Teen-Ager at Juvenile Hall Dies of Apparent Chokehold

A 16-year-old juvenile court ward died of an apparent chokehold in a high-security wing of Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall after a struggle with two staff members trying to restrain him, authorities said Wednesday.

Police and the Los Angeles County coroner’s office are investigating the death of Dion Anthony Bowie, an alleged Los Angeles gang member, who was taken to Downey Community Hospital by paramedics Tuesday night after they found him on the floor of his single cell. They said he was not breathing.

“It appears that a restraint hold was put on him,” said Downey Police Lt. Michael Wheatley, who noted that there were no apparent injuries other than a slight swelling of Bowie’s neck. “The staff member involved was questioned but is not in custody at this point.”

Paul Higa, head of the county’s three juvenile halls, said he would not comment on the incident or say why Bowie was in juvenile hall, which is for minors awaiting court hearings or transfer to county juvenile detention camps and facilities operated by the California Youth Authority.

One county source said Bowie was in custody for allegedly assaulting a staff member at a group home for troubled youths and was scheduled to appear in Juvenile Court on the matter this week.

Higa said use of the chokehold by staff members is prohibited. Barry Nidorf, head of the county Probation Department, which oversees juvenile hall facilities, said he will order an internal investigation after police have issued their report. Wheatley said the district attorney’s office will decide whether to press charges based on the result of his department’s investigation and an autopsy, which is expected to be completed today.

There are conflicting accounts of what happened, but apparently Bowie and two other youths were being led from their isolation cells by four staff members to participate in a mandatory recreation period Tuesday evening when the trouble started, police said.

The isolation cells, which are small rooms with a concrete bed and a toilet, are reserved for those wards who have gotten into trouble mixing with other juveniles, county probation employees said.

Bowie and one of the other youths were members of a Crips gang from the Lynwood area, Wheatley said.

Shouting among the inmates escalated into a scuffle, and the staff members struggled to return them to their cells. One staff member told police detectives he saw two of his colleagues dragging Bowie into his cell. One man had an arm around Bowie’s neck in a chokehold and the other was holding his arm, Wheatley said.

Police said there are conflicting accounts of how long Bowie was in his cell before being checked by the juvenile hall nurse. County policy requires that juveniles who have been involved in such altercations be immediately examined for injuries, Probation Department employees said.

One staff member, a supervisor, told police he heard Bowie talking as he was being put into his cell and then Bowie and the two staff members were out of his sight for about 15 seconds, Wheatley said.

Wheatley said juvenile hall authorities called for paramedics at 7:42 p.m. after a nurse checked on Bowie and discovered that he was not breathing. He was pronounced dead by hospital doctors.

Bowie had been at Los Padrinos since October and had apparently been a ward of the court for two years, Wheatley said. That designation means he has probably been abandoned by parents or had parents found to be unfit.

State authorities in July, 1990, revoked the certificate of operation for the 35-year-old Los Padrinos facility because of health and safety violations that were later corrected.