Los Angeles County approves $4 billion payout to settle sexual abuse claims at juvenile facilities

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles County officials on Tuesday approved a $4 billion payout to settle nearly 7,000 claims of sexual abuse in juvenile facilities since 1959.

The agreement reached on April 4 far surpasses a $2.6 billion settlement reached in 2022 with the Boy Scouts of America that was the largest aggregate sexual abuse settlement in U.S. history at the time.

The county Board of Supervisors voted to approve the deal that settles lawsuits filed by thousands of people who alleged they were mistreated and sexually abused in foster care and juvenile detention facilities.

The plaintiffs were able to sue because of a California law that took effect in 2020 and suspended the statute of limitations for childhood sex abuse victims to bring cases for three years.

“While no amount of money can erase the horrors that they endured, this agreement acknowledges the profound harm inflicted on thousands of children over the course of decades,” Adam Slater, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, said in a statement Tuesday.

Many of the claims involved the MacLaren Children’s Center, which was closed in 2003. The facility, which was intended to be a safe space for children awaiting placement in foster homes, opened in 1961 and was overseen by probation officials until it was placed under the county’s Department of Children and Family Services in 1976.

One man said he was sexually abused by a physician at the facility when he was 8 years old, while another said he was assaulted by a male staff member in a bathroom when he was 5. Children were routinely placed in solitary confinement, drugged and restrained in chairs at the facility, according to court papers filed by plaintiffs.

“On behalf of the County, I apologize wholeheartedly to everyone who was harmed by these reprehensible acts,” Fesia Davenport, the county’s chief executive, said in an April statement.

Approval of the massive payout by Los Angeles County comes at a time when the nation’s largest county — home to about 10 million residents — is facing a tightening bind of financial obligations on its $49 billion annual budget.