Attorney Alleges ‘Whitewash’ in D.A. Probe of Juvenile Hall

An American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Tuesday accused the Orange County district attorney’s office of conducting a “whitewash” of the county Probation Department’s treatment of two inmates at Juvenile Hall.

In a letter to Dist. Atty. Cecil Hicks, Harry Lerner said the investigation into allegations made in a federal lawsuit he filed in August “has been tainted by a clear conflict of interest.”

Lerner said that there were “institutional, professional and personal ties between your office and the Probation Department,” which operates Juvenile Hall, and contended that the investigation should have been turned over to the state attorney general’s office.

Lerner’s lawsuit alleged that two youths, identified only as Matt X and Cliff Y, complained that they had been “assaulted, beaten and tortured by the guards” at Juvenile Hall. A judge dismissed the suit in November, saying it belonged in state court.

Lerner said he expects to refile the suit shortly in state court.

Juvenile Hall authorities denied the allegations. Michael A. Schumacher, head of the Probation Department, called the staff “dedicated, humane, well-trained professionals.”

Two weeks ago, Assistant Dist. Atty. Maurice L. Evans told Schumacher in a letter that the investigation showed that the claims by the two youths were “without merit” and that evidence indicated Juvenile Hall workers used “reasonable force when dealing with the two juveniles.”

But Lerner complained that investigators from the district attorney’s office questioned the youths in September without his consent.

“The only fair conclusion is that your office undertook not a criminal investigation, (but) a criminal obstruction of justice and a whitewash,” Lerner said in his letter to Hicks.

In addition, Lerner filed a complaint as an individual attorney, rather than as an ACLU representative, with the State Bar of California about Evans, stemming from the fact that investigators questioned the youths without Lerner being present.

Hicks could not be reached for comment.

Evans said: “I haven’t seen (the letters), and I have no comment.”

Lerner also complained in a letter to Karen Kitty, an assistant superintendent at Juvenile Hall, that he was turned away Monday evening when he attempted to visit the two youths. He said he was never notified that his permission to visit was revoked. Lerner contends that the youths are his clients and that he has the right to visit them even though the federal lawsuit was dismissed.