12-Year-Old Boy Held in Rape of Cousin, 4

A 12-year-old boy released on a weekend pass from a home for troubled youths raped his 4-year-old cousin, who was then refused treatment by a doctor at a nearby hospital, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies said Monday.

The assault occurred about 7 p.m. Sunday during the girl’s visit to the Lancaster home of the boy’s mother, authorities said.

Deputies of the Sheriff’s Department’s child abuse unit called for an investigation of the girl’s treatment by an emergency room physician, who they said handled her roughly during an examination early Monday at Lancaster Community Hospital.

The doctor at first refused to test the child for signs of rape and left her in the emergency room for 90 minutes while seeing other patients, according to a Sheriff’s Department report.

When the doctor returned, the girl cried during the exam and the doctor refused to further treat her, saying she was “being uncooperative,” authorities said.

“This is really strange,” said Det. David Fletcher. “To keep a little victim waiting that long, especially after what she had been through, that’s insane.”

The emergency room doctor could not be reached for comment. Carol Fryer, a hospital spokeswoman, said the physician is not a hospital employee, but works there occasionally as an employee of a Malibu service that provides medical staff.

Fryer said that, for legal reasons, she could not discuss the incident.

Authorities said the boy suspected in the rape was himself molested at age 4. He was on a weekend leave from the LeRoy Haynes Center for troubled youth in Laverne, where he has lived the last few years.

The boy was arrested early Monday and was being held at Sylmar Juvenile Hall on suspicion of forcible rape, oral copulation, sodomy and penetration by a foreign object. He is expected to be arraigned today or Wednesday, Fletcher said.

The 4-year-old girl was scheduled for further tests today at County-USC Medical Center. Fletcher said she was at home and in good condition Monday.

The girl had been left at the home of her great-aunt after her mother went to work, Fletcher said.

Fletcher said he met with the 12-year-old boy for 90 minutes Monday and described him as “a confused, troubled young man who has a hard time with the truth.”

“He looks innocent, like Opie from the Andy Griffith show almost. . . . But he was raped by a family friend at age 4. And any time a child is molested, especially at his age, they’ll act out,” Fletcher said.

“I told the kid, ‘You’re just a baby. You’re hardly in the world.’ It’s sad, it really is. I have a 13-year-old, so when you see this, you just see your own. You say ‘Dang, how can this be happening?’ ”