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Home / Sexual Abuse Lawsuits / San Diego & San Bernardino Juvenile
A San Diego & San Bernardino juvenile hall abuse lawsuit follows a path Los Angeles County has already walked. L.A. County’s $4 billion settlement showed what accountability looks like.
Hundreds of survivors are now pursuing that same accountability against San Diego and San Bernardino counties, for abuse by probation officers, counselors and staff at juvenile halls, camps and children’s shelters stretching back to the 1970s.
Abused in juvenile detention?
About 2 minutes · free · confidential
Before anything legal, support is available right now
A lawsuit is never the urgent step. You are. The RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline is free, confidential and open 24 hours a day at 1-800-656-4673, with online chat at hotline.rainn.org. If you are in crisis, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is there by calling or texting 988.
If a child is being abused now, report it to the NCMEC CyberTipline at 1-800-843-5678 or your local child protective services. If anyone is in immediate danger, call 911.
Where you safely can, keep letters, records, names and dates. But your safety and your health come first, always.
Eligibility
If any of these describe you, a free review is worth the two minutes it takes. Under AB 218, timing is often the whole question.
East Mesa, Kearny Mesa, San Bernardino Juvenile Hall, High Desert, JDAC, Heman G. Stark and county probation camps.
The county’s emergency shelter, where survivors as young as 2 at the time allege abuse from the early 1990s through 2023.
Women abused there as minors are filing claims alongside the juvenile hall litigation.
Where staff negligence, housing decisions or ignored warnings enabled the assault, the county can be held responsible.
AB 218 generally allows filing until age 40, or within five years of discovering the psychological harm, whichever is later.
Retaliation is alleged across this litigation and goes directly to what the county knew and tolerated.
Close to 40, or not sure which facility counts?
Both questions have real answers and neither is obvious. A free, confidential conversation settles them and commits you to nothing.
Anonymous John Doe, Jane Doe or Roe filing is routinely available in these cases. Compensation can cover therapy and future treatment, lost earnings and life impact, and pain and suffering, with the counties’ documented notice of these dangers pushing value upward. Meeting these guidelines does not mean you have a valid claim. A participating law firm decides on its own whether to take a case. Direct2Attorney cannot judge the legal merits of your case or give legal advice.
What holds survivors back, and what is actually true
Almost everyone who contacts us waited, often for decades, and usually for one of these reasons.
What holds survivors back
Survivors assume a closed institution means there is nobody left to sue.
What is true
Heman G. Stark closed, and claims arising from it are still being filed. The responsible public entity remains, and so does its liability.
What holds survivors back
Survivors from the Polinsky Center often think the litigation is only about detention.
What is true
More than 100 survivors allege widespread abuse of children aged 2 to 17 at the county’s emergency shelter, from the early 1990s through 2023.
What holds survivors back
The age-40 rule makes survivors close to the line assume they have already lost.
What is true
AB 218 allows filing until age 40 or within five years of discovering the connection to your adult harm, whichever is later. The discovery route reaches past 40 for some survivors.
What holds survivors back
Retaliation taught survivors that reporting made things worse, and that lesson lasted.
What is true
Plaintiffs in the Polinsky litigation describe threats of worse treatment for reporting. Documented retaliation goes directly to what the county knew and tolerated.
The record
Since 2019, San Diego and San Bernardino counties have faced hundreds of lawsuits from survivors who were sexually abused as minors in county-run juvenile facilities by probation officers, counselors and other staff.
The complaints describe the same institutional failures documented across California: chronic under-supervision, ignored complaints, underreported incidents, and probation departments that protected staff instead of children.
A 2008 U.S. Department of Justice report documenting undertrained staff, unreported abuse and missing safeguards in county facilities now serves as powerful supporting evidence that officials were on notice, and failed to act.
