La County reaches $ 4 billion agreement to settle sexual abuse claims on adolescent features

Los Angeles: Los Angeles County has reached a $ 4 billion agreement to settle around 7,000 claims of sexual abuse in adolescent facilities since 1959, officials said on Friday.
The agreement, which still required approval from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, crossed the disposal of $ 2.6 billion with US Boy Scouts in 2022, the largest total exploitation disposal in American history at that time.
County Chief Executive Officer Facia Dawanport said in a statement, “On behalf of County, I apologize to all the people who harm these condemnable acts with full honesty.”
The agreement would resolve the cases filed by thousands who alleged that they were abused and sexually abused at Los Angeles County in foster care and adolescent detention facilities. The plaintiffs were able to sue due to a California law that came into effect in 2020 and suspended the law of boundaries for childhood sex misconduct victims to bring cases for three years.
Several claims included the McLaren Children’s Center, which was closed in 2003. The feature, which was aimed at a safe place for children waiting for placements at Foster Holmes, opened in 1961 and was seen by probation officials until it was placed in 1976 under the department of county children and family services.
One person said that when he was 8 years old, he was sexually abused by a doctor in that facility, while the other said that when he was 5 years old, he was beaten up by a male staff member in a bathroom.
One of the plaintiff’s lawyers, Adam Slater said, “This is bittersweet for the remaining people, as anything was ever done to them, and how badly their lives were changed and how much damage they have suffered.” “However, settlement gives them some measures of justice with hope and provides some ways to close them.”
Other private and public institutions have been shaken by extensive misuse and subsequent settlements allegations.
The 2022 settlement by the Boy Scouts of America, which recently changed themselves to the scouting America, which included over 80,000 men, who said they were scouts and tampered with children as children.
And last year, the ArchdoyC of Los Angeles agreed to pay $ 800 million to the victims of pastor sexual abuse, exceeding $ 1.5 billion.
The disclosure of large -scale temporary payment by Los Angeles County comes at a time when the country’s largest county – the house of about 10 million residents – is facing a tough bond of financial obligations on its 49 billion annual budget of $ 49 billion. Officials are afraid that hundreds of million dollars for public services may disappear in Trump administration deduction, while County has seen an additional cost from the historic wildfire of January as it is also related to an ongoing homeless crisis.
Devanport recently stated that County is facing “large amounts of uncertainty” with its budget – some agencies are funded by federal dollars on a large scale.
Officials said that the proposed agreement included creating a county hotline to report allegations of child sexual abuse against employees and develop a system to speed up the investigation.
Partrick McNicolas, one of the plaintiff’s lawyers, said in a statement, “By balanced justice to the victims with a commitment to improve, this resolution ensures both the acceptance of the past mistakes and a safe, a path for a safe, more accountable future.”
County claims board will consider the proposed disposal on Monday. If approved, it will be considered by the board of supervisors on 29 April.