CYA Facility’s Top Official Is Demoted, Reassigned

The superintendent of the Ventura School juvenile prison has been demoted and transferred to another youth facility in the wake of scandals involving mismanagement and sexual misconduct.

School Supt. Mary Herrera, a 23-year California Youth Authority veteran, has been reassigned as a deputy superintendent to the Heman G. Stark Youth Correctional Facility in Chino, CYA Assistant Director J.P. Tremblay said Monday.

Herrera, Assistant Supt. Chuck Kubasek and security chief James J. McDuffy were suspended last month after the state inspector general found a “systemic problem” of lax management that overlooked sexual misconduct by employees and inmates.

The futures of Kubasek and McDuffy have yet to be determined.

CYA Director Gregori Zermeno made the decision to reassign Herrera, who started at the Ventura School in April 1997. Herrera, 48, was notified of the transfer Monday and is expected to assume her new position within a month. She was unavailable for comment Monday.

After Herrera’s suspension in late February, veteran CYA administrator Gregory Lowe was appointed interim superintendent of the Ventura School. Zermeno said a decision is expected within a week on whether Lowe will remain as superintendent.

Tremblay did not comment Monday on why Herrera was transferred. But Inspector General Lloyd Wood said last month that Herrera knowingly accepted and forwarded an incomplete investigation into an employee’s conduct, then apparently did not tell the truth to the state personnel board. He also said Herrera halted an inquiry into what he found to be a “pattern of misconduct” by a youth counselor.

The inspector general’s office began investigating conditions at the Ventura School seven months ago after state Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) told investigators that six women had complained to her about mismanagement and sexual harassment. Since then, at least six additional current or former employees have complained of abusive conditions at the school.

The inspector general’s report, completed Feb. 24, noted “a climate of fear among employees” and 64 misconduct investigations by internal affairs in 1998 alone.

In addition to the inspector general’s examination, the Youth Authority is investigating possible criminal sexual misconduct by Ventura School employees.

A former teacher was charged in January with having oral sex with two 17-year-old inmates. And Youth Authority investigators say criminal cases against seven other former and current employees have been sent to local prosecutors.