Riverside County Juvenile Hall Sexual Abuse Lawsuits

Our lawyers are investigating sexual abuse claims against Riverside County by survivors who were held as children at Riverside Juvenile Hall, Southwest Juvenile Hall in Murrieta, Indio Juvenile Hall, and other Riverside County Probation facilities. If you were sexually abused by a staff member or another detainee while you were in Riverside County custody, you may be able to bring a civil lawsuit against the county. Our lawyers expect many of these sexual abuse lawsuits against Riverside County to be successful.

Call us at 800-553-8082 or contact us online for a free and confidential case review.

November 2026 Riverside County Juvenile Hall Lawsuit Update

Two Riverside County Probation Employees Arrested in Juvenile Sexual Misconduct Investigations

On July 12, 2026, Riverside County probation supervisor Nancy Salcedo was arrested after investigators received a report that she had an inappropriate relationship with a boy in juvenile custody. According to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office, Salcedo was booked on suspicion of annoying and molesting a juvenile and unauthorized computer access. Investigators said there may be additional victims and asked anyone with information to come forward.

This was not the first time. In January 2025, former Riverside County probation corrections officer Cecilia Pulido was arrested on suspicion of sexual contact with a boy in custody. She had been hired in December 2023 and resigned before the allegations were reported to law enforcement. Investigators said the two allegedly had intimate contact at least once.

News reports described these investigations as involving Riverside Juvenile Hall. The original Riverside Juvenile Hall closed in January 2020, and the public arrest reports do not clearly identify which current facility housed the children. The arrests do not establish criminal guilt. But two arrests involving Riverside County probation employees and children in custody within 18 months should get everyone’s attention.

Criminal cases also tend to surface only the abuse that someone finally reported. In our experience, for every child who reports, there are far too many others who never do.

Riverside County Juvenile Detention Facilities

Riverside County Probation operates juvenile detention and treatment facilities in three parts of the county. Some facility names have changed over the years, and the original Riverside Juvenile Hall is now closed. If you were held in Riverside County as a child, you may recognize one of these locations.

Riverside Juvenile Hall

The original Riverside Juvenile Hall was located at 3933 Harrison Street in Riverside. The facility served generations of children in county custody before permanently closing on January 29, 2020. Riverside County Probation’s 2021 Annual Report confirms the closure and transfer of the remaining youth to other facilities.

Someone abused at Riverside Juvenile Hall years ago may remember Harrison Street, while someone held in Riverside County more recently may have been at the Alan M. Crogan Center. They are different facilities.

Alan M. Crogan Youth Treatment and Education Center

The Alan M. Crogan Youth Treatment and Education Center is located at 10000 County Farm Road in Riverside. The facility provides secure detention and court-ordered treatment programs for youth in Riverside County custody. It includes residential housing, education, behavioral health services, and longer-term treatment programs.

The Crogan Center is one of the county’s current juvenile detention facilities. It is sometimes confused with the former Riverside Juvenile Hall on Harrison Street.

Southwest Juvenile Hall

Southwest Juvenile Hall is located at 30755-C Auld Road in Murrieta and serves the southwestern part of the county, including Temecula, Murrieta, Lake Elsinore, and Menifee.

Indio Juvenile Hall

Indio Juvenile Hall is located at 47665 Oasis Street in Indio and serves the Coachella Valley and the eastern part of Riverside County.

Twin Pines Ranch and Other County Programs

Riverside County also operated Twin Pines Ranch, a probation camp for boys near Banning, along with other treatment programs for youth committed by the juvenile court. If you were abused at a Riverside County Probation facility, the same general legal principles may apply, although the facts and deadlines must be evaluated individually.

Who Can File a Riverside County Juvenile Hall Sexual Abuse Lawsuit?

The plaintiffs in these cases are survivors who were sexually abused as children by probation officers, detention staff, or other employees. These victims may have civil claims against Riverside County. Children who were sexually assaulted by other detainees may also have claims if the county failed to take reasonable steps to protect them. Most of these claims are not as strong as the county employee cases because they are harder to prove. But many of these cases are viable because evidence shows the employees of these juvenile halls did little to protect these children.

