More than 130 former detainees from San Bernardino County juvenile detention facilities have filed a lawsuit alleging they were sexually abused while in custody as part of a systemic culture allowed to flourish for nearly 30 years.
Read more Orange County scores and player stats for Saturday, May 30
The lawsuit, filed May 15 in San Bernardino Superior Court, details dozens of allegations of rape, sodomy, groping and other forcible acts of molestation against 136 plaintiffs, both males and females, from 1996 through 2024. Midway during that period, the county’s central juvenile hall in San Bernardino was substantially remodeled and reopened in June 2011 as the Central Valley Juvenile Detention and Assessment Center.
It is the second lawsuit to be filed in the past month against the county alleging rampant sexual abuse in juvenile detention facilities. A federal lawsuit was filed May 4 on behalf of 10 former San Bernardino Juvenile Hall detainees who allege they were sexually abused by staff more than 20 years ago. It names the county and up to 100 unnamed adult guards, counselors and supervisors as defendants.
The plaintiffs in the latest suit, mostly now in their 30s, allege the abuse occurred at San Bernardino Juvenile Hall/Central Valley Juvenile Detention and Assessment Center, the San Bernardino Youth Justice Center, and the High Desert Juvenile Detention and Assessment Center in Apple Valley.
Attorney Doug Rochen, who represents the plaintiffs, said he plans to file a second lawsuit against the county soon on behalf of another 139 clients alleging they also were sexually abused in San Bernardino County juvenile detention facilities. He said the number of plaintiffs shows that the problem is systemic, cultural and longstanding, and he is hopeful the litigation will prompt the county to implement major reforms.
“When you have hundreds of people, it’s no longer about the bad apples, it’s about the bad farmers who allowed those apples to grow on their trees,” said Rochen, with the law firm DiCello Levitt.
San Bernardino County spokesperson Janelle Needham said the county does not comment on active litigation.
Rochen filed another lawsuit with similar allegations against Riverside County in October 2025 on behalf of six former detainees claiming that, from 2000 to 2012, they were sexually abused at juvenile detention facilities in Riverside, Murrieta and Indio.
The Riverside County Probation Department, which oversees operations and staffing at the county’s juvenile detention facilities, declined to comment.
“As this case moves through the legal process, we are limited on the information we can provide. The safety, security, and dignity of youth in our care remain a top priority,” said Kevin Slusarski, spokesperson for the Riverside County Probation Department, in an email. “The Probation Department takes any allegations of harm towards youth in our care seriously and is committed to maintaining an accountable environment of high professional standards for all employees.”
Change in state law
The lawsuits emerge amid mounting scrutiny of Southern California juvenile detention facilities over allegations of widespread sexual abuse by staff. Most of the allegations surfaced after a change in state law in 2020 that dramatically expanded rights for child sex abuse victims to sue.
California law allows survivors to file civil suits until age 40, or within five years of discovering psychological harm caused by the abuse. Lawmakers further expanded the law with Assembly Bill 452, which eliminates the statute of limitations for childhood sexual assaults that occurred on or after Jan. 1, 2024, allowing survivors to sue alleged abusers and institutions at any time.
In 2025, Los Angeles County agreed to a historic $4 billion settlement involving thousands of claims of sexual abuse in juvenile halls and foster care facilities dating back decades.
On Friday, May 29, sexual abuse survivors and survivor advocates gathered outside Assemblymember Tina McKinnor’s district office in Los Angeles to protest efforts backed by Los Angeles County officials to roll back survivor rights in the wake of the 6,800 alleged sexual abuse cases tied to L.A. County juvenile detention facilities.
They called on McKinnor and other state legislators to “reject any effort to weaken rights granted to survivors” and instead demand a full investigation into decades of alleged sexual abuse at L.A. County juvenile detention facilities.
San Bernardino allegations
In the most recent suit against San Bernardino County, the plaintiffs claim they were coerced through threats, intimidation and abuse of authority, while supervisors ignored complaints, concealed misconduct and failed to enforce safeguards designed to prevent abuse. The complaint further alleges officials violated state and federal laws, enabling a culture in which sexual assaults and retaliation occurred with impunity against vulnerable youths in county custody.
