A Los Angeles County probation official was arrested Tuesday afternoon for accusing him of smuggling drugs into a teenager's hall where a teenager died of drug overdose in 2023, prosecutors said.
Michael Solis, 59, conspired to sell Xanax with two teenagers to be held in the Barry J. Nidorf teenage hall in Sylmar between May 2023 and August 2023, according to a criminal complaint filed last week.
Solis allegedly began conspiring to sell the drugs on May 14, 2023, five days after the 18-year-old detainer Bryan Diaz died in the same building due to a fentanyl overdose, court records show.
Los Angeles County, in any case, it is unreasonable to traffic illegal drugs to teenagers, let alone exploit vulnerable youths who need guidance and support as government employees. “Atty. Nathan Hochman said in a statement. “Probation officials are responsible for the protection, health and safety of teenagers under their care.” My office will not tolerate this abuse of power, which harms youth, undermines recovery and makes our communities safer. ”
The Los Angeles County Department of Probation did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It is unclear whether Solis has a legal representative or when he will be arraigned.
A spokesman for the District Attorney’s Office declined to say whether Diaz’s death triggered an investigation into Solis, who would face up to three years in prison if he was convicted.
In the months before Diaz's death, there were increased drug use in Nidorf's safe youth treatment facilities.
In April 2023, the Los Angeles County Inspector General's Office detailed two incidents in which young people were taken to local medical facilities or resurrected with Narcan after fentanyl overdose. According to the Inspector General’s report, searches for the March 2023 searches, pills tied with fentanyl and units that “seem to be fentanyl appear to be two big constraints of fentanyl”.
Diaz died on May 9, 2023. Five days later, Solis began conspiring to bring Xanax to jail in Nidorf. Court archives say he was sent to the camera twice, giving one to the teenager (only identified as “Accomplice A”) and was considered a drug inside Nidorf Hall.
The complaint said Solis was a teenager who was nicknamed “Old Boy” on the phone recorded by law enforcement, and they charged up to $400 per drug.
Court records show that the business collapsed in August 2023 when “Accomplice A” was captured by 106 Xanax pills in Nidolph Hall.
“The department has no space for any violation of public trust and endangering the safety and well-being of our youth,” Chief Probation Officer Guillermo Viera Rosa said in a statement Tuesday. “We commend District Attorney Nathan Hochman for the actions taken and a strong commitment to keeping employees at the highest level of professionalism, integrity and accountability.”
Solis was first under scrutiny in October 2023 after another safe youth treatment resident Nicholas Ibarra was charged with bringing drugs into the facility. Ibarra told two probation officers – Reggie Torres and David Corona that he could identify the officers who brought the drugs to the facility, according to two officers, Tom Yu.
Yu said Torres and Corona were both on administrative leave shortly after conducting an “incomplete investigation”.
“My guys are illegal – essentially harassing them, they're working in a hindrance,” Yu said. “Solis is the target of the investigation.”
He has not responded to Yu's allegations since the probation department first filed in 2023.
The charges are the latest in a series of criminal investigations against probation officials. Earlier this year, the California Attorney General's office investigated the so-called “gladiator” battle in Donny's Los Padrinos Junior Hall, leading to the prosecution of 30 officers. A probation supervisor also pleaded guilty in a misdemeanor attack in February a few years after he was published in February.
