A San Diego County probation officer has been accused of using racial slurs and crudely swearing at children under his supervision — and also showing boys explicit movies, stopping the film when a naked woman appeared on screen and shouting “See, look at that!” But the allegations against the officer reported last year will not be independently investigated by the county Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board. According to the civilian oversight body known as CLERB, Probation Department officials challenged the board’s request for documents on a number of legal grounds, and without the evidence, its case was dismissed. “A request for records was submitted to the Probation Department,” a new report from the volunteer oversight panel says. “CLERB received a response from the Probation Department via counsel, objecting to the request on several legal grounds.” San Diego County officials said they remain committed to civilian oversight of the agency in charge of juvenile detention and other programs, but they were precluded from releasing details about their wards. “The county believes in the mission of the Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board and will continue to cooperate with its investigations,” spokesperson Chuck Westerheide said by email. “The county will always stand to protect the legal privacy rights of our youth and adult probationers.” Westerheide said the Probation Department has been working with the oversight agency to reach a lawful solution but that some of the board’s efforts exceeded its authority. “If Probation improperly releases juvenile case-file information it will violate the law and the youth’s privacy rights — the effects of which could be catastrophic for the youth’s rehabilitation,” he said. The probation officials’ decision to withhold evidence from the review board was not a one-off. Later last year, four youths jailed in the East Mesa Juvenile Detention Facility suffered medical emergencies that first responders reported as possible overdoses. The review board requested information about how drugs might have gotten into the facility. It was denied any details. “The complainant’s allegations are insufficient to support CLERB’s authority to review and investigate,” the department replied through its lawyer. Even though the review board’s request for evidence was rejected, county officials said the medical emergency did not involve drugs. All four victims had been taken to a nearby hospital for treatment and returned to juvenile hall later that day, they said. They also said they had complied with department policies, including notifying the parents, but denied any negligence or misconduct. With little cooperation from probation officials, the review board also closed that case. “The Probation Department refuted the allegation (of illegal drugs entering the premises) but produced no evidence to support their finding,” the board said. “CLERB was unable to conduct an independent investigation and there was insufficient information to either prove or disprove the alleged misconduct.” Brett Kalina, the review board’s newly appointed executive officer, said he was limited in what he could say about the Probation Department position because he and his board are weighing their options with their lawyer. But “CLERB disputes the Probation Department’s objections to providing juvenile records,” said Kalina, who retired from two decades with the FBI before being named to his current job late this summer. He said talks with the department’s lawyers about legal issues concerning disclosure of juvenile records were “ongoing but not yet resolved.” Before it was withdrawn from the CLERB caseload, the complaint against the officer was referred to the Probation Department’s internal affairs unit and the county Office of Ethics and Compliance. Findings from either of those two offices are unlikely to be made public. The Probation Department’s position to withhold evidence from the independent investigators came weeks after the review board issued findings in late June against three officers. CLERB said the unnamed officers used excessive force against a boy being housed at the East Mesa facility. One officer grabbed the boy’s head and “smashed it down on the concrete floor,” the board reported. That officer no longer works for the county, so the review board has no jurisdiction over that element of the case. In a separate misconduct case, San Diego County last month agreed to pay $1.1 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of a teenage boy who died in the Kearny Mesa juvenile hall in 2021. Alan Arguelles overdosed on fentanyl three years ago and survived. But he was returned to the detention facility and acquired more drugs days later. This time he did not survive. “Despite policies that should have prevented him from obtaining drugs and overdosing, the county failed to ensure Alan’s safety and didn’t conduct adequate safety checks at the facility,” said Kimberly Hutchison, one of the Arguelles family lawyers. The officers charged with his safekeeping did not notice that Alan was dead for hours, even though they were supposed to be checking on him every 15 minutes. He was due to be released less than three weeks later. Among many other responsibilities, the county Probation Office detains young people in two juvenile detention facilities — the East Mesa site in Otay Mesa and a youth transition campus in the Birdland area of San Diego. The average daily population across the two facilities was 254, according to the department’s 2022 annual report, the most recent posted on the county website. The department also supervises thousands of adults on criminal probation, those enrolled in work furlough and re-entry programs, behavioral health court and other diversion efforts. It employs nearly 1,100 people and has an annual budget of just over $320 million. Probation officers also are responsible for interviewing convicted adults and preparing pre-sentencing reports for San Diego Superior Court judges. Unlike the Sheriff’s Office, the much larger county law enforcement agency managed by an elected sheriff, the Probation Department is run by a political appointee named by the Board of Supervisors. The current chief probation officer is Tamika Nelson. Review board records show the complaint about the probation officer who repeatedly used the N-word and showed explicit films to boys was filed anonymously through MaryAnne Pintar, the CLERB chair. The summary of the incident notes that another officer considered documenting the violations but did not out of fear of possible repercussions. “PO 2 wanted to report the concerns but ultimately decided not to because he did not want anything to come back to him,” the report states. Probation officials later informed the board that the witness had retired before it closed its investigation. “CLERB does not have jurisdiction to make findings related to the actions of PO 2 per CLERB Rules and Regulations,” the report said. “CLERB only has jurisdiction (over) peace officers employed by the Sheriff’s Department or the Probation Department.” In the other case, the review board said four boys were suspected of overdosing on drugs at the East Mesa Juvenile Detention Facility in September 2023. But while the Probation Department declined to turn over evidence requested by the review board, the agency told the oversight body that the case involved four separate medical emergencies that did not involve banned substances. “None of these incidents involved legal or illegal drugs or other controlled substances,” the CLERB finding said. “The four youths were transported to local hospitals for evaluation and treatment. They all returned to the facility the same day after being medically cleared.”