Probation officer is accused of child abuse

A Los Angeles County probation officer who was fired for opening minors’ cells and allowing them to fight with one another was indicted this week on felony child abuse charges, according to the district attorney’s office.

Diane Buchanan, 37, who had worked at Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar, was arraigned Tuesday. She pleaded not guilty to one count each of willful cruelty likely to produce great bodily injury or death to a child, corporal injury to a child and assault with a deadly weapon, not a firearm, with great bodily injury.

In May 2005, Buchanan allegedly accused a youth at Nidorf of stealing her cellphone, subsequently allowing four other minors to retaliate against the accused thief by physically assaulting him. The injured youth was left in his cell and did not receive treatment until the next day, according to Probation Department documents. Buchanan later found the phone in the juvenile hall’s parking lot.

Chief Probation Officer Robert B. Taylor, who urged the district attorney’s office to review the incident, said Friday that he “was actually pleased” with the criminal charges.

“We believe that somebody who’s engaged in the public trust and violates that trust . . . should be prosecuted,” he said.

The indictment was returned by the grand jury Oct. 12 but remained sealed until Buchanan’s arraignment this week. If convicted, she could face up to six years in state prison.

The charges come amid continued U.S. Department of Justice scrutiny of the county’s three juvenile halls, which were cited for problems with mental health care, safety and the education of adolescent offenders.

Probation officials are expecting an evaluation of the county’s 19 probation camps in the wake of federal inspections earlier this year.

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susannah.rosenblatt@latimes.com