The benchmark next door
Los Angeles County resolved more than 6,800 juvenile facility and foster care claims for $4 billion, and in October 2025 approved a further $828 million settlement covering about 400 more claims. Survivors’ attorneys are pressing San Diego and San Bernardino toward the same reckoning. That settlement does not pay your claim and does not set your number. But it established on a public record what these county systems did, and neighboring-county litigation is now negotiated in its shadow.
Why the DOJ report matters so much
The hardest thing to prove in an institutional claim is usually notice: that officials knew and did not act. A federal report documenting undertrained staff, unreported abuse and missing safeguards in these facilities does much of that work before a single deposition is taken.
It is also why claims from before and after that report can be valued very differently on otherwise similar facts.
| Facility in the litigation | What survivors allege |
|---|---|
| East Mesa Juvenile Detention Facility (San Diego County) | Staff abuse claims brought by former detainees. |
| Kearny Mesa Juvenile Detention Facility (San Diego County) | San Diego Juvenile Hall, with abuse allegations spanning decades. |
| Girls Rehabilitation Facility (San Diego County) | Claims by women abused there as minors. |
| A.B. and Jessie Polinsky Children’s Center (San Diego County) | The county’s emergency shelter for children. More than 100 survivors allege widespread abuse of children aged 2 to 17 from the early 1990s through 2023, enabled by what plaintiffs describe as a total lack of supervision and failed background screening. Plaintiffs proceed under Roe pseudonyms and describe threats of worse treatment for reporting. |
| San Bernardino Juvenile Hall | A federal lawsuit re-filed in U.S. District Court in Riverside in May 2026 alleges 10 former detainees, held between 1998 and 2005, were sexually abused by staff. County negligence claims in the wider litigation reach back to the 1970s. |
| High Desert Juvenile Detention & Assessment Center (Apple Valley) | Multiple former detainees allege officers exploited their authority while the Probation Department ignored complaints and failed to investigate known predators. |
| Juvenile Detention & Assessment Center (JDAC), San Bernardino County | Staff abuse claims arising from county supervision failures. |
| Heman G. Stark Youth Correctional Facility (Chino) | Once ranked among the most violent juvenile institutions in the nation before its closure, and now the source of numerous sexual abuse claims. |
Facility names are used only to identify where claims arise. Allegations in pending cases have not been proven, and the counties and the state dispute them. Direct2Attorney is not affiliated with San Diego County, San Bernardino County, the State of California or any court.
How it happens, in plain words
Many survivors still carry blame that was never theirs. These patterns, described here at a general level only, explain why abuse in county custody happened and why so few children could tell anyone.
Probation staff decided when you ate, slept, called home or went to court. That control, with too little supervision, made abuse possible.
Abusers often offered privileges or threatened to take them away. That is coercion, not a choice a child made.
Survivors describe being threatened with worse treatment for reporting. Silence was a reasonable way to survive.
Complaints were ignored or underreported, and known risks were not investigated. That pattern is what a San Diego & San Bernardino juvenile hall abuse lawsuit is about.
You do not need these records yourself
Most of them sit with the county or the state. A law firm asks for them through the lawsuit. Your memory of roughly where and when is enough to start.
Healing and support
Healing does not depend on a lawsuit, and it can start at any time, even decades later. These are common options survivors use. A claim can help pay for them, but you do not have to wait for one.
General information only. A licensed provider can help you decide what fits you.
Right now
RAINN at 1-800-656-4673 or hotline.rainn.org, and the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by call or text. Both are free and confidential.
Therapy
Approaches such as trauma-focused CBT, cognitive processing therapy and EMDR are built to help with PTSD, flashbacks, anger, anxiety and sleep problems.
Not alone
Many survivors of custody or foster care find it easier to talk with others who were there too, in person or online.
Body and mind
A doctor or psychiatrist can treat depression, anxiety, sleep problems and physical health effects, including with medication if it helps.
Other struggles
Some survivors used alcohol or drugs to cope. Treatment that understands trauma can address both together.
