After hundreds of alleged victims came forward about the sexual abuse they endured while in Los Angeles County juvenile detention centers, the NBC4 I-Team found that these problems could be pervasive across the state.
Nearly two decades later, one man spoke for the first time with the NBC4 I-Team about the abuse he says he experienced.
The 28-year-old man, who did not want to be identified, said he was sexually abused by a San Bernardino County probation officer while in a county juvenile facility when he was only 10 years old.
“I didn’t really know what was happening. I just knew that my pants were down and it was all super fast,” the man said.
Get top local stories in Southern California delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC LA's News Headlines newsletter.
“I purposely tried not to get up at night just so that I could avoid seeing him,” the man said.
He is now suing the county of San Bernardino — alleging sexual harassment, sexual assault and negligence. He is one of four people on the complaint.
“There’s a lot of people out there that are starting to sort of starting to rip the scab off their wounds and start dealing with the real ramifications of what they dealt with since they were really small,” ACTS Law attorney Doug Rochen said.
Local
Get Los Angeles's latest local news on crime, entertainment, weather, schools, cost of living and more. Here's your go-to source for today's LA news.
The man said that while he was scared, he was “more mad than anything” because he “felt like I could have done something to protect myself, but looking back, I couldn’t.”
Rochen is serving as the unidentified man’s attorney.
“We've learned through our processes that this kind of harm doesn't just dissipate, it actually gets worse and it festers to a point where it affects the quality of their life,” Rochen said.
Rochen says he represents more than 1,000 people who say they were abused while spending time in juvenile facilities across California — most of which are from LA County.
Rochen says he has seen that the number of cases in all counties is growing as new state laws extend the statute of limitations to file claims for alleged abuse. The window of time is expected to grow even more in the year that follows.
“What that means is if you are abused after January 1, 2024, you will have your lifetime to be able to deal with the real understanding of what happened to you as a child and make a claim at any period of time, even beyond your 40th birthday,” Rochen said.
The man said he still has some healing to do years after his alleged abuse.
“I'm only now realizing that there's a lot of my anger issues, a lot of things that I deal with now and that I'm dealing with now,” he said. “I didn't know, but I guess they could be because of that, and I really didn't know that.”
The I-Team reached out to San Bernardino County about the recent complaint involving the man that spoke with the NBC4 I-Team. A spokesperson says they have not been served with the complaint and have not been able to review it.
“...In light of possible pending litigation, it would not be in the public’s best interests for the County to share any information on this matter at this time,” the spokesperson added.
The man said he decided to come forward for his daughter and any child who may find themselves in the juvenile justice system.
“When I was nine, I was really small, and not that size matters, but I was just I could have been protected in so many ways that I wasn’t,” he said. "You know what I mean? And yeah, I’d like to avoid this happening to any kid.”
