The data requests went out to sheriffs in “multiple major California counties,” including Los Angeles and San Francisco, on Thursday, July 17, the announcement states.

“Removing criminal illegal aliens is this Administration’s highest priority,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. “I look forward to cooperating with California’s county sheriffs to accomplish our shared duty of keeping Californians and all Americans safe and secure.”

The Department of Justice stated it “hopes that California sheriffs will voluntarily produce the requested information,” but also warned that it would “pursue all available means of obtaining the data, including through subpoenas or other compulsory process.”

The new requests mark the latest battle between the federal government and California over their opposing immigration policies.

The state, known for its sanctuary cities and counties, passed a law in 2017, the California Values Act, that largely prohibits cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities without a court order. Many of the most populous counties and major cities, including Los Angeles, have enshrined similar laws and policies locally.

Andrés Kwon, senior policy counsel and organizer with the ACLU SoCal, said the DOJ’s action “opens the possibility for sheriffs across the state to violate, if not the letter, the spirit and intent of the California Values Act.”

The California Attorney General’s Office, in a statement in response to Bondi’s announcement, fired back that it would review the federal agency’s request and “monitor its implementation for compliance with the law.”

“President Trump and his Department of Justice cannot bully our local law enforcement into breaking the law,” the statement reads. “The California Values Act — or SB 54 — ensures that our limited state and local resources are focused on public safety, not immigration enforcement, and promotes vital community trust in local law enforcement.

“SB 54 allows county jails to transfer an individual into ICE custody if ICE presents a criminal arrest warrant for a violation of a federal criminal immigration law, but it does not allow for the wholesale notification to DOJ of individuals housed in county jails, regardless of whether or not they have even been found guilty of a crime.”

Kathryn Barger, chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, said she would work closely with county counsel and the Sheriff’s Department to evaluate the “scope of this request and determine how best to move forward in a manner that protects public safety, respects due process, and complies with all legal requirements.”

“I support the deportation of individuals who are in this country illegally and have committed violent crimes — our laws must be enforced, and public safety must remain a top priority,” she stated. “At the same time, we must take a balanced, compassionate, and lawful approach that upholds state and federal law without creating fear among our immigrant communities who are following the rules and contributing to our county.”

A copy of the letter sent to Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna included a warning suggesting that the U.S. Department of Justice would seek to use the terms of past consent decrees against L.A. County’s jails to ensure it provides the immigration data.

“I also remind you that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is currently subject to multiple judicially enforceable settlement agreements with the Department of Justice that require you to provide access to certain documents and data upon request, including one that requires you to give the Department of Justice ‘full and complete access to the jails’ and to certain jail-related documents and data,” Bondi wrote in her letter to Luna.

The federal agency and Los Angeles County entered into a settlement agreement in 2015 requiring the Sheriff’s Department to implement reforms that would protect prisoners from suicide risks and excessive force within the jails. The enhanced data collection mandated under that agreement does not include anything related to immigration.

Supervisor Hilda Solis said in a statement that Los Angeles County “will not be pressured by the Trump Administration into actions that violate SB 54, the California Values Act, and County policy, or compromise the principles of due process and equal treatment under the law.”

During a press conference Thursday, Luna said he had not officially seen the letter yet and would need to review it with county counsel to determine how LASD responds. The department does not know how many inmates in its custody are undocumented immigrants.

“Because we don’t ask somebody if they’re here legally or illegally, it would be impossible for us to provide a list like that unless we redo our system one way or another,” he said.

He noted that he has already received multiple threatening letters from DOJ stating that he could be arrested criminally if his agency does not assist immigration authorities.

The Sheriff’s Department cooperates with ICE only when it receives a federal arrest warrant signed by a judge, he said. The agency complies fully with the California Values Act and the county’s policy, which “prohibits local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration officials, except under very specific and lawful circumstances,” he said. The agency does not honor requests from ICE to detain individuals for immigration violations.

In 2024, the department received 995 civil detainer requests and, so far this year, 435 from ICE and did not comply with any of them, Luna said.

The department “cannot do our jobs” without the trust of the public, he said.

“And as a matter of fact, that is something that greatly concerns all of us, because we don’t want people to stop calling us when they see something that occurs, or, worse yet, they’re a victim of a crime because they believe that we are involved in some immigration enforcement,” he said.

However, anyone arrested by the agency does have their fingerprints scanned into a federal database and the release dates for inmates are publicly accessible on LASD’s website, he said. Luna also acknowledged that L.A. County does turn over inmates to federal authorities, but only if a court-approved warrant is obtained.

“This isn’t the ice cream vendor, this isn’t the lady making tacos on the street, this is somebody who has committed a violent or serious crime,” Luna said.

Luna also criticized the federal government for sending officers to chase “people around a car wash or Home Depot.” “That’s something we should all be concerned about,” he said.

It is unclear which other counties were contacted by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Neither San Bernardino nor Riverside counties had received any requests from the federal agency. In a statement, San Bernardino County indicated it would “respond accordingly” if it does.

Michael Meiser, 40, of Lancaster pleaded guilty to a felony charge of possession with an intent to distribute as part of a plea agreement signed in June, according to the announcement. The former deputy now faces a sentence of five to 40 years in federal prison.

Meiser was swept up as part of a more than two-year investigation by the FBI and the Sheriff’s Department’s Major Crimes Bureau into a “sophisticated drug smuggling operation involving Mexican Mafia associates inside the County jail system,” according to a prior release by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

He had been with the department for about four years at the time of his arrest in 2024, records showed.

The broader probe led to the county grand jury indictment of 18 individuals, including Meiser, in January. A federal grand jury then indicted Meiser separately on two felony charges in April.

The plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office covers only those charges. A federal gun charge was dropped as part of the deal.

Three additional felony charges are still pending against Meiser in the Los Angeles County case, according to the Superior Court’s website. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in January.

“Corruption and criminal activity will not be tolerated in our justice system — especially within our jails,” District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in February. “Ensuring that our correctional facilities remain secure and free of illicit drugs is crucial to public safety. Those entrusted with upholding the law must be held to the highest standards, and we will aggressively prosecute those who betray that trust.”

In a statement, the Sheriff’s Department indicated that Meiser has been relieved of duty without pay since March 5, 2025.

“The Department holds its personnel to the highest standards of integrity and accountability, and any individual found to have violated that trust will be held fully accountable,” the statement reads. “The Department initiated a comprehensive review of its internal procedures and continues to strengthen operational protocols to prevent illicit substances from entering our jail facilities. These efforts include the use of mail scanners, body scanners, and scent-detection K9s to enhance security and detection capabilities.”

Though the county’s indictment suggests Meiser may have smuggled drugs into the jail on multiple occasions, the deputy’s guilty plea in the federal case is related specifically to an incident in April 2024.

The FBI and the Sheriff’s Department were already monitoring Meiser when one of his relatives received a suspicious $1,500 payment via Cash App on April 24, 2024. Six days later, investigators surveilling Meiser watched as he picked up a package from a woman parked at a Valencia gas station. Meiser backed his BMW up to a parked SUV, took a plastic grocery bag from the woman inside and then placed it in his trunk.

Later that day, he carpooled to work with another deputy and slipped past the security checkpoint at NCCF without any issues. Once inside the parking lot, Meiser took something from his backpack and stashed it in the trunk of a LASD radio car. He then placed his backpack inside the other deputy’s truck and walked to the jail’s gym.

Meiser was seen talking with inmates associated with the Mexican Mafia later that day.

The Sheriff’s Department investigators stopped Meiser as he attempted to leave at the end of his shift and arrested him. In Meiser’s backpack, they found $15,000 in two white envelopes, a loaded handgun, Meiser’s badge and his sheriff’s identification. A search of the radio car uncovered two Pringles cans with roughly a pound of heroin stashed beneath the chips.

Meiser originally caught the attention of investigators probing the broader drug smuggling scheme after he was caught on camera throughout early 2024 talking with an inmate and alleged Mexican Mafia member, Jackie Triplett, through the bars of his cell, according to a the county grand jury indictment.

