In separate complaints to the CHP’s Motor Carrier Safety Unit dated March 28 and April 18, whistleblowers in the district’s transportation department claim the district is “knowingly and repeatedly” violating state laws on the number of hours school bus drivers are allowed to work, “placing exhausted school bus drivers behind the wheel of vehicles transporting children.”

“The scale of the violations suggests not negligence, but systemic operational misconduct,” according to the 18-page complaint dated April 18.

Both complaints contain data the reporting parties claim was gleaned from the district’s digital timekeeping system.

The March 28 complaint documents hundreds of instances in which more than 40 drivers allegedly exceeded state safety limits from July 2025 to March 2026.

The reporting employees identified 247 primary violations, including 227 cases in which drivers worked 80 to 85 hours over an eight-day period, surpassing the 80-hour limit, and 19 instances in which drivers worked more than 90 hours in an eight-day period. Additionally, there were 20 cases of drivers working more than the 16-hour cap for a single day.

The April 18 complaint alleged that from January to April this year, at least 16 drivers worked more than 16 hours in one day. The report also documented more than 100 instances of drivers working more than 80 hours in a rolling eight-day period from Jan. 5 to April 17, with nine of the employees having worked more than 90 hours, according to the complaint.

“Driver fatigue is one of the leading causes of commercial vehicle crashes,” the April 18 complaint says. “California law strictly limits pupil transportation hours because fatigued bus drivers kill people. If these numbers are accurate — and they come from the district’s own system — Hemet Unified may be operating in a manner that is illegal, dangerous and deceptive.”

It went on to say: “The purpose of this report is not to assign blame or make legal determinations. … Rather, the objective is to bring transparency to these issues, promote accountability, and prevent a potentially serious incident including death resulting from driver fatigue and inadequate dispatching practices.”

Sgt. Omar Morales of the CHP’s Border Division said Thursday the investigation began in mid-April and is a joint effort between the motor carrier safety units of both the Border and Inland divisions. Morales said he couldn’t divulge any details about the investigation but said it should conclude “in the next couple of months.”

Was district unresponsive?

One of the reporting employees, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said more than a half-dozen employees felt compelled to report the alleged violations to the CHP and the media after complaints to the district’s transportation manager and a district administrator fell on deaf ears.

“This is a huge deal in our world of commercial driving. In this industry, they teach it and preach it — do not violate these laws,” said the employee, referring to California Vehicle Code Section 21702 and Title 13 of the California Code of Regulations Section 1212.

Collectively, those laws limit school bus drivers to 10 hours of driving in a day, prohibit them from remaining on duty beyond 16 hours after reporting for work, and bar them from driving after accumulating 80 on-duty hours in any consecutive eight-day period.

District spokesperson Brenda Aguirre-Hassan said the claim that employees reported their concerns to the district’s transportation manager and a district administrator was unsubstantiated.

“The District has not received any formal reports or complaints directly related to these allegations,” Aguirre-Hassan said in an email.

She said the district is “actively reviewing the personnel aspects related to the CHP investigation into the complaint received.”

Rigorous safety protocols

Aguirre-Hassan said the district maintains rigorous safety protocols that align with all laws, rules and regulations as it relates to pupil transportation.

“To uphold these standards, we provide comprehensive, recurring training for our staff, specifically focused on regulatory compliance and the highest levels of operational safety,” Aguirre-Hassan said in an email.

To verify the accuracy of drive time records, Aguirre-Hassan said, the district utilizes a combination of digital time tracking and manual logs, as required by law, to verify bus driver hours of service. She said the records are subject to regular internal audits by the transportation department and are also available for inspection by the CHP during their scheduled and unscheduled terminal evaluations.

“We are currently evaluating enhancements to our auditing software to provide real-time alerts for when hours of service levels are reaching the required limits,” Aguirre-Hassan said.

She said it is important to note that, prior to the CHP probe, the district has maintained a longstanding record of “satisfactory” ratings, the highest rating achievable, during CHP inspections.

“While we pride ourselves on our positive reputation within the community, our primary focus remains the safety of our students,” she said. “We are committed to upholding these high standards through continuous improvement and rigorous adherence to all safety regulations. We want our families and community to know that student safety is at the center of everything we do, and we are committed to operating with transparency, accountability, and care in all aspects of our work.”

Serves other districts

Under the leadership of former Transportation Manager Michael Fogerty, Hemet Unified transformed its department into a regional transportation hub for students in 2014. With one of Southern California’s largest school bus fleets, Hemet Unified provided busing services for roughly 20 neighboring districts and agencies, generating millions in outside revenue.

District leaders said the interagency contracts help offset operational costs, fund fleet upgrades and keep transportation financially self-sustaining.

Hemet Unified did not provide a list of all the school districts and agencies it has agreements with for busing services, but the April 18 complaint notes the district serves the Perris Union High School District, Perris Elementary, Nuview Union Elementary and Romoland school districts, and San Jacinto and Val Verde unified school districts, among others.

“This workload generates millions in revenue,” the complaint alleges. “Multiple employees believe the district is sacrificing safety to meet contract volume. Several employees believe the district is knowingly violating HOS (hours of service) laws to maintain revenue-producing trip volume.”