Your pace
If you pursue a claim, you choose what to share and when. You can pause or stop. Your wellbeing comes before any deadline conversation.
Quick self-check
You will not be asked what happened. If you can say yes to most of these, a free, confidential review is worth asking for.
Were you held or placed as a young person at a San Diego or San Bernardino County juvenile hall, camp, shelter or youth facility?
Was the person who harmed you staff, or did staff fail to protect you from another young person?
Are you under 40, or did you only recently connect your adult struggles to what happened?
Have you not yet filed a claim or spoken with a lawyer about it?
Requirements
You do not need any of this to start. A firm builds it with you, mostly from county records. But every claim rests on these four things.
You were in their care
Records showing the facility and your dates there.
The county’s failure
It knew or should have known, and failed to protect you.
Harm to you
The effect on your health, work, family and life.
Filed in time
Including the short government claim step.
Case status
Hundreds of survivors have sued the two counties since 2019, and firms are still accepting new cases.
Which county, and which defendant
Heman G. Stark was operated within the state youth correctional system, so claims there route differently from county juvenile hall claims. Polinsky is a county shelter rather than a detention facility. Each routes to a different defendant and sometimes a different court. You do not need to work any of this out. An attorney identifies the correct defendant. You tell your story once.
DOJ report puts officials on notice
A U.S. Department of Justice report documents undertrained staff, unreported abuse and missing safeguards in county facilities.
Lawsuits against both counties begin
Survivors begin filing against San Diego and San Bernardino counties over abuse in county-run juvenile facilities.
L.A. County $4 billion settlement
Los Angeles County resolves more than 6,800 juvenile facility and foster care claims.
L.A. County adds $828 million
A further settlement covers about 400 more claims, setting the backdrop for neighboring counties.
San Bernardino federal suit re-filed
A lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Riverside alleges 10 former detainees were sexually abused by staff at San Bernardino Juvenile Hall.
Hundreds of claims pending
Polinsky, juvenile hall and Stark claims continue, and new survivors are still coming forward.
If you are in danger or crisis right now, call 911, or call or text 988. RAINN’s hotline is open 24/7 at 1-800-656-4673. If a child is being harmed now, contact local child protective services or the NCMEC CyberTipline at 1-800-843-5678.
Compensation
No settlement undoes what happened in county custody. What a claim can do is pay for what you need now, and put the county’s own records on the table.
No one can tell you what a claim is worth, and no one can promise you will recover anything. Past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future case. Fees and costs come out of any recovery.
What happens next
Nothing happens that you do not agree to. You decide what to share and when.
Which facility, roughly when, and your age at the time. Not what happened. Free, with no obligation.
Usually within a day. You decide what to share and when, and you can stop at any point without explaining why.
Probation department records, staffing logs, incident reports, personnel files and the DOJ findings, obtained through discovery rather than from your memory.
Filed as a Doe or Roe where the court allows, against the correct county or state defendant for your facility.
READY WHEN YOU ARE
Share only what you choose.
Filing deadlines
California’s deadline for childhood sexual assault claims is set by AB 218, codified at Code of Civil Procedure § 340.1. It generally allows filing until age 40, or within five years of discovering that adult psychological harm was caused by the abuse, whichever is later. Claims against county and state entities can carry extra, much shorter procedural deadlines.
The age-40 rule makes timing central. A survivor at 39 and a survivor at 41 can be in very different positions on the same facts.
Claims against counties often require a written government claim presented within months, well before the lawsuit deadline itself.
Where a therapist helps you connect adult harm to childhood abuse, the five-year clock may start at that realization rather than at the abuse.
Heman G. Stark was a state facility. Polinsky is a county shelter. The correct defendant changes the procedure and sometimes the deadline.
Because these rules have changed so much in recent years, the answer people assume is often wrong, in both directions. It costs nothing to have someone check.