At one point that February, Triplett, while speaking to an associate on the phone, paused when asked how much to money to send to someone, walked away from the phone, spoke to Meiser for six minutes and then returned to the call to answer the question, according to court filings.

A day after the series of calls in February, county prosecutors allege cameras caught Meiser removing plastic bags from the trunk of a car and then later passing a yellow inmate property bag, bedroll and a basic hygiene kit to Triplett, according to the indictment.

The inmate, after being escorted from his cell by Meiser, was seen “taking unknown items from his pants/boxers and handing it to the inmates in the dayroom,” prosecutors alleged.

Triplett, who has been charged with more than 20 felonies, including extortion and conspiracy, also pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in January.

The Board of Supervisors voted 4-0, with one abstention, at its meeting Tuesday, July 8, to scale up the security at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall and the Barry J. Nidorf Secure Youth Treatment Facility to better detect and deter drugs.

“Youth in Los Padrinos aren’t even allowed to hug their moms out of fear of drugs or contraband being passed, yet drugs keep getting in,” said Supervisor Janice Hahn, who co-authored the motion, in a statement. “We are failing our youth, we are failing our employees, and every day, we risk losing another life to substance use.”

Last week, the District Attorney’s Office charged Alejandro Lopez, 21, of Downey, and Orlando Cuevas, 18, of Long Beach, with felonies for their respective roles in bringing nearly 200 pills of Xanax into Los Padrinos. Investigators witnessed Lopez handing Cuevas a bundle wrapped in electrical tape containing the pills on June 30.

Two days later, one youth and six staff members at Los Padrinos were taken to the hospital July 2 after the staff members responded to a suspected overdose and were exposed to “an unidentified substance.”

The incidents followed the separate arrest of a probation officer suspected of drug trafficking in early June and three other overdoses in April.

“Our probation department is experiencing a drug and contraband crisis unlike any I’ve ever seen and we need to do all that we can to try and combat it,” Hahn said.

The motion, raised by Hahn and Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, directs the Probation Department to install at least one airport-style body scanner at the entrances of the two facilities and to ensure that everyone who enters, including staff members, goes through it. The department also will be required to have drug-sniffing canines at those entrances “during all hours that staff, contracted providers and visitors are entering the facility,” including during shift changes.

The motion further asks the department to consider restricting employees and contractors from bringing in anything beyond necessities that can be contained within a clear bag and to cancel its contract with Student Nest, the company that employed the tutor accused of smuggling in drugs.

“I believe this sends a strong message to all of the organizations that contract with the county that they are responsible for the actions of their employees and that we will have zero tolerance for this kind of behavior in our facilities,” Hahn said.

During the meeting, Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa told the supervisors his department already is at work on several of the motion’s orders. For example, an airport-style body scanner already has been purchased for Los Padrinos and is awaiting delivery. The department did not buy one for Barry J. Nidorf yet because the installation there would require more construction, he said.

“Probation isn’t sitting back and waiting for this board to intervene,” Viera Rosa said. The probation chief credited the work of a new investigative unit within the department for recent arrests.

Probation already spends more on canines than most other counties, but stopped short of having the dogs check every visitor because Viera Rosa said he did not believe the supervisors would tolerate such heavy restrictions.

“I think that’s a sort of change in what our tolerance level is,” he said.

Following the overdose death of 18-year-old Bryan Diaz in May 2023, L.A. County installed razor wire along Los Padrinos’ perimeter and purchased two Tek84 body scanners, according to a statement in January 2024. However, those scanners were not deployed at either facility’s entrance and instead were used only to “clear youth for transportation or when we suspect they may be concealing an object,” said spokesperson Vicky Waters.

The airport-style body scanners the department now is purchasing are separate.

Los Angeles County has been under intense scrutiny to improve the conditions at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall since shortly after the facility reopened in mid-2023. State regulators ordered the county to empty the facility in December, but the county refused to comply, arguing that it had no alternatives.

The Public Defender’s Office challenged the continued use of Los Padrinos on behalf of its clients and a Superior Court judge, following months of hearings, eventually ordered the county to begin depopulating Los Padrinos as soon as possible by transferring youth to other facilities.

The department has struggled to maintain adequate staffing and had hoped that reducing the population by as much as 100 would allow the facility to stabilize.

That plan, however, hit a major roadblock this week. The Board of State and Community Corrections, the regulatory body responsible for California’s juvenile halls, has found that Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall, which it forced to close in 2023, is still out of compliance with state law and cannot be used to house any of the youth from Los Padrinos.

“It is clear that it would not be appropriate to move additional youth from Los Padrinos to Barry J. Nidorf while the facility is unable to meet minimum standards,” BSCC chair Linda Penner said in a statement. “The ongoing and systemic failures at Los Padrinos and Barry J. Nidorf are unacceptable.”

The failed inspection at Barry J. Nidorf from June 24 to July 1 not only bars L.A. County from reopening the juvenile hall portion of the building, it also puts the Secure Youth Treatment Facility, a separate unit within the building that houses youth sentenced for serious crimes, in the state’s crosshairs as well.

The county now is required to submit a corrective action plan describing how it will bring the SYTF back into compliance within 60 days. Even if L.A. County is able to address the issues at Barry J. Nidorf quickly, the BSCC will not vote on whether to deem the facility “suitable” again until September at the earliest.

Superior Court Judge Miguel Espinoza has ordered L.A. County to appear for a July 18 hearing to update him on the status of depopulating Los Padrinos.

Currently, the population at the juvenile hall has increased from about 270 in May to 298 as of Tuesday.

It was stuffy, humid and the air smelled of smoke.

Despite wearing a mask, Sybil Brand Commissioner Haley Broder struggled to breathe as she and another inspector walked through the 2300 housing unit during an October 2024 inspection at Men’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles.

As they left the unit, she broke into a fit of wheezing coughs.

“There had been a flood or something in that area and there was mold everywhere,” she said later in an interview. “Everyone was coughing or had some respiratory issue going on.”

The air quality wasn’t the only issue. Water had been cut off to several of the cells and inmates had turned to filling bags to pass to their neighbors, the inspectors found.

Nearly half of the 26 cells did not have functioning lights. Three more were on the fritz. Discarded meals and trash piled up in the aisle outside the cells and visible insect bites could be seen on the men’s arms and faces throughout the row. Cockroaches openly skittered across the floor.

Inmates hadn’t received kits of basic hygienic supplies since their arrival to the housing unit weeks earlier, they said. Some told the inspectors they used pages from books soaked in water as toilet paper, according to an inspection report.

Broder, a social worker appointed in January 2024 to the county’s Sybil Brand Commission for Institutional Inspections, has worked in war-torn countries, disaster zones and refugee camps around the world. She described her visits to Men’s Central Jail, a facility run by a department with a $4 billion annual budget, over the last year and a half as “horrific.”

“These are some of the worst conditions I’ve ever seen,” she said.

Inhumane conditions well-known

That was a single day in a single unit within Los Angeles County’s most notorious jail. Anywhere else, it may have set off alarm bells. But the conditions in Men’s Central Jail are hardly a secret. In fact, if there is one topic that politicians, advocates and law enforcement unequivocally agree on in Los Angeles County, it is that Men’s Central Jail should no longer exist.

For half a decade, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has agreed that closing Men’s Central Jail is critical, though how exactly that would happen and what — if anything — would replace it have been debated to exhaustion. The supervisors voted 4-1 in June 2021 to set up a team to finally implement the long-promised closure. Estimates at the time suggested it would take about two years to redistribute and reduce the jail’s population enough to shutter the building.

Four years later, the closure team told county leaders in April that it needed another six to nine months to complete its assessment on how to proceed.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna, who describes Men’s Central as the largest mental health institute in the nation, openly calls the facility his department runs “horrible.” He is pushing for the county to build a modern replacement instead, but a majority of the supervisors are adamant they will not build more jails.

“The Department recognizes the aging infrastructure of Men’s Central Jail and the subsequent challenges that are associated with providing modern care in such an environment,” the Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. “It is for this and many other reasons why Sheriff Robert Luna is advocating and proposing to replace the dilapidating facility with a state-of-the-art Care Campus facility, designed to provide rehabilitative services for those individuals remanded to our care.”

