State Turns Down Child Abuse Inquiry : Won’t Investigate Claim Youngsters Were Coaxed by Officials

State prosecutors on Thursday turned down a request by Los Angeles County supervisors to investigate contentions from South Bay area parents that several county officials have coaxed children into falsely claiming that they were molested.

In a letter to the Board of Supervisors, Steven White, chief assistant to Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp, said a transcript of a recent board hearing “does not offer allegations or evidence which would justify criminal investigation, nor do we have reason to suspect criminal misconduct on the part of those criticized.”

After a lengthy, closed-door session Nov. 19, supervisors voted 5 to 0 to request a probe into accusations from South Bay residents. The residents claimed that they were victims of overly zealous child-abuse investigations by officials in the health, sheriffs and district attorney’s offices, stemming from the highly publicized McMartin Pre-School molestation case and other incidents of alleged child abuse.

In addition to testimony from parents, the supervisors were briefed by Sheriff Sherman Block on his department’s assessment of the allegations.

The charges were repeated in an emotion-packed hearing Nov. 26, in which supervisors considered the formation of a crisis center at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center to evaluate victims of child abuse. The board voted 5 to 0 to create the center but approved the staffing by only a 3-2 margin, with Supervisors Kenneth Hahn and Ed Edelman saying the board should wait until the attorney general’s office made a decision on the probe.

Health Services Department nurse Mary Logan, an acknowledged expert on child abuse who was chosen to head the crisis center, was among the county officials singled out for criticism by South Bay residents.

Logan, who conducted some of the interviews with children that led to the indictments of several teachers in the McMartin case, and other officials have been accused of eliciting false reports of sexual abuse from youngsters.

A county Fire Department captain told the supervisors that two sheriff’s detectives threatened to put his children into a foster home if he complained after being falsely accused of molesting his daughter.

Supervisor Deane Dana said he was pleased that the attorney general’s office “did not see any reason for a criminal investigation.”

“You don’t know what to expect when you ask them to look into something,” he said.

White noted in his letter that the criticism raised by South Bay residents “may . . . raise procedural questions of concern to the board.”

“If that is the present case, we believe that local authorities, at your request or direction, are thoroughly competent to accomplish the investigation you desire. We would be pleased to then independently review that investigation should you so request,” he wrote.