Aguirre-Hassan said Hemet Unified currently employs 239 professional school drivers.

High executive turnover

According to the April 18 complaint, the district’s transportation department has experienced high turnover in recent years, including two executive directors resigning in the past three years, as well as three transportation managers and one coordinator.

“Staff report that some newly hired managers lack a basic understanding of pupil transportation law and have allegedly provided illegal operational guidance,” the complaint states.

Since Fogerty’s retirement about five years ago, the district employee speaking on condition of anonymity said the once well-oiled machine that was the district’s transportation department and busing system has devolved to a state of managerial inefficiency and communication breakdowns.

“There’s frustration among staff that the district leadership doesn’t understand the legal requirements to run this department,” the employee said.

Most notably, the April 18 complaint alleges, the district appointed Jeff Keeney, the former principal of Valle Vista Elementary School, to executive director of the transportation department, reportedly emphasizing the need for “someone who can cheerlead” while overlooking the operational and regulatory expertise required for such a position.

Additionally, several managers remain new to their roles and appear to lack a working understanding of applicable laws and regulations, the complaint said.

Immigration detainers are requests from ICE asking a law enforcement agency to warn ICE before they release a deportable immigrant and hold them for an extra 48 hours so that immigration agents have time to take them into custody.

In 2025, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department transferred 158 of the 1,380 people in their jails with a detainer to ICE custody, a rate of 11.4%.

In San Bernardino County, 180 of the 1,674 people with an ICE detainer were transferred, a rate of 10.8%.

Inland Empire sheriff’s departments transferred a higher percentage of prisoners to ICE than the Los Angeles or Orange county sheriff’s departments, which transferred 4.6% and 7.6% of prisoners with immigration detainers on them, respectively.

Across California in 2025, 2,077 people out of the 24,438 people with immigration detainers were transferred to ICE custody, or 8.49%.

The data was assembled by Keith Maben, a sophomore at Claremont McKenna College and the head of the Immigration Task Force at the Mgrublian Center for Human Rights.

“San Bernardino and Riverside County were on the higher end of enforcement data. So both of them had results where about 10 to 12% of these detainees that came in actually resulted in people (going into) in ICE custody. So, that’s higher than the statewide average, which lies around 8%,” he said.

“Which sounds like not a very large increase. But if you look on the other end of the spectrum, there are a number of counties — for instance, Santa Clara County — which sends less than 1% of those detainees,” said Maben, who’s originally from Santa Clara.

Among the ways the Bay Area’s Santa Clara County is a very different place than the Inland Empire is in its 2024 presidential election results. According to the California Secretary of State’s office, 68% of Santa Clara County voters chose Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. In Riverside County, it was almost a split decision, with 48% of voters going for Harris and 49.3% going for Donald Trump. It was a similar story in San Bernardino County, where 47.5% of voters went for Harris and 49.7% went for Trump.

And you can see that divide in Maben’s results.

The 11 sheriff’s departments that transferred the highest percentage of prisoners with detainers to ICE, according to the Mgrublian Center analysis, were largely conservative-leaning :

• Imperial – 33.7%
• Kings – 29.1%
• Santa Barbara – 24.9%
• Tuolomne – 24.3%
• Del Norte – 22.2%
• Madera – 21.7%
• Lassen – 19%
• San Diego – 15.1%
• San Luis Obispo – 15%
• Fresno – 13.4%
• Ventura – 12.8%

Riverside and San Bernardino county sheriff’s departments ranked 12th and 13th in turnover rates, out of 58 counties.

“More conservative counties tend to elect more conservative sheriffs who tend to enforce California state law in a very different way than more liberal sheriffs do,” he said.

At least, for the most part.

“Interestingly, the county with (one of the) highest turnover rates was Santa Barbara County,” Maben said. In Santa Barbara County, 61.8% of 2024 presidential election voters voted for Kamala Harris.

Maben noted possible problems with some of the data.

He pulled data from the Deportation Data Project website, which in turn assembles its information through public records requests to federal agencies. He was looking at how local sheriff’s departments interpreted 2017’s Senate Bill 54, also known as the California Values Act. The law sets limits on how California law enforcement agencies can work with ICE.

In some cases, sheriff’s departments sign memorandums of understanding clarifying what they will and won’t do with federal immigration authorities, which Maben obtained through California Public Records Act requests.

Maben obtained multiple documents outlining cooperation between Riverside County and federal immigration agencies. They include a 2020 memorandum of understanding with Homeland Security Investigations and a 2024 agreement with the U.S. Border Patrol, both for the purpose of combating drug smuggling operations.

“We found a very strong effect where California sheriffs who tended to cooperate with federal government or have certain memorandums of understanding,” Maben said. “We found they tended to also have enforcement data where more and more of their inmates ended up in federal custody at the end of the day.”

Riverside County’s 2018 ICE Detainer Eligibility Worksheet includes a list of 30 serious or violent felonies that, should a prisoner be convicted of them, would justify deputies notifying ICE prior to the prisoner’s release.

“Effectively telling the the deputies that if you can in any way figure out a way to tie the violation to particular state law, you should do it,” Maben said.