Amid the seemingly endless stalemate, thousands of men — many of whom are accused of crimes, but not convicted — continue to live in overcrowded squalor. Some units still utilize triple bunks, or have people sleeping on the floors, according to the commission’s inspections.

While L.A. County officials often lay the blame on the building, Broder and others say much more could be done to alleviate inhumane conditions.

‘People dying in these jails’

The Sybil Brand Commission’s 11 inspections since April 2024 leave no doubt that Men’s Central Jail, opened in 1963, is physically deteriorating, but nearly every inspection also describes instances of neglect and mistreatment.

“We have asked the sheriff nonstop for corrective action plans to see what changes they’re going to implement and what they’re going to do, and we’re not seeing the changes,” Broder said. “The status quo is not acceptable. There are people dying in these jails, there are people being actively hurt by these jails.”

During a visit to one of the overcrowded units in June 2024, commissioners observed inmates covered in rashes and suffering from what appeared to be bacterial staph infections. The men told the commissioners the rashes were getting worse and they hadn’t received any cleaning supplies or medications.

“There is no respect and dignity at Men’s Central Jail whatsoever,” Broder said.

Trash everywhere

Almost every report mentioned excessive trash and dirty environments.

“In one cell, because of malfunctioning doors, the cell had simply been abandoned and entire bunks were filled with trash,” the commissioners wrote in May 2024. Inmates in that unit said they could exit their cells whenever they wanted to, though they did not “for fear of being put on discipline.”

“Incarcerated people complained that they missed out on court dates or yard exercise because they were stuck in a malfunctioning cell,” the commissioners wrote. “Others expressed concern that if there was a catastrophic event, such as an earthquake or fire, they would be unable to exit their cell.”

Inspectors reportedly found rat droppings and rotting food in kitchens and mess halls. Mold was visible during at least half of the visits.

“There was lots of trash and the row was incredibly moldy, with each vent covered in about one foot square of black mold, and black mold stretching down the walls,” commissioners wrote of an overcrowded unit in August 2024. “The incarcerated people expressed concerns about rats, cockroaches and flies. Many of the men had pasted plastic over their vents to prevent rats entering, and some had placed bottles across the front of the cells to alert them should a rat try to enter. “

Commissioners had raised concerns about inmates not receiving kits with soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste in that same unit four months earlier, yet when they asked inmates about it that August, they learned deputies were now conducting “lottery games” for a chance to win a kit.

Supply chain shortage blamed

In a statement, the Sheriff’s Department stated that a “temporary supply chain shortage” had affected the availability of the kits and that it has now been resolved.

“All inmates, regardless of their length of time within a custody facility who are unable to supply themselves with the above listed personal care items, will be provided the needed item upon request,” the department stated. “The Department is dedicated to providing important hygiene supplies, such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, and toilet paper, in order to uphold health and sanitation standards.”

Asked about the significant amounts of mold described in the reports, officials stated that some cases of mold actually may have been “discoloration, water stains or aging paint that requires touch ups.”

“Each housing unit follows a regular cleaning schedule, which is carried out by both custody staff and incarcerated workers, with supervision to ensure that standards are maintained,” the statement reads. “Nevertheless, we take all sanitation concerns seriously. If mold is identified or suspected, it is assessed and addressed by environmental health professionals where necessary.”

Makeshift mop: socks and a handle

The Sybil Brand Commission’s reports describe inmates using their own clothes, towels and makeshift tools to clean their areas and, in some cases, not being given replacements for the sullied items. During an inspection in March this year, commissioners noticed someone had made a mop out of a plastic handle and two pairs of socks to clean the floors. The same problem existed in that unit nearly a year earlier as well.

“The people incarcerated in 5800 dorm complained that cleaning supplies were not sufficient to maintain the dorm in a sanitary condition,” commissioners wrote in May 2024. “The mop was a long plastic handle, but the head of the mop was missing: the folks in the unit used towels or clothes instead. The bucket lacked wheels, and there was no broom.”

In its statement, the Sheriff’s Department said it “routinely provides incarcerated individuals with cleaning supplies to promote sanitation and personal hygiene within the housing units.”

“Over the past year, we’ve strengthened our distribution schedules and enhanced oversight to ensure that essential items, such as soap, disinfectant and cleaning tools, are consistently available,” the statement reads.

The commission’s inspection reports detail pervasive plumbing issues that can leave dozens of detainees with only a few working toilets or showers.

“One individual was not getting his inhaler nor his asthma medication,” commissioners wrote in May 2024. “His cell was without a working toilet. A pipe was broken in his cell and he used his clothes to soak the water up. There was a large amount of mold and mildew in the cell and he complained of the presence of rats and cockroaches.”

During that same inspection, a deputy performing safety checks walked past a noose hanging in a partially obscured cell. When commissioners went to report it to deputies, they found eight officers gathered around a monitor watching pornography. There was a stack of “about eight videos next to the computer monitor.”

No showers for a week

There were multiple instances over the year-and-a-half in which inmates complained they hadn’t been given access to showers by deputies for a week or more.

A May 2025 inspection found a man with a contagious eye infection had been left in his cell in a medical unit for six days “without a phone, without any indoor or outdoor recreation, and no access to reading materials or a shower.”

“This area was isolated, dirty and seemed to be a place where people are thrown into a cell and forgotten about,” commissioners wrote. “LASD reported that they rely on medical staff to determine when someone leaves this area. Nevertheless, a serious problem existed in providing people with humane conditions in this row.”

Sometimes, there isn’t access to drinkable water and bottled water isn’t readily provided. Other times, the few working showers will run nonstop for days or weeks, or only produce scalding temperatures, contributing to the humidity and mold.

“In 4300D, at least three cells lacked any cold water, and the incarcerated people had developed a system, using plastic bottles and strings, of passing cold water from those cells that had it to those that did not,” commissioners wrote last year. “The showers constantly dripping rendering the unit extremely humid. In addition, there was a strong smell of fire burning. There was trash everywhere along the row.”

During a different inspection in October, a unit with 69 men in it had only two working showers and only five working toilets out of 12. Two months later, another unit had only one phone for 100 inmates, limiting access to family members and attorneys.

In a statement, the Sheriff’s Department said it utilizes internal software to “guarantee” that all repairs are completed on time.

“Critical repairs that affect the safety and well-being of the incarcerated individuals are prioritized as emergencies,” the department stated. “MCJ collaborates closely with maintenance personnel and leadership to ensure that urgent repairs are addressed promptly.”

Cameras inoperable

In May, 119 security cameras were simultaneously broken.

Two months earlier, a group of inmates ganged up on a deputy, beating him and stabbing him in the head with a shank. The group then attacked the three officers who came to his rescue. None of it was caught on cameras because several hundred cameras were offline for maintenance that day, too, according to the L.A. Times.

The Sheriff’s Department stated that “technical interruptions” occurred as part of an upgrade to the camera system and its power supply. Once completed, the new supply will better meet the demand of cameras in certain areas, according to the statement.

Commissioners visited the unit where the March attack occurred two days later and found blood on the walls and fire retardant covering the floor and inmates’ personal items. There were no fans brought in, or masks offered to the inmates, who felt they were being retaliated against. The powder moved through the air whenever someone opened a door and the men said they had sore throats and were having trouble breathing.

“Upon receiving the report from the Sybil Brand Commission, we quickly reviewed the findings and took appropriate actions to address their concerns,” the Sheriff’s Department said in its statement. “This included cleanup efforts where needed and ensuring the safety of individuals in the affected areas. Correctional Health Services was notified of the concerns in order to address the medical needs of the incarcerated individuals.”

Fires started to warm food

Elsewhere, fires are started to warm consistently cold food. When the L.A. Times reported on the frequency of the fires in 2023, the Sheriff’s Department took away the batteries that inmates used to power radios and to, in some cases, ignite their makeshift grills.