One big misconception is whether you need a criminal conviction to bring a civil lawsuit. You do not. Taking it a step further, you do not need to have reported the abuse at the time or ever. And you do not need to remember the name of the person who abused you. Our lawyers can investigate all of those things.

Our firm is currently reviewing California juvenile detention claims involving survivors who will be under age 40 when a lawsuit is filed. That is our current intake rule. California law may permit some older survivors to file claims as well, but those cases fall outside our present screening criteria.

We want to know where you were held, approximately when you were there, and what happened. If you remember the housing unit, the staff member’s job, or another person who knew about the abuse, that can help. But you do not need to have every detail figured out before calling.

Riverside County Is Next

Los Angeles County has committed more than $4.8 billion to settle juvenile detention and foster care sexual abuse claims. San Diego County is facing more than 300 plaintiffs. In San Bernardino County, next door to Riverside, more than 250 former detainees have filed suit in 2026 alone.

There has not been quite the same wave of sexual abuse lawsuits in Riverside County, but we expect more will continue to be filed. Riverside County has the same problem as these other California municipalities. None of them protected children as well as they needed to.

Riverside County operates three juvenile detention and treatment facilities with the same basic power structure as its neighbors: probation staff with enormous control over children, locked units, and kids who may be afraid to report abuse because the people they are complaining about control so much of their daily lives.

The pressure on these county facilities has also grown. When California closed its state juvenile prison system between 2021 and 2023, counties became responsible for young people who previously would have been sent to state facilities, including many with the most serious needs. Riverside County’s facilities had to absorb those youth.

The county’s own orientation handbook says it has zero tolerance for sexual abuse. It tells youth they can report abuse to a trusted staff member, submit a confidential grievance, or contact an independent ombudsperson. Those protections are important. But having a rule and making it work are two different things. The county nailed one and dropped the ball on the other.

Survivors of California juvenile halls describe how that control gets used. Staff decide who gets extra food, phone calls, family visits, and time out of a cell. A staff member who wants something from a child can hand out those things as rewards, take them away as punishment, and threaten isolation or discipline for refusing. Some staff bring in outside food or other items as a reward for keeping quiet. To a child in a locked unit, none of that is small.

Who Can Be Held Responsible?

The person who abused you is responsible. We start there. But in nearly every one of these cases, the defendant that matters is Riverside County.

That is partly about money. An individual probation officer who sexually abused children will not have the money to pay a fair settlement or verdict. So you need the deep pocket to get the justice of fair compensation. But it is mostly about accountability. The county hired the staff, trained them, supervised them, and decided what to do when a child reported abuse. The questions that decide these cases are institutional:

• Did the county check the background of the person it put in charge of you?
• Were staff allowed to be alone with youth in rooms, showers, or vehicles?
• Were there earlier complaints about the same staff member?
• Were cameras working, and were they watched?
• What happened when you or another child reported abuse?

You do not need to know the answers. We will get these questions answered for you.

What If I Was Abused by Another Detainee?

You may still have a claim. A juvenile hall has a legal duty to protect the children it locks up, including from other detainees. These cases focus on what staff knew or should have known, whether you were housed with someone dangerous, and whether reasonable supervision would have prevented the assault.

They can be harder than cases involving staff abuse. But they can be strong cases when a facility ignored warnings or failed to protect a child from a danger it knew about.

What Was Riverside County Supposed to Do When a Child Reported Sexual Abuse?

Again, Riverside County did not lack written rules. That was not the problem. It had its own rule and it also had the Prison Rape Elimination Act that required staff to immediately report information about sexual abuse, sexual harassment, retaliation, and situations where a child was at substantial risk of abuse.

These rules also required staff responding to a reported assault to separate the child from the person accused of abusing them, protect evidence, document what happened, and take steps to notify law enforcement. The county’s published procedures provide for reporting through grievances, medical or mental health staff, and an ombudsperson outside the facility.

Following these rules and protecting kids is not rocket science. If a child says someone sexually assaulted them, you protect the child, investigate what happened, and make sure the person accused cannot abuse someone else while the matter is being investigated. If you see evidence that makes you suspicious of an employee, you investigate the heck out of that employee. What you cannot do is sit on your hands and do nothing.

But the real question in a civil lawsuit is whether the county followed its own rules. Did someone receive a complaint and do nothing? Was a staff member allowed to continue working alone with children? Did a supervisor dismiss a report because the person accused was a longtime employee? Was there a record of earlier incidents?

