Teens overdosed on spiked water, suit alleges

Several teens overdosed at a Los Angeles County juvenile hall last year after they drank from a water jug spiked with a "dangerous narcotic" that was passed around in a classroom, according to a federal civil rights lawsuit filed last month.

- JAMES QUEALLY

A STATE BOARD found L.A. County's Los Padrinos facility unsafe for youths. It will reinspect in August.

The April 2025 incident at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey sent three teenagers to a hospital, months after a California oversight body ruled the facility was not a safe place for youths to be housed. The suit alleges the overdoses were caused by a combination of an L.A.

County Probation Department policy banning youths from having personal water bottles and the department's failure to properly staff the hall.

An overdose victim who brought the lawsuit said in court filings that he became lightheaded, began vomiting and struggled to maintain control of his body after drinking from the spiked jug on April 12. The teen is not being identified by The Times because he was a juvenile at the time of the incident.

Another juvenile in detention passed around the tainted jug, according to the suit. The teen who brought the claim said he remained ill for weeks after the incident, suffering from regular nausea and body weakness.

Probation officials contend the water bottle ban is common practice and consistent with state law, but the lawsuit alleges it paved the way for the overdoses. It says the teen who overdosed was put into "an absurd and vulnerable position." Probation officials "neither installed functional water fountains nor provided individual water bottles to students, nor did they adequately staff the classroom," the suit said.