By Neil Farrell ~
Three Southern California former police officers were formally charged on Sept. 18 with various misdemeanor child abuse allegations in connection with a “boot camp” for at-risk youth held last May at Camp San Luis.
District Attorney Dan Dow said his office filed “multiple counts of misdemeanor child abuse, including corporal punishment causing injury to a child, cruelty to a child, and battery. The 10 alleged victims are minors between the ages of 12 and 16.”
Defendants are: Edgar Yovany Gomez, 35, and Carlos Manuel Gomez-Marquez 32, who are brothers and were police officers with the South Gate Police Department and Marissa Elizabeth Larios, 36, who was employed by Huntington Park Police Department as a police officer.
A fourth suspect in the case, South Gate P.D. Ofc. Patrick Marvin Nijland, 47, is being accused of similar charges down in Los Angeles County. According to District Attorney Dan Dow, “The conduct Officer Nijland committed was in L.A. County prior to the trip with the kids to SLO County. We did not have jurisdiction to charge him. We referred those charges to the L.A. District Attorney’s Office.”
All four were among instructors at a boot camp for at-risk youth, called “Leadership, Empowerment, and Discipline” or L.E.A.D. and coordinated and staffed by police officers form Huntington Park and Southgate, according to a news release from D.A. Dow’s office.
The boot camp was held from May 17-24 at Camp San Luis, and is one of several such camps held there for at-risk youth by various other organizations. The L.E.A.D. camp has been held there annually since 2007.
The County Sheriff’s Office investigated the matter after being notified of the kids’ claims of abuse on May 28 by Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.
The County Sheriff said in early August, “after a two month investigation which involved interviewing 37 participants at the camp, Sheriff’s detectives were able to identify 15 male and female victims ranging in age from 12 to 17-years old who claimed they were assaulted by the drill instructors while at the camp.” The number of possible victims was apparently pared down to 10 during the investigation.
It should be noted that all of the alleged victims were from Southern California and the case does not involve any local kids.
The three local defendants — the Gomez brothers and Larios — pled not guilty through their lawyers at an arraignment held Sept. 21. Because the charges are misdemeanors, they are not required to appear in court for preliminary hearings and such, until the case actually goes to trial.
All three had been arrested while at work in L.A. County back in early August. Each posted $20,000 bail and was released.
SLO County Deputy District Attorney, Craig van Rooyen, was assigned to prosecute the cases.