What Evidence Can Prove Riverside County Was Responsible?

One of the hardest things about these cases is that the abuse often happened years ago, behind locked doors, with no independent witnesses. The child may have told someone, or may have been too frightened to say anything. Years later, the survivor may have nothing except their memory of what happened.

That does not mean there is no case.

The evidence we look for includes:

• Housing and movement records: Where the child was housed, when they were moved, and who had access to them.
• Staff assignments: Shift rosters, unit assignments, and records identifying the employees working at the facility.
• Prior complaints: Grievances, internal investigations, disciplinary records, and warnings involving the same employee.
• Incident reports and available recordings: Records showing what happened when someone reported misconduct, including any surviving video or investigative evidence.
• Other witnesses: Former residents, staff members, teachers, medical personnel, and anyone else who may remember what happened.

Some records may no longer exist. Others may have to be obtained through litigation. And a lack of a written complaint does not mean the abuse did not happen.

The point is to build the case around the survivor’s account and find whatever evidence exists to support it. We do not expect someone who was abused as a child in detention to have collected evidence for a lawsuit they might not bring until decades later.

How Long Do You Have to File a Riverside County Juvenile Hall Lawsuit?

If the abuse happened on or after January 1, 2024, there is no statute of limitations for a qualifying childhood sexual assault claim under California law.

If the abuse happened before January 1, 2024, California Code of Civil Procedure section 340.11 generally allows a lawsuit within 22 years of turning 18, or within five years of discovering that a psychological injury or illness suffered as an adult was caused by the abuse, whichever period expires later. The discovery rule has specific requirements, and it is not automatic. (This is one reason why our cutoff is age 40 for new clients.)

In 2026, California passed SB 577, which makes these cases harder for survivors. Beginning January 1, 2027, the law reduces that five-year discovery period to three years. The new law also establishes additional requirements for certain claims filed against public entities, their employees, or agents by plaintiffs age 40 or older. For specified claims involving abuse before 2024 and filed on or after January 1, 2026, plaintiffs age 40 or older must meet a clear and convincing evidence standard concerning the public entity’s knowledge, failure to take reasonable safeguards, and negligent failure to perform a mandatory duty. SB 577 takes effect January 1, 2027, even though that provision addresses cases filed beginning in 2026.

Qualifying childhood sexual assault claims against a county generally do not require a separate government claim to be presented before filing suit. Other legal requirements may still apply.

Our firm’s current intake screening for California juvenile detention claims focuses on survivors who will be under age 40 when a lawsuit is filed. Again, that is our law firm’s bright-line screening criterion, not the full extent of California law. Survivors age 40 or older may still have legal options and should obtain an independent evaluation of their deadlines.

If you are in your 30s, do not wait. The difference between filing before and after your 40th birthday can decide your case.

What Is a Riverside County Juvenile Hall Sexual Abuse Claim Worth?

No honest lawyer can tell you what your case is worth before looking at the facts. But you deserve a frame of reference. So we will share our thinking on settlement value, as long as you understand it is our judgment and not a guarantee.

The best comparison in California is Los Angeles County. No matter what anyone says, this settlement is an anchor that will bleed into other California juvenile hall sexual abuse settlements. Its $4 billion settlement was originally announced in April 2025 to resolve approximately 6,800 childhood sexual abuse claims. As originally announced, that is just under $600,000 a claim. Will Riverside pay more than that? Less than that? No one knows but we all know this is the ballpark in which these cases should be settling.

In our lawyers’ experience, these are the factors that drive the settlement value of a juvenile hall sexual abuse case:

Riverside County Juvenile Hall Lawsuit FAQs

Contact Us About a Riverside County Juvenile Hall Sexual Abuse Lawsuit

If you were sexually abused at Riverside Juvenile Hall, the Alan M. Crogan Youth Treatment and Education Center, Southwest Juvenile Hall, Indio Juvenile Hall, or another Riverside County Probation facility, we want to hear from you. The call is free and confidential, and you pay nothing unless we recover money for you.

Call us at 800-553-8082 or contact us online. You can also learn more on our California juvenile detention sex abuse lawsuit page.