But the food continued to arrive cold and the smell of smoke never stopped, Broder said. “The solution to that should not be to take away the radios, it should be to give warm food,” she said.

The Sheriff’s Department revealed a new pilot program to ensure meals stay warm during the Sybil Brand Commission’s June meeting. Commissioners had flagged complaints about the food for years.

“There are things that can be done, we’ve seen that,” Broder said. “It’s taken a lot of pushing and a lot of angry articles to make it actually happen.”

Supervisors mostly mum

Only one of the five county supervisors responded to requests for comment. In a statement, Supervisor Hilda Solis agreed with Sheriff Luna that Men’s Central Jail is a “dilapidated facility that must close,” but she reiterated that the county “must not replace one failing jail with another” and instead should invest in improving conditions and expanding programs that prevent incarceration to begin with.

“While the age of Men’s Central Jail contributes to longstanding infrastructure challenges, it does not excuse the broader failures in basic care and custody,” she stated. “No one in our custody should be denied access to clean air, safe living conditions or the most basic hygiene.”

Realizing the vision of closing Men’s Central “requires action and, quite honestly, funding,” she said. The county must “accelerate the expansion of community-based housing and treatment, call on the courts to move people through the system and push for legislation that supports a full continuum of care with enough capacity to meet the demand.”

“At the same time, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department must do more to ensure that conditions inside our existing jails meet minimum standards of health and safety,” she said. “That includes consistent access to cleaning and hygiene supplies, clean clothing, bedding, and meals, as well as prompt responses when living conditions pose a threat to people’s wellbeing.”

The Sheriff’s Department pointed to Sybil Brand Commission reports as evidence of the need for modern correction facilities that rehabilitate, not just temporarily house individuals, and for “continual investment in our Los Angeles County criminal institutions.”

“Failing to properly invest in our system results in the further victimization of individuals who do not qualify for diversion/community placement and subsequently fail to receive a constitutional level of care hindering their overall rehabilitation needs,” the statement reads.

Replacing the building might help with plumbing problems, or air conditioning, but it is not going to “fix any of the problems related to the abject neglect of the people that are there,” said Melissa Camacho, a senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Southern California. The department has a $4 billion budget, but doesn’t allocate enough funds for cleaning or maintenance, she said.

“There are some things that money can help, but the Sheriff’s Department receives enough money from the county, they just need to spend it in custody,” Camacho said.

Report after report has shown that the county could reduce the jail population by funding more pretrial and diversion programs to steer people to mental health, substance abuse and other alternatives to incarceration, she said. A lower population would allow Men’s Central to be closed without a replacement.

“It is so frustrating that everyone knows the problems and yet they are not willing to move the mountain it would take to build up these community services,” Camacho said. “People have gotten numb to the horrors and I don’t know what its going to take to jolt the county out of their paralysis.”

The proposed change, effective July 1, could derail L.A. County’s efforts to increase the number of juveniles it sends to the Pine Grove Youth Conservation Camp as the county desperately looks for any opportunity to reduce the detainee populations at its own struggling juvenile facilities.

Pine Grove’s current policy bars individuals with active asthma, county officials said.

If implemented, the new policy would disproportionately impact juvenile offenders in Los Angeles County, officials said.

“This policy change would have dramatic and devastating effects on youth from Los Angeles County and their opportunity to participate in Pine Grove,” wrote Supervisor Janice Hahn in a motion. “Los Angeles County has a higher than national rate of childhood asthma, and the rate is particularly high in urban neighborhoods along the freeways.”

An attorney whose client at the Barry J. Nidorf Secure Youth Treatment Facility was screened for Pine Grove confirmed that he was told that his client, who has a history of childhood asthma, would only be allowed to participate if he was accepted and grandfathered in before July 1.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation did not respond to a request to comment, and it was unclear what prompted the policy change.

The Board of Supervisors at their June 17 meeting unanimously agreed to send a five-signature opposition letter to the CDCR to urge the department’s leadership to reconsider. Childhood asthma is not a disqualifying factor for becoming an L.A County firefighter and shouldn’t be for Pine Grove either, Hahn wrote in her motion.

Asthma can be misdiagnosed and symptoms may lessen, or disappear, as an individual ages, officials said.

“These aren’t just temporary jobs for youth in the justice system,” Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said. “They’re full career pathways to community service, to good paying jobs, opening doors to forestry and to the fire service.”

State law allows formerly incarcerated firefighters to get their records expunged.

In May, the supervisors took that a step further by creating a new entry-level position within L.A. County Fire specifically to help the formerly incarcerated individuals transition into careers with the agency. Programs like Pine Grove can be life-changing and offer an opportunity for youth with troubled pasts to give back and gain experience in the field, advocates say.

Youth from Pine Grove were part of the firefighting efforts in Los Angeles County in January and were honored by the California State Senate for their service. Members of inmate fire crews are paid $5.80 to $10.24 per day, depending on their skill level, as well as an additional $1 per hour during an active emergency, according to CDCR.

“It really is a successful program,” said Jeff Macomber, CDCR secretary, at the time. “We see lower incident (and) violence rates and there’s a tremendous opportunity for this group to have a future beyond corrections.”

Rosalino Pavia, co-founder of the nonprofit Hoops 4 Justice, spent a year at Pine Grove after he was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon at 16 years old in 2011. Though he was originally disqualified because his medical record showed him as having asthma, he was able to reapply after having a prescription for an inhaler he hadn’t used for years removed from his records, he said

Today, he helps to provide life skills training to incarcerated youth through Hoops 4 Justice and credits Pine Grove for helping him turn his life around. It offered him discipline, one-on-one counseling and a sense of purpose and belonging during a time when he needed it, he said.

“I had a whole crew, I had a whole schedule,” he said in an interview. “I wasn’t behind bars, I was eating good food, I had a great relationship with staff. It was like a big family.”

Pine Grove, located in Amador County in the Sierra Nevada, began operating in 1945 and is open to young men ranging in age from 18 to 25 who committed their offenses as a juvenile. Eligible youth must not have any rule violations within the last six months at their current facility and can be kicked out of the program — and sent back to juvenile hall — for behavioral issues.

During his time, Pavia rose to a leadership role in his crew of 14 and fought fires throughout the state. The support and gratitude the crew received from helping others was transformative, he said.

“Residents are bringing you water and Gatorade, crying and saying ‘thank you, you saved my home’ and you’ve never received that love,” he said. “They actually feel like they’re serving somebody other than their gang or whatever.”

Pavia, who was tried as an adult and sentenced to state prison, was removed from the program after about a year as a result, he said. He tried to join the adult version of the program, but was not accepted because he’d been convicted of a violent crime, he said.

The loss of the camaraderie and the sense of service he had at Pine Grove made for a rough transition initially, he said, but his time at the fire camp pushed him to continue to make self improvements, he said.

“It made me a better person, for sure,” he said.

He went from having no walls and the freedom to hug his parents during visits at the Pine Grove facility in Amador County to being stuck behind plexiglass when his mother came to see him at Chino State Prison, he said.

“That was one of the hardest parts of the transition from that,” he said.

Pavia said he hopes Pine Grove will not go through with the policy change and believes it should open up non-firefighting positions for even those who have such conditions. Youth at the facility can already work in supporting roles as cooks, or landscapers, or mechanics, he said.

Los Angeles County currently has no juveniles at Pine Grove. During a June 3 presentation, Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa, who previously worked for CDCR, blamed a lack of interest in the voluntary program. Supervisor Kathryn Barger, however, said she continues to hear of probation staff members who are dissuading youth from applying.

“We’re looking to decrease barriers, but within our own department, we’re putting up barriers,” she said. “I’m told our employees are telling the youth it is too difficult, you don’t want to do it. We should be encouraging our youth to take a step toward really an opportunity to build a career around something that is a good paying job.”

After the supervisors — and a Superior Court Judge — ordered the Probation Department to screen more youth for eligibility, the department identified nearly 30 who could qualify and had interest. Caseworkers are now “actively reviewing case files and behavior records to ensure timely and appropriate referrals to Pine Grove,” according to a report provided to the board Tuesday, June 17.