This is general information, not legal advice, and it is not a calculation of your deadline. Deadlines are set by law, differ by claim type and defendant, change when lawmakers amend them, and can be shortened or extended by facts specific to you. Only an attorney licensed in California can determine the deadline that applies to you. If a deadline passes, a claim is usually barred for good, whatever its merits, so the safer course is always to ask early.
Not sure whether your time has run out?
Most people guess, and many guess wrong in the direction that costs them the claim. Finding out takes about two minutes and costs nothing.
The no-fee promise
Participating firms take these cases on contingency. That means the fee is a percentage of any recovery. If there is no recovery, no attorney fee is owed.
No retainer. No hourly billing. No invoice arriving while you are already paying for therapy. Cost should never be the reason a survivor never finds out what their options were.
What that covers
What to ask about
Fee arrangements are set by the law firm you sign with, not by Direct2Attorney, and vary between firms. Settlements on behalf of a minor generally need court approval and may be placed in a protected account until the child becomes an adult. Read the agreement and ask questions before signing anything.
Why survivors use us
You set the pace
Our intake team is trauma-informed. You share only what you choose to share, and nobody pushes you past that.
Firms in the county litigation
We connect you with firms actively litigating San Diego and San Bernardino county claims, including the Polinsky cases.
Private from the first call
Roe and Doe filing is routine in this litigation. Your information is encrypted and handled under our Privacy Policy.
Deadline-aware from day one
Your age, the discovery date and any government claim requirement are checked first, not last.
What Direct2Attorney is
A legal marketing and referral service. We check whether your situation matches what participating law firms are looking for, and connect you with one of them if it does.
What Direct2Attorney is not
We are not a law firm, a counseling service or a reporting agency. For support, the RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline is free and confidential 24/7 at 1-800-656-4673. In an emergency, call 911.
Firms are reviewing San Diego and San Bernardino claims
You do not need a police report. You do not need a conviction. You do not need to know which county department ran the building, and you will not be asked to describe anything on this page.
If you were held at any of these facilities, that conversation is free, confidential, and yours to end whenever you choose.
What happens after you ask
We check your answers
Usually the same business day
A participating firm may call you
At the time you choose
You decide what comes next
No cost and no obligation, ever
Questions survivors ask
Still have a question? Ask on the call, or by email first if that feels easier. There is no obligation either way.
Start a confidential review →Yes. The Polinsky Children’s Center litigation is one of the largest pieces of the San Diego cases — more than 100 survivors allege abuse at the county’s emergency shelter involving children as young as 2, from the early 1990s through 2023.
Stark was operated within the state youth correctional system, so claims route differently from county juvenile hall claims — but survivors from Stark are actively filing. An attorney identifies the correct defendant; you only need to tell your story once.
It does not pay your claim and it does not set your number. What it did was prove on a public record that these county systems failed children on a massive scale, and establish what juries and county boards treat as serious. Neighbouring-county litigation is now negotiated in its shadow.
Update: in October 2025, Los Angeles County approved a further $828 million settlement covering about 400 more claims.
Not necessarily — AB 218 allows filing until age 40, or within five years of discovering the connection between the abuse and your adult harm, whichever is later. But at 39, every month counts, so get your deadline confirmed immediately.
No. The defendant is the county or state entity that operated it, not the building. Claims arising from closed facilities including Heman G. Stark are actively being filed.
Often, yes. The county had a duty to supervise and protect the children in its custody. Where negligent supervision, housing decisions or ignored warnings enabled the assault, the county can be held liable.
Nothing. The review is free and confidential with no obligation. If a participating law firm takes the case, it will normally work on contingency, meaning the fee comes out of any recovery and no attorney fee is owed if there is no recovery.
No. To start, you only share the basics: which facility, roughly when, and your age at the time. If a firm calls you, you decide what to share and when, and you can stop at any point.
In the news
Careful, plain-English articles from our editorial team on new filings, laws and deadlines, and what each one means for survivors.
Official resources
Learn more
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