Thousands of men and women came forward to say they had been molested or raped by probation officials decades ago while incarcerated as children in the county’s sprawling network of juvenile halls and camps.
Thousands more alleged sexual abuse at the now-shuttered MacLaren Children’s Center, a county-run home for foster children that plaintiffs’ attorneys have compared to a “house of horrors.” A report found that the facility went decades without doing criminal background checks on its staff.
Taken together, the thousands of lawsuits, most of which involve alleged abuse from the 1980s through the 2000s, paint a picture of a government that failed to intervene as its facilities turned into hunting grounds for predators, who held immense power over the children in their custody.
7,000 cases? That is a huge amount of abuse–particularly in a politically progressive place like LA County where you would expect they would be more sensitive to sex abuse issues.
I was thinking of damages exclusively, given the nature of the torts involved. E.g. no back wages here. Often punitives end up really being the plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees.
It seems compensation for physical injuries and medical expenses are not taxable.
I’m willing to bet the whole list is a long one for what is and is not taxable. I can’t answer it. You’d need a tax attorney (which will also cost you a lot of money).
Seriously? I don’t want to pick on Los Angeles too much, but this is a place known to chew up and spit out hopeful young women who arrive with dreams of making it big in Hollywood. For about a century now, the most famous industry in LA has been know to be exploitive as hell. The truth is that large institutions are remarkably good about ignoring evidence of sexual abuse or outright sweeping it under the rug. I don’t think it has a whole lot to do with progressive politics.
I’m not clear about the connection you are drawing between the entertainment industry and the juvenile halls and camps run by the county for incarcerated children and un-fostered foster children. Or how it is the entertainment industry’s fault if underage children travel there in the foolish hope of a show business career, and end up committing crimes instead.
My propensity to do the simpler math, 7000 cases in about 65 years, comes to about 107 cases per year on average.
The entertainment industry isn’t at fault. It’s an example of exploitive behavior and abuse centered in an area that’s supposed to be politically progressive. My point was political progressiveness has nothing to do with this kind of abuse.
I wasn’t the one who brought it up. I was making the point this kind of abuse has nothing to do with how progressive the politics of an area might be. (No shade directed at you @PastTense.)
On top of that, LA hasn’t always been a hotbed of progressive ideas. It wasn’t too long ago Los Angeles had Republican mayor Richard Riordan in the 90s.
Anyway, it’s crazy and sad to think about how many kids got lost into this abusive system. I would hope other large cities do better, and LA county does better going forward.