Those referrals could be critical to reducing the population at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall and at Barry J. Nidorf. Los Padrinos was ordered to close by the state in December, but the county refused to comply. The matter went to court and Judge Miguel Espinoza accepted the department’s plan to reduce the population at Los Padrinos by transferring youth to other facilities, including a shift that will place all of the girls in the county’s custody at Campus Kilpatrick in the Santa Monica Mountains.

As part of his order, Espinoza directed the county to report back within 45 days on its efforts to place more youth into the Pine Grove program. The next court hearing is scheduled for July 18.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced the immediate implementation of a “modified program” at 21 of its Level III and Level IV — the two highest security tiers — facilities across the state in a press release Thursday, June 12.

A modified program is not a full lockdown, but it does impose severe restrictions on inmates’ movement throughout the facilities and cuts off access to visitations, phone calls and electronic communications until it is lifted.

The restrictions follow a “recent and concerning rise in violent incidents directed towards both staff and incarcerated individuals” as well as an “increase in overdose cases and findings of contraband,” officials said in the press release.

All movement within those facilities, including access to showers, “will be conducted in a controlled and secure manner.” Meals will be delivered to housing units directly in Level IV units, while access to dining halls at Level III facilities will be “under controlled conditions,” according to CDCR.

Two inmates have been slain inside CDCR facilities in Lassen and Kern counties since the start of the month, records show. In Lancaster, inmates at the state prison attacked officers with makeshift weapons twice in a 10-day period and are now under investigation for attempted murder.

Michael O’Neill, 42, who is serving time for burglary and robbery, allegedly stabbed an officer during the morning meal on June 1 and then attacked another as the second officer responded to help. Staff at the facility managed to stop the attack without any additional injuries, according to the CDCR.

Both officers were transported to an outside medical facility and later discharged, officials said.

Eight days later, Cosmin Badiu, 28, who is serving a burglary sentence, allegedly used an improvised weapon to attack a supervising correctional officer in the yard. The officer sustained “multiple puncture wounds to the back of the head” and staff had to use “physical force and chemical agents” to quell the attack, officials said.

The officer was transported to a hospital and was in good condition as of June 9.

Both incidents are under investigation. Badiu and O’Neill are expected to have their cases referred to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office for felony charges, officials said.

Data released by California Correctional Health Care Services indicates there have been 148 deaths in state prisons since the start of the year. Of those, 12 were homicides and nine were drug overdoses. Investigations into the causes of death for 34 of the cases are still pending.

By this time last year, 194 inmates had died in custody statewide. That figure jumped to 419 total by the end of 2024.

Locally, there have been 15 deaths in state prison facilities in Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties since January, the records showed. Three of those deaths were homicides, while two were attributed to drug overdoses.

A total of 57 people died in state prisons in those three counties in 2024. Only one of those was a homicide.

An analysis of in-custody deaths from 2006 to 2023 by the California Correctional Health Care Service lists cancer as the leading cause of death in California’s state prisons for nearly every year until 2023, when drug overdoses became the top cause. Homicides typically have fallen in the fifth or sixth rank across the nearly 20-year period reviewed.

The rise in overdoses seemingly continued in 2024, with cancer and drug overdoses each accounting for 79 deaths, according to the state’s data. The second highest cause, cardiovascular disease, was attributed to 59 deaths, by comparison.

This is the second time this year that CDCR has implemented a modified program at its facilities following violent incidents. Similar restrictions were put in place in March in response to a “surge in violence against staff and incarcerated people,” but those restrictions were limited only to Level IV facilities at the time.

The District Attorney’s Office announced the charges against the officer, Michael Angelo Solis, 59, on Tuesday, June 10.

Solis is being charged with the possession of alprazolam — commonly known Xanax— with the intent to sell it, for bringing the drugs into the juvenile hall and for conspiring with others to smuggle in and sell the drugs.

“Trafficking illegal drugs to juveniles is unconscionable under any circumstances, let alone as a government employee taking advantage of vulnerable youth in need of guidance and support,” District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement. “Probation officers have as their primary duty the protection, health and safety of juveniles under their care.

“My office will not tolerate such an abuse of power, which endangers youth, undermines rehabilitation, and makes our communities less safe.”

If convicted, Solis faces three years in prison.

The criminal complaint states that a juvenile connected Solis with a third person, identified only as “Co-conspirator B,” sometime between May 14, 2023, and July 26, 2023. Solis then made contact with that individual and, just days later, was seen on surveillance camera handing a small object to the juvenile. Another handoff was caught on camera in August, according to the complaint.

The juvenile was found in possession of 106 alprazolam pills that same month, records showed.

Recorded calls between the juvenile and the co-conspirator allegedly referred to Solis as “Old Boy” and referenced hundreds of dollars in payments to Solis and similar amounts in sales to others in custody.

The accused officer received more than $180,000 in pay in 2023, according to the public pay database Transparent California.

In a statement, Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa commended the “swift and thorough work” of the District Attorney’s Office and Probation Department’s internal affairs bureau for the arrest.

“There is no room in this Department for anyone who violates the public trust and endangers the safety and well-being of the youth in our care,” Viera Rosa stated. “We applaud the action taken by District Attorney Nathan Hochman and remain steadfast in our commitment to holding our staff to the highest standards of professionalism, integrity, and accountability.”

The department worked closely with the investigators “as soon as allegations surfaced,” according to the statement. Solis was on an “ordered absence” for the duration of the investigation.

It’s unclear when exactly the investigation into Solis began. The state forced the juvenile hall side of Barry J. Nidorf to shut down in July 2023, though a separate unit for youth sentenced for serious crimes, the Barry J. Nidorf Secure Youth Treatment Facility, continued and still operates today in the same building.

The SYTF was under intense scrutiny at the time due to a series of nonfatal overdoses and the death of 18-year-old Bryan Diaz from fentanyl just days before Solis’ conspiracy allegedly began in May 2023. A report by the Office of Inspector General found that drugs were being dropped by drones, delivered by fake DoorDash drivers and walked through security with little scrutiny.

Though the department cracked down after Diaz’s death, the inspector general’s staff continued to document lapses in security, including an unidentified staff member at Barry J. Nidorf whose food wasn’t checked by security and was later found to have contraband hidden inside.

In October 2023, the District Attorney’s Office charged 22-year-old Nicholas Ibarra with possession of fentanyl inside the SYTF. While transporting Ibarra to Men’s Central Jail, probation officers Reggie Torres and David Corona alleged Ibarra told them about an officer who had been supplying fentanyl.

Torres and Corona began investigating that source and suspected Solis, but were placed on leave after relaying their findings to a superior, according to their attorney, Tom Yu.

“They were obstructed from doing their job,” Yu said in a phone interview. “They were fighting the department so they could save kids from overdosing.”

Yu sent a letter to Viera Rosa that same October stating Corona, through his investigation, “had obtained an overwhelming amount of evidence that suggested an active-duty probation officer, Michael Solis,” and a teacher at Barry J. Nidorf, were the sources of the fentanyl.

While Corona and Torres were placed on leave, Solis and the teacher were still working at Barry J. Nidorf as of Oct. 11, 2023, Yu wrote. Both Corona and Torres were reinstated roughly a year later and were never given a reason for being placed on leave, according to Yu.

Vicky Waters, a Probation Department spokesperson, deferred questions to the District Attorney’s Office, which separately declined to comment on the investigation.

Court records show that three of the four felony charges against Ibarra were dropped in July 2024. He pleaded no contest to the fourth — possession of a controlled substance in a juvenile hall — and received 137 days in prison, reduced from a two-year sentence due to time served and credit for his conduct, records showed.

The announcement of Solis’ arrest — and the revelation that he had been caught on camera — came the same day that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors ordered the Probation Department to develop a more active monitoring policy for its closed-circuit television system.

The board recently approved a $2.7 million settlement with a youth who was beaten at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall while officers did nothing. The assault was caught on camera, but the footage wasn’t reviewed until weeks later, according to Supervisor Janice Hahn, who co-authored the motion with Supervisor Lindsey Horvath.

