Women allege they were sexually abused 5 decades ago at infamous MacLaren Center

Two women allege they were repeatedly sexually assaulted more than 50 years ago by male employees at the MacLaren Children’s Center, an infamous foster care facility in El Monte shuttered in 2003 after a class-action lawsuit revealed decades of abuse while under Los Angeles County’s watch.

The women, identified as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2  in a lawsuit filed Wednesday against the county, are now 54 and 61 years old, respectively. They allege that while housed at MacLaren they were subjected to forced vaginal intercourse, oral sex, digital penetration, groping and other sexual abuse. They are seeking unspecified damages for physical and mental suffering.

“They were put in this institution, treated like garbage and thrown away,” said attorney Natalie Weatherford, who represents both women.

Los Angeles County officials declined to comment.

The women reside in Southern California and didn’t know each other prior to the lawsuit, but share similar histories of alleged abuse at MacLaren.

Abused by orderlies

Jane Doe 1 was abused numerous times by male orderlies who worked in the bungalow where she lived beginning in 1967 at age 1 and continuing until 1975, when she was 8 years old, Weatherford said. Jane Doe 2 allegedly suffered similar abuse beginning in 1968 at age 8 and continuing for about a year, she said.

In 2002, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California and other organizations filed a class-action suit against the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services decrying inhumane treatment at MacLaren.

“Many of the most troubled children, those most in need of therapy and individual attention, had been warehoused for years in a jail-like, Dickensian county facility called MacLaren, where they were so neglected that their care was characterized by ACLU attorneys on the case as ‘amounting to government sponsored child abuse,’ ” the ACLU wrote in its 2003-04 annual report.

Los Angeles County settled the suit with the ACLU, closed MacLaren in 2003 and has paid settlements to some individuals who were abused at the facility.

Emotional scars

While specific dates of the abuse allegedly suffered by Weatherford’s clients are murky due to the passage of time, their emotional scars remain unhealed.

“They have had huge difficulties in every part of their lives in how they approach the world, other people, men and relationships,” Weatherford said. “It has created deep trauma and trust issues that are difficult for them to reconcile.”

For years, the women were denied a chance at justice due to statute of limitations preventing their cases from moving forward. However, they received a glimmer of hope in September 2019 with the state Legislature’s passage of Assembly Bill 218, also known as the California Child Victims Act.

The legislation opened a three-year window starting Jan. 1, 2020, allowing sexual abuse victims of any age to file civil lawsuits no matter when the abuse occurred, or if their alleged abuser is alive or dead.

“While our lawsuit is new, it isn’t like they (Jane Doe 1 and Jane  Doe 2) weren’t talking to people who were protecting their abusers,” Weatherford said. “They were screaming every night over this abuse. But those at MacLaren didn’t care. My clients are looking forward to confronting those that abused them and those that covered up the abuse.”