Antonovich Calls for Juvenile Court ‘Housecleaning’

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich called Monday for a “thorough housecleaning” of the county’s troubled Juvenile Court system, citing a “shocking” report on 14 children who were returned home despite warnings of potential abuse.

The cases--including those of a young boy shown in a videotape with his half-naked father and a baby girl dragged by her mother’s car as she drove away--were summarized in a confidential county document.

The Times reported Sunday that hundreds of children each year are returned by the county’s Juvenile Court system to homes that social workers believe pose a serious danger of physical injury or sexual abuse. The report by lawyers for the county counsel’s office described how four Juvenile Court commissioners in particular had ignored warnings of potential abuse in sending children back to their troubled families.

Antonovich, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, said the cases illustrate the need for a host of reforms in the juvenile dependency court system, which determines whether thousands of children each year should be returned to homes where parents have abused them or other children.

“It was shocking the number of members of the judiciary who would defend incest with babies and deliberately place innocent children in homes with sexual and physical abusers,” Antonovich said. “The dependency court needs a thorough housecleaning.”

Superior Court Judge Michael Nash, the supervising judge of the dependency court, could not be reached for comment Monday. However, he complained last week of the one-sided nature of the county counsel’s report. He noted that like other judicial forums, the dependency court must weigh the evidence that comes before it. “It is an adversary system,” he said.

Court commissioners contended that existing law requires them to place a premium on keeping families together.

Antonovich, who in recent months has called for reforms in the Juvenile Court system, helped get the supervisors to create an independent inspector general to look at how the county treats youngsters from troubled homes.

On Monday, he said the inspector general should go far beyond its original purview, and “look into all cases where a child was returned to the system after new allegations of abuse.”

“The questions the [inspector general] will be asking are: Why was the child returned to the home, what were the determining factors, and how should this be done differently in the future,” Antonovich said. “These [14] will be the type of cases to be reviewed by the individual who is selected by the board.”

Antonovich said the report showed that far more judges’ rulings need to be appealed by the county to make sure that children are not harmed by what he called “this destructive judicial behavior.”

To that end, the supervisor said he would move today at the board’s weekly meeting to approve the hiring of two lawyers to file appeals in cases where the county believes judges have placed children in harm’s way. The San Francisco-based Stuart Foundation recently offered to put up a $42,000 grant to help the county hire the lawyers.

Antonovich also called for more stringent disciplinary actions against any judge who puts children in jeopardy, and for the elimination of the current system in which court-appointed commissioners work side-by-side with judges in hearing dependency court cases.

Because judges are elected by the public, they “can better handle these sensitive matters” than commissioners who serve at the pleasure of judges, he said.

The dependency court now uses eight judges and eight commissioners, as well as two as-needed referees. Judges make about $107,000 a year plus benefits, while the commissioners whom the judges appoint make 95% of the judges’ salary, court officials said Monday.

Supervisor Gloria Molina said the 14 cases merely underscore long-standing concerns she has had regarding the judges, lawyers and social workers in the dependency court system, and show the need for an independent inspector general who is not afraid to tackle such a thorny political problem.

“Everybody is protecting their turf,” Molina said. “But the reality is, there is no one who audits the whole system to see if the system works to protect children. The I.G. is really going to light the way for us.”