“CCTV cameras are one of the best tools that we have for accountability and to protect both our youth and staff in our juvenile detention facilities,” Hahn stated. “But the cameras are only effective if they are monitored around the clock and if every incident is reported immediately, and it is time our Probation Department has a new CCTV monitoring policy on the books.”

A grand jury indicted 30 officers in March for allowing — and even encouraging — 69 fights, including “gladiator”-style fight clubs involving multiple youth at Los Padrinos after the video of the original incident became public.

Barry J. Nidorf is now a lynchpin in the Probation Department’s plan to bring Los Padrinos, which was ordered to close in December, back into compliance. A court-approved plan to reduce the population at Los Padrinos requires the department to reopen Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall to take a portion of the juveniles.

The Board of State and Community Corrections, the state regulatory body overseeing California’s juvenile halls, was set to vote on whether Barry J. Nidorf can be used in that capacity again at its June 12 meeting, but the board removed the item from the agenda this week after Los Angeles County failed to provide a requested staffing plan in time.

That approval, needed to meet an aggressive timeline ordered by a Superior Court judge, will likely be taken up at the BSCC’s next meeting in July.

Nearly $6 million of the total went to a company owned by consultant Efren Martinez — Express Transportation, the city’s shuttle service provider — while the rest went to clients of his consulting firm. Those clients included the city’s IT provider, its street sweeper, a construction company paid millions for an aquatics center that was never built and the city attorney who reviewed many of the agreements with the companies on the city’s behalf.

City officials would only provide limited responses to questions because the contracts, particularly with Express Transportation and JT Construction — the contractor hired for the aquatics center — are now the subject of internal and external investigations.

“The City of Huntington Park remains firmly committed to transparency and public accountability,” a city spokesperson said. “At the same time, we must protect the integrity of ongoing investigations and audits involving JT Construction and Express Transportation. These matters are still under active review, and, as such, audit-related materials and findings are not available for release at this time.”

Huntington Park, a city with 54,000 residents and a median household income of $56,952, has an annual budget of about $93 million.

Though the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced its investigation, dubbed “Operation Dirty Pond,” is focused on the $14 million spent on the missing aquatics center, investigators listed “Efren Martinez” as the case name on a search warrant executed at City Hall in February. The seized files included at least four of Martinez’s clients.

The District Attorney’s Office simultaneously raided Martinez’s home, the office of his consulting company, the city-owned property leased to Express Transportation and the home of JT Construction’s owners, as well as the homes of City Manager Ricardo Reyes, former Councilmembers Graciela Ortiz and Marilyn Sanabria, and current Councilmembers Karina Macias and Eddie Martinez. Search warrants for those locations have not been made public.

In a letter, Senior Investigator Matthew Dillier told city officials prosecutors are looking into alleged bribery, misappropriation of public funds, conflict of interest, money laundering and conspiracy.

Martinez declined to be interviewed, instead providing a statement via text message. He did not respond to a series of questions about his clients and companies, saying the questions “lack both merit and legitimacy.”

“The allegations that prompted an investigation on me are clearly a politically motivated attack, led by a council member I’ve supported a recall effort against, and a city administrator that’s been publicly known to be facing scrutiny and termination by the immediate past city council majority due to longstanding incompetence,” he wrote.

“It’s an unfortunate reflection of ongoing political infighting within City of Huntington Park’s leadership. As I have done nothing wrong, I will work with authorities to set the record straight and I’m confident that once the facts are reviewed, the truth will come to light and justice will prevail.”

While the City Council is now distancing itself from Martinez, the city’s administration has known about many of these allegations for years.

A lawsuit filed by former Huntington Park employees in 2020 alleged the city had gone on a “spending spree” that included entering into a “no-bid contract to build an unnecessary public pool that will cost a staggering $40,000,000.” The lawsuit alleges city officials colluded with Martinez to use the “coffers of Huntington Park as their own personal piggy bank.”

City employees alleged in the lawsuit and in a separate complaint to the Public Employment Relations Board that the city retaliated against them, either by placing them on leave or firing them, for testifying to PERB in a related case and for expressing concerns about the city’s fiscal management. One employee was arrested for “unauthorized computer access,” though she claimed she was backing up evidence of potential malfeasance. Charges were never formally filed.

The city paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars in settlements as a result, according to Oshea Orchid, an attorney who represented some of the employees in the PERB case and is now representing one in a pending lawsuit accusing the city of retaliation.

The idea that city officials are now surprised by these contracts is “ridiculous,” Orchid said.

“Our clients have known for a long time that there was a problem, that’s why there was so much litigation over the last few years,” Orchid said. “Many of them are members of the community and really care about what is happening there and how the community’s taxes are being spent.”

JT Construction

The Los Angeles-based JT Construction is at the forefront of the district attorney’s investigation. Though the aquatic center project has made little progress in the last six years and remains a fenced-in dirt lot today, the company continued to collect payments from the city as recently as 2024.

The Huntington Park City Council originally selected JT Construction in August 2019 for a no-bid contract to design and build a $24 million, 30,000-square-foot, “two-story state-of-the-art aquatic center” with an Olympic-size pool, locker rooms, showers, saunas, a gym, public restrooms, a new football field and a new playground at Salt Lake Park.

JT Construction was one of 16 clients that paid Martinez’s firm, Unified Consulting Services, at least $10,000 in 2019, according to financial disclosures filed for Martinez’s run for state Assembly. More than half of the clients disclosed at the time had or would soon have business before the Huntington Park City Council.

Many of those same clients donated generously to city councilmembers. Roughly 20% of all campaign contributions flowing to Huntington Park politicians during that time period came from Martinez or his clients, according to a a review by KCET in 2021.

Huntington Park staff members reported they had met with contractors “known to specialize in the aquatic construction field,” yet JT Construction had no such experience.

The company’s proposal — the only option brought forward by city staff — states it had been established in 2015 to “provide remodeling of commercial buildings, healthcare facilities, medical offices as well as ground-up construction.” A work history attached to the agenda matched that description. There wasn’t a single swimming pool listed.

The city’s no-bid selection of JT Construction was quickly challenged by the Construction Industry Force Account Council, a nonprofit that represents contractors and labor unions by ensuring state and local governments comply with public contracting codes.

The project hit another roadblock at the same time. Salt Lake Park, built atop a former landfill, required millions of dollars in soil remediation before the project could proceed.

The city, facing a potential lawsuit and setbacks, opted to restart the project and put it out to bid in December 2020.

Records show the city had already paid JT Construction $8.6 million — 35% of the total project’s cost — as of September 2020. A clause in the contract required an upfront payment of 30% of total cost. A public contracting expert who spoke on the condition of anonymity described such a large advance as “unusual” in government contracts and as a huge risk for the city.

Invoices submitted by JT Construction later described this as a “progress payment” and listed partial charges for materials and structures — $841,000 for masonry walls, $892,800 for a swimming pool and $108,810 for an elevator, among other items —  that ultimately never made it to the site.

The staff report for the December 2020 meeting where the project was put out to bid made no mention of those expended funds. Nor were the spent millions mentioned in August 2021, when the City Council voted to award the full $24 million contract to JT Construction again.

The project, however, did not make any significant progress after that, though the city continued to make payments to JT Construction.

Records show Huntington Park has paid $800,000 to JT Construction since May 2023. An invoice submitted by the company included charges of $204,262 for “supervision” and another $129,685 for security. The company claimed three employees spent 1,047 hours — 26 full-time workweeks — supervising the stalled project at a rate of $195 per hour.

The city was unable to explain what was being supervised at the time, given that the site is a fenced-in dirt lot today.

“In response to concerns over progress payments and invoicing practices, the City had initiated a thorough review process and begun implementing enhanced oversight measures to ensure greater accountability moving forward,” the city said in a statement.

CIFAC, the nonprofit that challenged the original contract, was not satisfied with the city’s handling of the bidding process, but, facing legal delays and exorbitant costs, opted not to pursue additional litigation. Instead, it forwarded all of the information it had collected to the District Attorney’s Office and has been working with prosecutors on the case since the criminal investigation formally began in 2022.

