CYA Official Retired After Probe Began, Senator Says

A former superintendent at the Ventura School juvenile prison retired last fall after state investigators tried to question him about allegations that he had improper sexual relations with female employees at the Camarillo facility, a state senator said Thursday.

Manuel Carbajal, 55, retired in November as superintendent at the California Youth Authority’s induction facility in Norwalk after the state inspector general’s office began investigating the complaints, according to Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley).

Wright, who requested the inspector general’s investigation, said Carbajal was transferred to the Norwalk facility as superintendent in 1993, despite complaints that he sexually harassed and had sexual relations with subordinates at the Ventura County youth prison.

Women employees in Norwalk have also complained about alleged harassment by Carbajal during the past year, Wright said.

“This has been festering for a long time,” Wright said. “And it’s an absolute abuse of power. When you have chicken pox, you don’t spread it around. You deal with it.”

Carbajal could not be reached for comment. He did not respond to telephone messages left at his home.

Solange Brooks, chief deputy inspector general, confirmed her office has investigated Carbajal’s alleged misconduct.

“There are allegations that were brought against Mr. Carbajal that we’re looking into, and they cover a range of things,” Brooks said. “And I can tell you that’s part of the report that will be completed at the end of the month.”

The inspector general’s office began investigating conditions at Ventura School six months ago, after Wright told investigators that six women had complained to her about mismanagement and sexual harassment.

Since then, at least six more current or former employees have complained of conditions at the school, Wright said.

Ventura School has been a center of controversy since 1997, when Wright and other state lawmakers accused the youth authority of covering up inmate rapes by guards. Three officers were later fired or forced out.

The current turmoil has prompted two parallel investigations, the inspector general’s harassment and mismanagement probe, and a separate internal investigation by the CYA into possible criminal sexual misconduct by employees.

A former Ventura School teacher was charged with having oral sex with two 17-year-old inmates two weeks ago. Bradley Gardner, 42, of Camarillo, was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday but it was delayed until March 4 to give the former Ventura School vocational teacher time to review reports tied to the case.

In an interview after his court appearance Thursday, Gardner said he had sought help from administrators in supervising the wards.

“The biggest point is that when people wanted to get help with problems supervising the wards, they kind of turned their heads the other way and said, ‘It’s not a problem,’ ” Gardner said. “Until now.”

Youth authority investigators say criminal cases against seven other past and present employees have been sent to local prosecutors.

Altogether, nine school employees have been fired or forced out, authorities said. The current school administration insists the problems have been cleaned up and the school is now running on a sound footing.

But Wright said Thursday that change could have come years earlier if misconduct such as alleged against Carbajal had been taken seriously.

Youth authority regulations prohibit sexual relations between supervisors and subordinates. But Wright believes the rule was routinely broken at the top at Ventura School.

“The pressure gets too great, and they’re transferred,” she said. “They should be fired on the spot.”

The inspector general’s inquiry has focused not only on bad management practices that fail to punish administrators who break the rules, but also on punishment meted out to women who complain about harassment, Wright said.

“These complaints are either altered or lost,” Wright maintains. “They’re told they have no basis for their charges or the paperwork disappears. And they’re left high and dry because they’ve gone against this code of silence.”

Wright said several of the women who have complained to her also filed formal complaints, only to be punished themselves. “You look at this group, and they’ve been fired or gone out on stress disability, and they’re all the ones who had been filing complaints.”

Wright last week called for the removal of top school officials, as well as youth authority Director Francisco Alarcon, because of the problems at Ventura School.

Alarcon declined to be interviewed Thursday, but youth authority spokesman J.P. Tremblay said the agency cracks down on any reported misconduct. He would not comment on Carbajal because of the ongoing inquiry.

“The policy is that if there are any allegations of sexual misconduct or sexual harassment it is treated very seriously,” Tremblay said. “It is fully investigated by the internal affairs unit. We do not tolerate any misconduct by staff.”

That has been the case at least since Alarcon’s appointment in 1995, Tremblay said.

Chuck Kubasek, assistant superintendent at Ventura School, said that since he came to Ventura School four years ago he has not been aware of any supervisors dating subordinates.

“I do not know of a supervisor having a relationship with somebody they supervise,” he said.

There have been a number of times, however, when a supervisor and his subordinate have been attracted to each other and had to change jobs to avoid a violation of policy. “They had to be reassigned for that relationship to continue,” Kubasek said, “because the minute they start dating somebody, they’re in violation of policy.”

If one employee does not supervise another, they could date without a problem, he said. The prison superintendent is in charge of all employees at a facility, he said.

Carbajal, a 29-year youth authority employee, came to Ventura School in 1990 from a superintendent’s job at Karl Holton School in Stockton.

Since joining the department in 1969, Carbajal had worked his way up from guard to social worker to parole agent to assistant superintendent in 1985.

He holds a master’s degree in social work from UCLA.