023 incident, allowing staff to allow at least six young people to hit and kick the 17-year-old.
On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors votes on whether to approve a $2.67 million settlement with Rivas Barilla and her mother Heidi Barilla Remus.
According to a general summary of the “corrective action plan,” the probation department must generate before a large settlement, authorities were unable to review CCTV videos, and were too long to transport the teen to the hospital and notify the family.
According to the plan, CCTV Monitor “is regularly staffed and is committed to conducting random audits of recordings. A spokesman for the probation department did not respond to requests for comment.
According to the allegations filed with the county, shortly after Rivas Barilas arrived at Downey Juvenile Hall, Brooks requested that he find out about his gang affiliation. Brooks said he heard that Latinos Rivas Barilla, from the “Canoga” gang and “wanted him to fight” before overseeing other boys who were black.
The description of a teenager forced to fight by probation officers after the video made headlines escaped from Rospadrino. The teen told the Times in March that Los Padrinos officials would reward fast food “bounties,” in-n-out, box in the Box, box in the Box and McDonald’s if he beats children who cheated. A teenager who was previously housed in the same unit as Rivas Balira said the staff would also organize the fight when someone who was thought to be affiliated with a gang that didn’t get along with the young people inside, arrives.
“We get a new kid. He’s from the hood. There’s another hood here. We’ll keep all the fights out of the way,” he said at the time. “They were setting it up to take control of the situation.”
Another teenager was identified as John (Lohjk) Doe in a court application and claimed that he was escorted to the cabin by officers shortly after his arrival in Los Padrinos in 2024. The officers were identified only by Santos’s surname, according to the lawsuit, and had seen Doe attack the youth in the dayroom saying, “You have 11 seconds (11) seconds.”
On another occasion, the same officer threatened Pepper Spray Doe if he didn’t fight another young man for 20 seconds. The teens who fought claimed they were given more time from the extra TV and their cells.
After the teenager told a female officer about the coordinated brawl between the two, he was transferred to solitary confinement, the lawsuit alleges.
James, a staff writer for the Times, contributed to this report.
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