JT Construction did not respond to requests for comment.

Express Transportation

Express Transportation, the shuttle service provider, is one of the largest contractors in the city and has the most direct connection to Martinez.

The company has run the city’s fixed-route shuttle service and dial-a-ride programs since 2017. Martinez listed himself as an owner of the company on his financial disclosures in 2024. However, his name was removed from the company’s business filings in May 2025, according to the secretary of state’s website.

Express operates out of the city’s public works yard on Bissell Street and pays $2,000 per month for the lease, records showed.

Huntington Park could not provide the annual ridership for either service, though the number of fares collected suggest the service costs more and is used less than a similar service in the neighboring city of South Gate.

The city’s 2024-25 budget indicates the city spent $1.5 million in 2024 on its fixed-route shuttles and received $29,900 back from fares, which would equate to fewer than 40,000 paid riders at 75 cents per ride. The dial-a-ride program, which costs $1 per ride, brought in just $1,200 and cost the city $877,431.

While vying for a five-year extension in 2023, Express claimed its annual ridership in the city is nearly 300,000.

By comparison, South Gate, which is nearly twice as populous as Huntington Park, had 83,000 phone-a-ride trips and 96,000 bus passengers that same year. The city pays $1.4 million per year total for both services and receives about $100,000 from fares and bus passes.

In a statement, Huntington Park stated the City Council directed Reyes to “audit all current city contracts” in 2024, including the contract with Express Transportation, and that it had found “significant deficiencies in the services provided and oversight of those services.” It declined to provide copies of the audits.

“Despite multiple formal requests for financial and ridership data from Express Transportation, the company initially failed to provide the necessary information,” the statement reads. “This lack of transparency prevented the City from verifying ridership numbers, fare revenue, or evaluating the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the services. As a result, the City could not confirm whether additional riders used these services without paying fares.”

Express’ lease agreement for city-owned vehicles and yard space expired in January 2024 and the city is now “reviewing the terms of past agreements, including the below-market lease rate” to ensure that such arrangements “reflect fair market value and protect public resources,” according to the statement.

The city issued a “notice of breach and demand to cure” to Express Transportation on May 21. Express is “disputing the City’s breach claims, asserting that they have provided the requested records and complied with contract terms,” according to the city.

“While the City is limited in its ability to comment on pending legal and investigative matters, it remains committed to a thorough review of all contracts, including those involving Mr. Martinez,” the city said in its statement.

Other payouts questioned

The city paid $5.4 million to another of Martinez’s clients, LAN WAN Enterprises, Huntington Park’s information technology provider, in the last two fiscal years, according to records reviewed by the Southern California News Group. The city, however, could not produce any of the invoices for those payments.

The city’s payments to LAN WAN dramatically increased in recent years. KCET’s review found that LAN WAN had collected about $2.2 million from 2018 to 2020.

That company first received a no-bid contract back in 2014 and has extended — and expanded — since then. Payments to the company rose to more than $2 million per year before the city decided to let the contract expire at the end of 2024.

By comparison, South Gate pays about $1.4 million per year for its IT department. Huntington Park’s new provider is expected to charge roughly $600,000 per year.

LAN WAN’s proposal was ranked the lowest among three proposals when the project went out to bid last year. A scoring sheet attached to the Nov. 18, 2024, agenda indicated LAN WAN scored significantly below its competitors in every category.

The City Council decided to review its options after LAN WAN’s agreement expired in April 2024 and a subsequent audit found “deficiencies and irregularities,” according to a statement from Huntington Park.

Alvarez-Glasman & Colvin

The client lists released by Martinez in 2020 and 2024 included a familiar name: Alvarez-Glasman & Colvin, the city’s longtime attorney. The law firm was paid about $2 million during the time period reviewed.

Attorney Arnold Alvarez-Glasman resigned from the post after nearly a decade in the role during a Feb. 28 council meeting, two days after the district attorney’s raids.

In a statement, Huntington Park acknowledged community concerns about potential conflict of interests with Alvarez-Glasman’s handling of contracts with Martinez’s other clients. The law firm, its owners and family members gave nearly $80,000 to Martinez’s political campaigns.

In a statement, Alvarez-Glasman & Colvin stated that all campaign contributions were “lawfully disclosed and reported” and do not “inherently create a conflict of interest.”

The city now says it is “reviewing all contracts negotiated during Mr. Glasman’s tenure to ensure compliance with legal and ethical standards.”

“The City has taken corrective action, including appointment of new legal counsel,” the statement reads. “Given the ongoing nature of legal and investigative reviews, the City must defer comment on specific legal matters, including any conflict of interest waivers, to maintain the integrity of the process.”

Alvarez-Glasman & Colvin denied any impropriety, stating it provided the city with “professional representation in strict compliance with ethical and legal standards” and did not at any time represent Martinez, or his company. It was not aware of the identities of Martinez’s other clients, according to the statement.

Contract negotiations were “managed directly by the Huntington Park City Manager,” the firm stated. Neither Alvarez-Glasman nor his firm met with or negotiated with JT Construction or its representatives regarding the aquatics center contract. The initial drafts “included limited payments in the early phases,” the firm stated.

“Records and communications demonstrate that changes to these terms, including the early-stage significant payment, were directed by City Manager Rick Reyes and were not recommended by AGC or Mr. Alvarez-Glasman as City Attorney,” the statement reads.

The firm utilized Unified Consulting for community and government outreach and relations, but is now reviewing the continuation of those services. All interactions between Alvarez-Glasman and Unified Consulting have been “strictly professional,” according to the statement.

The decision to terminate its contract with Huntington Park was “based solely on differences with city leadership regarding adherence to legal advice and guidance provided by AGC and was not related to any investigation involving Mr. Martinez.”

“The City’s current challenges and controversies are wholly independent of AGC’s prior professional services,” the statement reads. “AGC intends to vigorously defend against any malicious attempts to improperly attribute these challenges to the firm or its representatives.”

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors authorized the settlement Tuesday, June 3, without discussion, in response to a claim filed by the mother of the teenager, Jose Rivas Barillas. A claim typically is a precursor to a lawsuit.

Surveillance footage of the December 2023 attack on Barillas, who was 16 at the time, sparked a criminal investigation by the California Department of Justice that culminated in the indictments earlier this year. Prosecutors allege the 30 employees — ranging from detention service officers to at least one supervisor — allowed or even encouraged 69 fights, including gladiator-style fight clubs involving multiple youth, over a roughly six-month period in 2023.

The initial recording, obtained by the L.A. Times, showed a series of youth entering a day room at Los Padrinos and attacking Barillas, one after another, while officers stood by, or half-halfheartedly intervened. Some could be seen laughing, or even shaking hands with the attackers.

Barillas’ attorney, Jamaal Tooson, said it is rare for Los Angeles County to settle a claim before a lawsuit is filed. His other cases, including one in which a youth suffered a brain injury from three attacks in a single day, have been forced into litigation, he said.

“In many ways, it speaks to the fact that the video went viral and they wanted it to go away,” Tooson said in a phone interview.

If that video hadn’t leaked, Tooson suspects he would be going to court in this case as well.

“There were several lawsuits that preceded it and I’ve ultimately filed several after alleging a similar sort of conduct,” he said. “I believe there is a systemic problem within the culture of the Los Angeles County Probation Department.”

A case summary provided to the supervisors indicates that CCTV “corroborates” that a deputy probation officer, listed as DPO One in the summary and identified as Taneeha Brooks in the claim, “orchestrated, provoked and encouraged a physical assault on plaintiff by the other juvenile detainees.” The indictment in March alleged Brooks and officer Shawn Smyles allowed five fights, involving up to nine combatants, over the six-month period.

The pair allegedly told new officers about fights in advance and warned them “not to say anything, write down anything and just watch.”

Both have been charged with child abuse and conspiracy. Smyles also was charged with battery for a separate unlawful use of force in October 2023.

The claim alleges Brooks demanded to know Barillas’ gang affiliation upon his arrival at Los Padrinos and did not accept his response that he was not in a gang. She accused him of being a member of a specific gang and commented that she “hoped he could fight,” according to the filing.

