One day after the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved an $828 million settlement with 414 plaintiffs claiming they were victims of childhood sexual abuse in probation camps, attorneys in the case Wednesday called for more investigation into allegations that some plaintiffs in a separate settlement were paid to make false claims.
Attorney Courtney Thom, a former Orange County prosecutor of sexual assault cases, said even before the Los Angeles Times broke a story about some plaintiffs allegedly being paid to make false claims to get payouts under a state law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on childhood sexual abuse, her firm was raising red flags about the fraud.
“This is plain fraud. For months, if not years before the LA Times exposed this story of false claims paid out by the county, we called out these claims openly numerous times in court,” Thom said. “And when the Board of Supervisors was confronted with this scandal publicly their response was to attack the victims. … Why did the county do no due diligence to investigate those claims? This isn’t normal. And we’ve never seen it. This is fraud and corruption on the highest level, and it is a stain on our profession.”
Thom said her firm deposed “dozens of former and current probation officials. … The county deposed no one. … We exposed the fact the county knew about the sexual abuse of our clients and did nothing. … They just passed the trash and moved the abuser and did nothing. … It became clear that no one in the county gave a damn about the children entrusted to them.”
The $828 million settlement approved Tuesday was on top of an earlier $4 billion settlement reached on behalf of roughly 11,000 claimants. The earlier settlement has already led to financial consequences for the county, including curtailments in spending and many county departments coping with 3% budget cuts during the current fiscal year. Some county services are also undergoing reductions.
The various claims involved in the settlements were the result of AB 218, which temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on allegations of childhood sexual abuse. The claims included in the two settlements involve allegations dating back as far as 1959, targeting workers at the county Probation and Children and Family Services departments.
County officials said that in light of allegations that some plaintiffs may have made fraudulent damages claims, every individual abuse claim involved in both settlements will be carefully reviewed. Every claim will be vetted, with individual plaintiffs being required to provide a “detailed, multi-page written factual summary, under penalty of perjury, of the alleged misconduct and resulting harms.”
“The system created by AB 218 is inherently vulnerable to fraud, but the county established fraud protections from the beginning of the settlement discussions and has now strengthened the review process to further ensure that money goes only to the true victims of abuse,” Board of Supervisors Chair Kathryn Barger said in a statement. “Our settlements balance our obligation to compensate victims and treat their experiences with compassion with the need to put strong protections in place to protect taxpayers from fraud.”
The Board of Supervisors recently directed its attorneys to investigate allegations that some people included in the $4 billion settlement of sex abuse claims were paid to file lawsuits and become plaintiffs in the litigation.
The investigation follows a Los Angeles Times report finding that some plaintiffs in the sweeping sex abuse settlement were paid by vendors to sue the county, and in at least two cases, fabricate claims so they could become plaintiffs.
According to The Times, the plaintiffs in question were all represented by Downtown LA Law Group, or DTLA, which had more than 2,700 cases involved in the abuse settlement.
The law firm categorically denied paying anyone to sue, and said no representatives of the firm were ever authorized to offer people money. The firm told The Times it has hired an outside company to investigate if any false claims were made.
“The allegations in this story are extremely concerning and describe conduct that is contrary to our firm’s values,” the firm told The Times in a statement. “While we do not believe they are accurate, we are taking them seriously.”
According to The Times, its investigation found seven plaintiffs who said they were paid by “recruiters” for a law firm to become involved in litigation against the county.
Speaking at Wednesday’s news conference with Thom and other attorneys, Akelia Jefferson — the first plaintiff in the abuse case against the county — said she was one of “the first survivors in Camp Scott to come forward. … I felt that I needed to come forward and say something about it.”
She added, “What happened to me … was a nightmare. … What happened to me happened to so many other young girls like me.”
She said her parents were teens when she was born so she was raised by her grandmother and eventually found herself in the probation department camp.
“I was sexually abused at the hands of a guard for years,” she said. “Yesterday’s settlement of our cases proves there are real victims, real trauma and a real need for government to step up and protect the children of Los Angeles.”
Attorney Gregory Yates said when Jefferson first approached him for legal representation he suspected it was “probably an underbelly of what was going on,” and as he investigated he found more plaintiffs with claims.
“What Akelia did was open the floodgates and gave voice to thousands of victims of childhood sexual abuse,” Yates said. “Akelia was the first to step forward heroically and bravely to break her anonymity in 2022.”
Her claim led to the discovery of “an explosion of abuse that was covered up by LA County,” Yates said.
Yates said a “cabal of probation officers at LA County facilities and camps would lie in wait for each new crop” of children.
“And the probation officer with the most seniority would have his pick of the crop,” he said. “How much more craven and despicable and perverted can you get?”
Attorney John Manley said he watched the Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday “with dismay and horror and disgust” at some of the comments made about the settlement.
“Let’s be clear, we’re not here because the legislature allowed” the statute of limitations to be extended, Manley said. “We’re here because of a 35-year failure of the county and the county Board of Supervisors past and present and the probation department and probation union…”
Manley said he “raised the fraud issue repeatedly in front of the court … and not only did they do nothing about it they took the guardrails off.”
In a statement earlier this month announcing the latest settlement, county officials said any plaintiffs suspected of submitting fraudulent damages claims “will be required to make a substantiated showing before an independent allocator, who may require additional proof of claims.”
Any claim found to be fraudulent will result in the plaintiff being removed from the settlement process, meaning they will not receive any money, county officials said.
“The conduct alleged to have occurred by the DTLA firm is absolutely outrageous and must be investigated by the appropriate authorities,” County Counsel Dawyn R. Harrison said in a statement. “Not only does it undermine our justice system, it also deprives legitimate claimants of just compensation.
“While both settlements have protections to ensure that this is not a windfall for fraudulent plaintiffs, legislative protections must be put in place to ensure unscrupulous lawyers don’t get windfalls at the expense of survivors of abuse.”
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