Teenager at Area Facility Held in Death of Girlfriend

Less than a week after a 12-year-old was allegedly killed by two older youths living in the same county-sponsored group home, a teenager assigned to a similar residential facility has been arrested on suspicion of killing his girlfriend after being let out on a weekend pass.

Los Angeles police confirmed Wednesday that a 17-year-old resident of the Mid-Valley Youth Center in Van Nuys is being held in the Sylmar Juvenile Hall pending his arraignment on the juvenile equivalent of murder charges.

Police reports allege that the youth was allowed out of placement at the high-security center for troubled adolescents over the last weekend, and that he struck his girlfriend in the face during an early morning argument Sunday. The suspect told police that the victim, also 17, also may have hit her head as she fell, according the reports.

The girl appeared unhurt at first, but died later after passing out and undergoing emergency brain surgery, according to the reports and police sources. The names of the suspect and victim were withheld because of their ages.

Late Wednesday, in response to questions regarding the case, Probation Department spokesman Craig Levy said that the matter will be investigated but that he could not comment in detail because the department had just begun gathering information. Levy did confirm, however, that “the minor was on probation, assigned to the [department’s] placement unit,” which assigns juvenile delinquents to residential homes, such as Mid-Valley.

Mid-Valley administrator Peggy Wilson-Jordan said she could not comment on the specific case. Most Mid-Valley residents have significant drug, alcohol and emotional problems and developmental disabilities, and many “haven’t worked out” at other county facilities for troubled teenagers, she said.

Wilson-Jordan said, however, that the home she runs for about 80 troubled youths has consistently received high marks from county officials and state regulators, who license such residential facilities.

But police and the Los Angeles City Council member who represents Van Nuys questioned why Mid-Valley administrators released the youth over the weekend, particularly because he has what they described as an extensive criminal history that includes repeated probation violations. They also questioned what role the county Probation Department had in the youth’s release; Levy said that is the subject of an internal department investigation.

“It is strange and sad that we would release a criminal who would go out on a pass and commit a murder,” said Capt. Val Paniccia, commanding officer of the LAPD’s West Valley station, whose officers arrested the juvenile after he returned to the Mid-Valley center.

Councilwoman Laura Chick called on county officials to investigate the matter, particularly to see if the Probation Department is adequately supervising the youths it places in such homes and whether the facilities should better screen potentially violent youths it allows out on passes.

“It appears that this tragedy may have been avoided, but only with a proper investigation [will] we determine if this is the case,” Chick wrote in a letter sent Wednesday to all five county supervisors, acting Chief Probation Officer Walter Kelly and other officials. “I remain concerned that if this juvenile offender, with a history of violating his probation, was given a weekend pass, this kind of tragedy could happen again.”

Chick said the slaying is particularly troublesome in light of the well-publicized case last week in which a 12-year-old was killed, allegedly by two older residents of another group home where all three of them lived.

The two suspects in that case appeared before a juvenile judge Wednesday and entered the equivalent of innocent pleas.

“Coming on the heels of the other thing, it’s pretty grim,” said Chick, who heads the City Council’s Public Safety Committee. “I’m not advocating scooping up all youthful offenders and throwing them in a dungeon and locking away the key. But now we have seen two cases where not enough caution was taken and [where] there was clearly not the needed kind of supervision.”

Board of Supervisors Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky echoed those concerns. After receiving Chick’s letter, he called on probation chief Kelly to launch a “top-to-bottom review of all group home contracts, all release policy and all furlough requests.”

Yaroslavsky said there are about 80 contracts involving 2,100 minors in group home placements countywide. “Each of these contracts should be immediately reviewed,” Yaroslavsky said in a letter to Kelly. He also suggested other reforms, such as requiring that probation supervisors and even juvenile court officers review furlough requests.

Wilson-Jordan said the teenagers at Mid-Valley are well-monitored, and allowed out for weekend passes only with the specific permission of their probation officers or caseworkers with the county Department of Children and Family Services. “We are a very structured facility,” Wilson-Jordan said. “Our kids need to toe the line.”