The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the largest sexual abuse solution in U.S. history on Tuesday, agreeing to pay victims $4 billion to abuse the county magistrate’s teenage facilities and foster homes.
The vote was the culmination of years of battles by the victims, who argued that no one paid the price for the rampant sexual abuse they said they had suffered in county custody. The settlement includes nearly 7,000 claims, most of which involve abuse from the 1980s to the 2000s.
“I would never imagine the people hired to be a safety net and abuse the most vulnerable in this way or will abuse their posts and powers,” said director Kathryn Barger. “It angered me.”
Thousands of claims tell the story of a county government that barely screens for abusers, making young people a massive network of facilities for hunting sites for predators. The victim said staff were rarely disciplined for preying on vulnerable children.
“We must remember that those who are compensated are horrible victims of abuse and rape,” said Adam Slater, the chief plaintiff attorney for the settlement. “This will hopefully provide them with a certain ability to close and continue their lives.”
Settlement dwarfs the most notorious sexual abuse settlement. The price of the Boy Scout settlement is $2.46 billion. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has paid about $1.5 billion to Catholic priests who abuse victims. The victims of USC gynecologist George Tyndall received $1.1 billion, and Michigan State paid $500 million to victims of team doctor Larry Nassar.
Los Angeles County, with a budget of about $48 billion, said he would pay for the massive settlement fees by taking out bonds and running out of its rainy day funds. All the money will be provided to victims over the next five years, and the county is expected to pay bonds over the next 25 years.
“We will pay hundreds of millions of dollars to invest in communities, parks, libraries, beaches, public social services until 2050,” said Fesia Davenport, CEO of La County.
Davenport said the county has taken several steps to prevent abuse, including strengthening scrutiny for foster parents and probation staff and ending the use of group homes.
Supervisors approved the solution 4-0, while Lindsey Horvath was absent.
Supervisor Holly Mitchell said Tuesday she wanted to make it easier for workers accused of sexual abuse, while Supervisor Janice Hahn proposed the idea of tied the salary of department heads, in part because their jobs hit the alleged abuse.
“They have to feel that this is the rest of them,” Hahn said.
The historic vote was the first day of about 55,000 county workers entering the two-day strike, accusing the county of slow contract negotiations and bringing insignificant offers to the negotiating table. Davenport said that considering the sexual abuse solution, an estimated $2 billion in wildfire costs and the Trump administration’s threat to cut millions of dollars in federal funds would be reckless.
Slater's company represents about 3,500 victims. Slater said the money will start in January.
This historic settlement stems from Bill 218, a state bill of 2020 that makes childhood sexual abuse victims even if the regulations have expired. For Los Angeles County, which operates dozens of facilities that restrict and care for teenagers, the law has begun a large number of lawsuits, but it has not stopped.
Thousands of people describe sexual abuse in the now-closed Maclaren Children's Center, a county-run home for foster youth, currently notorious for those who are taking care of their care. A report found that the facility has been in decades without criminal background checks on its employees.
Supervisor Hilda Solis said: “The system is too lax.
Jimmy Vigil, a 45-year-old mental health case manager, said he repeatedly abused him in Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall, where he was imprisoned as a teenager. Vigil, who sued the county and was expected to get money from the settlement, was later sent to a camp in Lancaster, where another staff member forced all the boys to masturbate in the control room. Virgil said the boy who ejaculated should have yelled “bingo”.
Virgil said he landed alone when he complained.
“These people should go to jail,” Virgil said. “There is no money in the world that can remove what they do, and that will remove people from people's memory.”
