Lawsuit claims deputies at L.A. women’s jail watched inmates shower

A federal lawsuit filed on behalf of dozens of current and former inmates in Los Angeles County’s women’s jail claims male correctional officers watched them shower, harassed and groped them and retaliated when the alleged abuses were reported.

The suit accuses deputies of taking advantage of women incarcerated at Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood.

The case comes amid renewed scrutiny of how the Sheriff’s Department’s handles abuse claims. Records reviewed by The Times show jail inmates have made nearly 600 allegations of sexual abuse or harassment against staff since 2021, but none have been referred to the L.A. County district attorney’s office for prosecution.

Brian Dunn, managing partner and lead civil rights attorney with the Cochran Firm, which brought the case on behalf of 38 women in late October, said in an interview that dozens of inmates shared “chilling” allegations of “brazen” sexual abuse and harassment.

“It seemed to be happening with such frequency that it was like a practice. … This is something that has been accepted,” he said. “It’s heartbreaking for me to hear these women crying and the only thing you can do is sue.”

The Sheriff’s Department said in a statement that, after learning about Dunn’s lawsuit, it “initiated a review of the claims to ensure that all appropriate investigative and administrative processes were followed.”

“The safety, dignity, and constitutional rights of every individual in our custody remain our top priority,” the department added. “We are committed to transparent operations, thorough investigations, and maintaining the highest standards of professional conduct.”

The civil complaint filed in the Central District of California says abuses occurred in the Lynwood jail’s administrative segregation unit, also known as “the hole.” The lawsuit claims women were often sent there for disciplinary purposes — and that deputies would watch as they showered nude. The suit says the practice violates a federal law called the Prison Rape Elimination Act, which prohibits “cross-gender viewing” by staff.

The complaint alleges a “systemic and ongoing practice which concerns the cross-gender viewing of completely nude female inmates by male correctional officers.”

It describes an area next to the shower stalls referred to by inmates and deputies as the “cop shop,” from which male correctional officers “routinely engage in frequent and prolonged unobstructed viewing of the entire nude bodies of female inmates taking showers.”

While escorting women to the stalls, the complaint states, male guards allegedly “intentionally press their crotches against the handcuffed hands of the female inmates … and intentionally fondle the inmates’ hips, buttocks, and bodies in a sexual manner.”

Deputies “routinely and intentionally set the water temperature at a scalding or near-scalding level,” the complaint added, “which forces the female inmates taking showers to move hurriedly and squirm erratically” and “often results in the female inmates’ breasts jiggling and wiggling demonstrably in full view of the male correctional officers in the adjacent ‘cop shop.’”

Interior of Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood in December.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

The Sheriff’s Department said in a statement that “[t]here is an ongoing inquiry into the claims” and that it “maintains a zero-tolerance policy towards any form of sexual abuse or harassment within its facilities.”

The statement added that it “takes all allegations of sexual misconduct, abuse of authority, and violations of Department policy extremely seriously.”

The Sybil Brand Commission, the independent oversight body for L.A. County’s jails, has documented similar complaints from female inmates in recent months.

The commission, which performs inspections on unannounced visits to the jails, said in an October report that multiple inmates “allege a deputy observes women showering from the lower level, escorts women while leaving them exposed in shower, and makes them wait unclothed before returning to their cells. Fear of retaliation deters reporting.”

Commission Chair Haley Broder described the inmates as “some of the most vulnerable women on earth. They can’t do anything; they’re locked in cells and being retaliated against if they report it.”

Defendants in the federal lawsuit include L.A. County, Sheriff Robert Luna and three of his predecessors, and a dozen jail staffers.

The Sheriff’s Department said in a statement that two deputies named in the lawsuit “are actively working,” with one now at Men’s Central Jail and another still in Lynwood.

One of the two men previously worked as the Prison Rape Elimination Act compliance manager at the women’s jail, according to the complaint.

