LOS ANGELES — A majority of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors and members of an oversight panel called for the ouster of the head of the Probation Department this week after the Los Angeles Times published a disturbing video showing staff at a juvenile facility violently restraining a teenage boy.
Four of the five supervisors — Janice Hahn, Kathryn Barger, Lindsey Horvath and Holly Mitchell — called for Chief Adolfo Gonzales’ resignation Friday morning, a day after the county’s Probation Oversight Commission recommended he be fired. The commission, which is an advisory body, also voted unanimously that Gonzales’ second in command, Deputy Probation Chief Karen Fletcher, should be fired as well.
“I have lost confidence in Chief Gonzales’ ability to run our Probation Department. His ineffective leadership is hurting both the youth in our care and our staff who deserve better,” Hahn said in a statement. “I believe the best way forward is for Chief Gonzales to step down.”
