L.A. County probation officer charged with beatings of teen inmates at Sylmar juvenile facility
A Los Angeles County probation officer has been charged with assaulting three teen inmates at a Sylmar juvenile hall, including a videotaped beating that prosecutors contend was ordered by a supervisor.
Timothy Boundy, 42, was charged with three counts of assault under color of authority in a series of physical clashes between October 2015 and April 2016, according to a statement by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.
Boundy pleaded not guilty Thursday. A probation supervisor, Sergio Cano, was also charged with assault under color of authority. Prosecutors allege that he ordered several officers, including Boundy, to pin down and pummel a 17-year-old inmate at the Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar in April 2016.
Cano pleaded not guilty Wednesday and remains on administrative leave from the probation department, according to his attorney, Winston McKesson.
The beating was caught on tape and leaked to the blog WitnessLA last year. The blog did not publish the video, but it said the footage showed four officers punching and kicking a “non-combative 17-year-old probationer” while a supervisor looked on.
Boundy was also accused of assaulting a teen as he tried to leave his room in February of last year, and of tossing another teen inmate to the ground and striking him in October 2015.
A third defendant, Carlos Antonio Portillo, is also facing charges of assault under color of authority in the videotaped incident, according to court records. A spokesman for the district attorney’s office declined to comment on his case.
Probation officials have said they fired two probation officers in connection with the videotaped beating at the Sylmar facility but declined to identify them. Kerri Webb, an agency spokeswoman, has declined to comment on Portillo’s status with the department or the WitnessLA report that two additional officers were involved in the alleged assault.
Los Angeles County Chief Probation Officer Terri McDonald said Wednesday that the videotaped attack triggered a review of seven other use-of-force incidents at the Sylmar facility in which probation officers were found to have either used excessive force or lied to internal investigators.
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