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Los Angeles County has approved a $4 billion settlement for nearly 7,000 claims of sexual abuse in juvenile facilities and foster homes throughout the area - the largest of its kind in U.S history.
The county board of supervisors voted Tuesday to settle lawsuits by thousands of people who said they were sexually abused while in foster care and juvenile detention facilities, the Associated Press reports. Some cases date as far back as 1959.
The settlement stems from a 2021 lawsuit against the county. The lawsuit followed a 2020 state law that waived the statute of limitations on childhood sexual abuse cases, allowing people to come forward within a three-year window.
“While no amount of money can erase the horrors that they endured, this agreement acknowledges the profound harm inflicted on thousands of children over the course of decades,” Adam Slater, an attorney for one of the plaintiffs, said Tuesday.
The exact amount each individual gets will be determined and administered by an independent expert team, the board said. The county will likely be making payments until 2051.
This marks the largest aggregate sexual abuse settlement in U.S. history, far surpassing the previous record-holder: the $2.6 billion settlement reached with the Boy Scouts of America.
Many of the claims are tied to the MacLaren Children's Center, a shelter that permanently closed in 2003. Investigations into some of those claims are ongoing, and two cases may even be prosecuted by the district attorney.
Several abuse survivors spoke at the board’s public meeting Tuesday to recount their experiences, according to LAist.
Scott Brougham, 64, said he “went through hell” in a Los Angeles juvenile hall beginning when he was 14.
“If you want to know who the victims are, we’re still here,” Brougham said. “And there should be accountability.”
“We were children, we were not a number, we were not a line item on a budget report,” a man who identified himself as John Doe added. “We were children.”
L.A. County CEO Fesia Davenport has apologized to the survivors on behalf of the county.
"On behalf of the County, I apologize wholeheartedly to everyone who was harmed by these reprehensible acts," Davenport said in a statement earlier this month.
"The historic scope of this settlement makes clear that we are committed to helping the survivors recover and rebuild their lives - and to making and enforcing the systemic changes needed to keep young people safe," she added.
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