Last month, The Times reported that out of 592 inmate claims of sexual abuse or harassment by deputies filed since 2021, none were deemed “substantiated” by Sheriff’s Department investigators.

Over that period, according to a review of D.A.’s office records by The Times, the Sheriff’s Department referred none of those cases to L.A. County prosecutors, who decide whether there is enough evidence to file charges.

“The DA’s office has brought no cases against sheriff’s deputies for sexual assault crimes committed against inmates” since 2021, the office confirmed in an email. It added that it is “not aware of any such cases recently presented by LASD for filing consideration involving deputies accused of sexually assaulting inmates.”

The Sheriff’s Department said in a statement that since 2021 it has sent nine cases for review by either its Internal Affairs or Internal Criminal Investigation bureaus, all of which “are still being actively investigated.” It added that “[o]nce a criminal investigation is completed, investigators will present the case to the District Attorney’s Office for filing consideration.”

The department has acted against at least one deputy in response to an inmate’s claims of sexual misconduct in recent years. In November 2023, deputy Jonathan Tejada Paredes was arrested on suspicion that he sexually assaulted an inmate while he was working in the women’s jail in Lynwood.

But court records show that no county or federal charges have been filed against Tejada Paredes. The D.A.’s office said it “has not received this matter for charging consideration.”

Jacqueline Sparagna, an attorney for Tejada Paredes, denied any wrongdoing by her client and confirmed that he has not been charged. She added that while the government goes out of its way to thoroughly investigate allegations against law enforcement officers, “there are likely problems with the” Paredes case, such as a lack of corroborating evidence or credibility questions.

Asked about the status of the claim against Tejada Paredes, the Sheriff’s Department said an “investigation is currently ongoing.”

In the past, the Sheriff’s Department has referred a number of cases of deputies accused by inmates of sexual assault for prosecution. For instance, Giancarlo Scotti, who worked at the Lynwood women’s jail, was charged by the D.A.’s office in 2018 with assaulting six inmates there after being arrested and placed on administrative leave by the Sheriff’s Department the prior year while the department investigated the allegations.

In 2019, court records show Scotti pleaded no contest to six counts of sexual activity with an inmate, ward or parolee. A judge sentenced him to two years in state custody, with a recommendation that his term be served in a state fire camp.

A review of county records shows that the Sheriff’s Department has referred a number of deputies for prosecution on sexual abuse charges since 2021 — just not in cases with inmates as alleged victims.

Last year, according to a D.A.’s office memo, the office declined to bring criminal charges against a correctional officer after a Sheriff’s Department investigation found he had allegedly committed sexual battery against a female colleague at Twin Towers Correctional Facility in 2022. The D.A.’s memo cited questions about whether the deputy’s conduct constituted sexual battery, the alleged victim’s response and whether there was enough evidence to corroborate her claims.

The lack of transparency around how jail sexual abuse claims are investigated has raised alarms among local watchdogs.

“The public is not getting the truth from the Sheriff’s Department. We deserve real, accurate data about people being raped or assaulted in our jails, not hogwash,” said Hans Johnson, chair of the Los Angeles County Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission.

Max Huntsman, who retired as L.A. County inspector general earlier this month, told The Times in November that he believes the Sheriff’s Department is “not in compliance with PREA in many senses,” including its internal policies and the physical state of its aging jails.

An April report by Huntsman’s office “found that many allegations remain unresolved in quarterly reports, raising concerns about the thoroughness of investigations” under the federal law.

Some investigations, the inspector general’s office wrote, did not include “a thorough description of physical and testimonial evidence,” and investigators “did not appear to interview all potential involved persons” in some cases.

The cross-gender viewing allegations at the Lynwood women’s jail are “one of many times when the county could have avoided litigation by simply correcting conditions,” Huntsman said.

As of Oct. 27, 30 of the 38 women who signed on to the lawsuit alleging rampant cross-gender viewing at the Lynwood jail remained incarcerated there.

“Behind every one of those paragraphs in that complaint is a human story,” said Dunn, the lawyer representing the female inmates.