Brooks later directed multiple juvenile detainees to attack Barillas. She and other officers did nothing while he was “repeatedly punched, kicked and stomped,” the claim states.

“On the video, DPO One appears to be organizing the timing of the attacks while her colleagues looked on,” the summary states. “At no point did anyone attempt to stop the attacks outright or render aid to Plaintiff.”

The summary states probation employees disregarded “the law, their duties and Probation Department policies” and later failed to review the closed-circuit TV footage after the incident was reported. The department delayed transporting Barillas, who suffered a broken nose, to the hospital and did not promptly notify his family of the injuries.

In response, the Probation Department says it is now “routinely” monitoring CCTV and will review recordings whenever a use of force or physical intervention report is filed. The department is developing a process for “random footage audits.”

Tooson, however, isn’t optimistic. Los Angeles County has promised reforms for years now and yet is still a “catalyst of violence” to the juveniles in its custody, he said.

“This does not mean their behavior is going to change,” he said.

Roughly a year after the attack on Barillas, state regulators ordered Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall to close after it repeatedly failed inspections, largely due to short staffing. The county refused to comply and the facility remains open to this day.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge in May ruled that Los Padrinos can continue to operate, for now, but the Probation Department must cut the population at the juvenile hall by sending more than 100 youth to other facilities.

That plan is now underway and will result in a major shuffling of juveniles and staff across the county’s footprint. Critics are skeptical, believing the same staffing problems will continue — and may even get worse — as a result of spreading out the department’s resources. Los Padrinos, which reopened in the summer of 2023 following the forced closure of two other juvenile halls, originally was supposed consolidate the department’s limited staffing at one location.

The county will next update the court on the status of the depopulation in July.

The Department of Insurance is now moving to fine and revoke the licenses of Aleksandr Guldshtadt and his company, Nationwide Insurance Claims Advocates (NICA), and to reject a license application from his wife, Evghenia Gaiju, as result of its investigation, documents showed.

The revocation is pending a hearing expected to take place within the next month.

State investigators believe Guldshtadt controlled NICA while having financial interests in at least three of the contractors hired using client insurance funds. It is illegal in California for an insurance adjuster to “receive remuneration from or have a finance interest in” any firm that obtains business related to an insurance claim handled by the adjuster.

Gaiju is considered to have “aided and abetted” Guldshtadt, the complaint states.

Those related companies include Evolve Construction & Restoration, CalMaster Restoration and WD Contractor Services Inc, according to the Department of Insurance. Contractor licenses for each were issued to Guldshtadt or listed him as having at least 10% ownership stake, investigators alleged. One company was registered to Guldshtadt’s mother-in-law and two used the same business address as NICA.

Altadena resident Nadine Isenberg filed a class-action lawsuit April 30 that her attorney, Brett Moore, estimates could include 40 to 100 other victims across the state and potentially nationwide. Moore alleges NICA has taken advantage of not only families impacted by the January wildfires here in Los Angeles County, but other disasters as well.

“There are multiple victims, it is not just from the Eaton fire,” Moore said. “He owns Evolve, he owns Nationwide Insurance Claim Advocates, he owns the people who do the testing. So all of the money that insurance pays out goes to him, goes into his pocket.”

Reached by phone, Guldshtadt denied the allegations.

“I don’t own those companies myself,” he said. “The (same) address doesn’t mean that I own the company.”

In a text message, Guldshtadt said his attorneys are in the process of responding to the Department of Insurance.

“There is not a single victim that lost any money due to our work,” he said.

The state’s investigation included interviews with 15 alleged victims, stretching from San Francisco to Bakersfield, Long Beach, Altadena and Pasadena, over a five-year period. The company allegedly forged a signature, filed false claims and “used illegal means in the collection or attempted collection of a debt.”

“Respondent Guldshtadt harassed one Victim until she passed away and then harassed Victim’s sister for unearned fees,” the investigators wrote. “Two of Respondents’ representatives drove to the home of the other Victim, who was 80 years old at the time, and demanded a fiduciary check when it was accidentally sent to that Victim’s home.”

Several of the victims alleged they entered into contracts with NICA or one of the other related entities to repair roofs or water leaks, only to have the company stop responding after its employees tore up kitchens and walls.

Others stated NICA tricked them into signing contracts, intercepted insurance money and then kept significant portions without doing any work.

One former client alleged NICA and WD Contractor Services cut out water damaged walls, installed humidifiers and only returned 10 days later to remove the humidifiers and then never showed up again. Her insurance provider ultimately denied her claim and stated she would have to pay $28,000 to repair the walls.

WD Contractor later tried to bill her $5,740 for the work it didn’t finish and threatened to harm her credit and to sue, according to investigators.

Three of the victims were coerced into signing contracts presented exclusively in English, though they could speak and read only Spanish.

In Long Beach, a woman contacted her insurance company after noticing a water leak in December 2023 and, a month later, a man showed up at her home and gave her the impression he’d been sent by insurance company. She signed a contract under that belief, only to later learn that was not the case. NICA submitted a claim on her behalf and would not provide her with a list of the supposed work that had been done, according to investigators.

In Pasadena, a 65-year-old stated she received a phone call from Evolve offering to provide smoke and damage remediation services and was “cajoled into signing a Public Adjuster contract” with NICA. Though her insurer, AAA, estimated the work would cost roughly $15,000, Evolve and NICA submitted a claim for $215,865 to the insurance company that included items that “could not possibly be attributed to her property, including removing creosote from a chimney that does not exist.”

Isenberg’s lawsuit indicates she was referred to Evolve in February for the repair and remediation of her home damaged by the Eaton Fire. She alleges she unknowingly signed an agreement granting NICA permission to serve as a public adjuster on her behalf while filling out a stack of documents provided by Evolve.

The two companies submitted claims of more than $200,000 to Farmers Insurance, including costs for cleaning carpet, though she has “very little carpet in her home and certainly not in the square footage identified in the estimate,” the lawsuit states.

“She looked at her estimates and said to herself, ‘this doesn’t look right,’ ” Moore said.

NICA received checks from Farmers but did not pass along the funds to Isenberg until after the lawsuit was filed, Moore said. When Isenberg requested that her insurance company cease communicating with NICA, the insurance company informed her “that her public adjusting agreement with NICA required her to continue to use NICA as a public adjuster and that Farmers was bound to continue to communicate with Guldshtadt,” the lawsuit states.

Moore said the hope is that the class-action lawsuit will help others get out of their contracts with NICA.

Guldshtadt, in his phone conversation, called the lawsuit frivolous and said the complaint doesn’t qualify as a class-action lawsuit because it only has one former client on board so far. “This is not a class-action lawsuit by any means,” he said.

He acknowledged the carpet cleaning estimate may have been a mistake on NICA’s part, but stressed that the estimate was not paid out and that his company did not receive a “a single dollar” from Isenberg.

“It does not constitute something fraudulent by any means,” he said.

NICA had only about three clients related to the Eaton fire and is “not doing much work on the fires at all,” Guldshtadt claimed.

“It is absolutely nonsense litigation,” he said.

Nationwide Insurance Claim Advocates’ Yelp and Better Business Bureau pages feature two dozen additional — and similar — complaints.

“This company forged my signature on a letter of representation in order to get more money from my insurance company,” wrote one reviewer from Illinois. “They had 3 separate checks sent directly to them and were able to cash them without my or my mortgage companies endorsement which were both on the checks as well.”

“DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT use this company or their other company, WD contractors,” wrote a Los Angeles resident. “My kitchen, living room, laundry room and bathroom are gutted to the studs. It’s been like this for months.”

California’s case against Guldshtadt and NICA alleges that both failed to report disciplinary actions in Utah and Colorado as well. At least one other fraud lawsuit has been filed in Colorado.

The Department of Insurance intends to seek tens of thousands of dollars in penalties against Guldshtadt and his company, including $5,000 to $50,000 for each violation involving someone 65 years or older and $5,000 to $10,000 for each unfair or deceptive act