Read more Victor Wembanyama, Spurs dethrone Thunder to reach NBA Finals
In one of the more recent cases, a plaintiff who is now 19 alleges that while in custody in 2024 at the San Bernardino Youth Justice Center a female corrections officer sexually assaulted him in a storage room on two occasions, forcing her hands down his pants and masturbating him. She told him not to tell anyone, and attempted to bribe him with extra snacks and outside food, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit also notes the 2013 arrest and subsequent conviction of probation corrections officer Latavia Davis, a defendant in the lawsuit, on suspicion sexually assaulting a detained male juvenile, who is a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
Davis, a resident of Menifee, pleaded no contest in January 2015 and was sentenced to 180 days in county jail under “converted confinement,” court records show. Converted confinement is less restrictive than jail lockup, and can be home confinement and/or electronic monitoring, among other things.
Davis’ victim alleges that in 2012, when he was 16, Davis came into his cell and touched his penis and tried coercing him to perform oral sex on her, but he didn’t know how, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges Davis was “very aggressive in her actions,” noting that she “forced oral copulation on the plaintiff until he was stimulated” and then raped him.
The lawsuit also claims that Davis’ arrest and the ensuing investigation should have alerted county leaders to foreseeable abuse risks, but officials failed to take adequate corrective action or disclose the full scope of the alleged misconduct.
In another case, a plaintiff who is now 31 alleges a probation correctional officer raped her at the San Bernardino Youth Justice Center when she was 13, taking her into a back room where there were no cameras and having intercourse with her without using a condom. He also choked and bit her while raping her and left bite marks on her arm, according to the lawsuit. He also allegedly forced the girl and her cellmate to orally copulate each other as he watched, the lawsuit said.
Another plaintiff, now 34, alleges that around 2005, when he was 14, a female corrections officer masturbated and orally copulated him in a closet at San Bernardino Juvenile Hall on five to 10 occasions.
Sexual abuse survivors and advocates rally outside Assemblymember Tina McKinnor’s district office to oppose efforts to roll back survivor rights on Friday, May 29, 2026. Survivors and advocates demand investigations into decades of alleged abuse tied to county juvenile halls. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
Attorney Dominique Boubion joins sexual abuse survivors and advocates during a rally outside Assemblymember Tina McKinnor’s district office on Friday, May 29, 2026. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
Roxanne Campos is emotional during a rally outside Assemblymember Tina McKinnor’s district office on Friday, May 29, 2026. Survivors and advocates demand investigations into decades of alleged abuse tied to county juvenile halls. (Photo by Drew A. Kelley, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
Another plaintiff, now 35, alleges that when she was 16 and detained at the San Bernardino Youth Justice Center, she was sexually assaulted on 12 separate occasions by male and female probation corrections officers.
A male correctional officer, according to the lawsuit, would take the plaintiff to areas of the facility where there were no security cameras, including the showers, and would expose himself and masturbate while fondling her bare breasts and vagina with his other hand. Additionally, a female correctional officer would often subject her to ungloved body cavity searches, according to the lawsuit.
“Defendant stated that even if she said anything no one would believe her as she was a failure to society,” the lawsuit said.
One former detainee alleges that, while at the San Bernardino Youth Justice Center on multiple occasions from 2000 through 2003, when he was 13 to 15 years old, he was sexually abused by a female guard while in custody. She would enter his room “very angry and aggressive” and force him to masturbate her and touch her breasts while she “forcefully groped his penis,” according to the lawsuit.
One plaintiff claims that in 2007, when she was 16, she was raped by two correctional officers on eight occasions in a restroom at the High Desert Juvenile Detention and Assessment Center in Apple Valley. One would serve as the lookout for the other as they took turns raping her, according to the lawsuit.
And another plaintiff, now 37, alleges that when he was 15 in 2003 and housed at the High Desert Juvenile Detention and Assessment Center in Apple Valley, a guard entered his cell on three occasions and performed oral sex on him. The correctional officer told the plaintiff to “shut his mouth or he would get thrown into solitary confinement,” the lawsuit states.
Read more Mexico beats Australia at Rose Bowl in World Cup warmup