Los Angeles County has agreed to pay an astounding $4 billion to resolve sexual abuse claims from a generation of children in the juvenile detention and foster care system, which lawyers described as the biggest payment in US history.
The cleaning agreement, released Friday, was the latest in a wave of settlements caused by state law five years ago that dramatically expanded the number of child sexual abuse cases filed against municipalities and school districts.
The settlement is expected to be formally approved over the next two weeks by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the county claims board, covering more than 6,800 claims for childhood sexual abuse dating back to 1959. County officials warn that the amount of settlements is likely to lead to budget cuts.
Most cases stem from allegations of abuse that occurred in probation and foster care facilities in the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, according to county officials. A significant number has occurred at McClallen Children's Center, a county-run children's shelter that was open for 42 years east of downtown Los Angeles in El Monte.
Opened in 1961 as a temporary foster home, McClallane was permanently closed in 2003 amid a lawsuit alleging serious abuse of children. A report from the Civil Ju Court at the time revealed that McClallen's managers had been caring for the children and had not checked the employee's criminal history for decades. In a subsequent lawsuit, former residents said staff were raw at the inn at night and sexually assaulted them. Some said they were about five years younger than that.
“On behalf of the county, I sincerely apologize to everyone who has done harm to these reprehensible conduct,” county chief executive Fecia Davenport said in a statement Friday. “The historical scope of this settlement reveals its commitment to helping survivors recover and rebuild their lives.
The proposed payments overturn a $2.4 billion plan to resolve a lawsuit brought against American Boy Scouts by more than 80,000 plaintiffs. And it's well beyond the $1.5 billion cumulative payments made by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles due to allegations of child abuse by clergy and the $1.1 billion allegations the University of Southern California paid to hundreds of patients abused by longtime gynaecologist George Tyndal.
The settlement comes from a change in California law that expanded both public authorities' liability for employee sexual abuse and a window into which victims could file lawsuits. Congressional Bill 218 extended the age limit for child sexual abuse claims to 40 and opened a three-year window for people to sue for accusations that were decades ago.
As that window was closed in late 2022, California municipalities, school districts and other public agencies were accused of crushing lawsuits that generated millions of dollars in payments. In 2023, a $135 million ju judge ruled in an abuse case involving a Riverside County middle school teacher left one school district, totaling $121.5 million. Last year, the Los Angeles Unified School District agreed to pay $24 million to a former student who claimed to have been sexually abused by primary school teachers in 2006 and 2007.
In a January report, the Financial Crisis and Management Assistance Team, which helps California schools manage their finances, estimated that only state public school districts face a total cost of around $3 billion from the “AB 218” lawsuit, warning that the situation could crush some districts on the receiving vessels.
Officials in the state's largest Los Angeles County had warned that the lawsuit could cause the county to go bankrupt before the settlement. The county has a budget of over $45 billion, but is tackling not only the threat of the current recession, but also the costs of recovering from the devastating Los Angeles wildfires.
On Friday, officials said the county likely needs to make budget cuts, immerse themselves in reserves and borrow to pay the settlement. They added that bonds the county is trying to pay for the insurance settlement would require an annual payment of “normal millions of dollars” that “will have a major impact on the county's budget over the next few years.”
Los Angeles attorney Patrick McNicholas, a Los Angeles attorney who represents 1,200 plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the county, said in an interview that the parties negotiated more than a year and a half to compensate the victims and balance the county to settle financially.
“The number of claimants is huge,” he said. “The county is huge, and we had to balance the goals of restorative justice with the county's ability to pay.”