Eddie Torres, policy director of the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, said the Riverside and San Bernardino County sheriff’s department numbers are “alarming, but not surprising.”

He suspects part of the high transfer rates are due to the presence of the Adelanto ICE Processing Center and the Desert View Annex next door in San Bernardino County.

“When you have a detention center near you, it makes sense you’d have a higher rate of transfers, because it makes logistical sense,” Torres said.

Angel Fajardo, executive director of the Inland Empire Immigrant Youth Collective, agreed.

“Considering the California Values Act passed back in 2018, that is supposed to limit the partnership of local law enforcement with ice and border patrol, it’s ridiculous that this is still an issue,” she wrote in an email.

Inland Empire sheriff’s departments “have proven again and again their desire to support detention and anti-immigrant rhetoric,” she wrote.

“We know that the proximity to the largest and deadliest detention center on the West Coast, the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, is also an influencing factor when it comes to our local authorities continuing to ignore the law and transferring our community to this horrible facility,” Fajardo wrote.

The Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice is spearheading the Shut Down Adelanto Coalition, a group of more than 20 local, state and national organizations attempting to shut down the Adelanto facilities.

“We were really close back in 2023 when the contract was up,” but the federal government ultimately renewed the contract with GEO Group, which operates the two facilities, for another five years, Torres said.

Riverside County turning over a more-than-average percentage of people with immigration detainers coincides with Chad Bianco’s time as Riverside County sheriff.

Bianco is now running for governor.  His campaign website argues that California needs to “work with the federal government to stop illegal border crossings,” abolish policies like SB 54, and “ensure local law enforcement is free to collaborate with federal partners when dealing with illegal immigrants who commit crimes.”

The Bianco campaign referred all questions to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.

“The Riverside Sheriff’s Office complies with the law, and no discretion is exercised,” department spokesperson Lt. Deirdre Vickers wrote in an email. “First, the Sheriff’s Office receives a request for transfers from ICE. The Sheriff’s Office then determines the inmates who meet the requirements under SB 54. Of those inmates, ICE determines which inmates are transferred into their custody. The Riverside Sheriff’s Office complies with the transfer request.”

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department disputes the data assembled by Maben. According to the department, 1,423 notifications from ICE were received, not 1,674, and 47 people were transferred to ICE custody, rather than 180.

Maben agrees that the data from the Deportation Data Project is likely imperfect, given that it’s largely reverse-engineered from data obtained through federal Freedom Of Information Act requests, rather than being reported directly by federal authorities.

“I think that it’s important to always take this data with a grain of salt,” Maben said. “It tells us something, but it’s not going to inform the whole story.”

A point ICE agreed with, more or less.

“The Deportation Data Project is an external organization. ICE systems do not support the data provided by this project,” an emailed statement from the agency reads in part. “As a result, ICE cannot verify or confirm the source, accuracy, or completeness of the data the Deportation Data Project uses and how familiar this project is with the intricacies of immigration policy, law, and processes.”

San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus also blamed SB 54 for the on-the-street immigration enforcement activities seen since Donald Trump returned to office in 2025.

“From a public safety standpoint, I have been clear that the safest and most controlled environment for the transfer of individuals into federal custody is within a secure jail setting,” Dicus said in a written statement.

“Prior to SB 54, programs like 287(g) allowed for that type of coordination, reducing the need for at-large enforcement actions in our communities,” he continued. “Those in-custody transfers provided a more predictable, secure, and efficient process for law enforcement and reduced risk to the public. Current law prohibits that level of coordination, and as a result, transfers that could occur safely within a custodial setting are now more likely to occur in the field. That shift introduces additional operational risk for federal officers and the public. For that reason, I believe California should reevaluate these restrictions and consider policy changes that allow for safe, in-custody transfers under clearly defined legal standards.”

In Los Angeles County, “a federal judicial warrant signed by a judge must be presented for any inmate to be transferred into ICE custody,” a written statement from the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department reads in part. “That is consistent with California law and county policy.”

But who ICE does and does not pick up is largely out of local sheriff’s department hands, according to Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes.

“I have nothing to do with how many inmates with detainers ICE picks up,” Barnes posted on Facebook in March. “The only thing I do is make them available for pickup when their commitment is fulfilled. It is ICE’s sole decision on whether they pick them up or not. If they do not pick them up, I am obligated to release them back into the community.”

ICE did not respond to questions about what factors into whether federal immigration agents pick up people from county jails.

The ICIJ’s Torres suspects 2026 will see even more people taken into custody by federal immigration facilities, in part because of the government’s drive to convert warehouses around the country into detention centers.

Locally, immigration agents are conducting fewer arrests in public, switching instead to more “tactical” operations in places like courthouses, according to Torres.

“If they see someone who looks like an immigrant, they arrest first and ask questions later,” he said. “We can’t take our eyes off of what’s going on.”

Maben’s full report for the Mgrublian Center is expected to be published in the next few weeks.

More on immigration enforcement in the Inland Empire

• San Bernardino County sheriff opposes bill to bar ICE from California courthouse grounds
• Big Bear Lake man released from ICE custody – a day before his wife dies of cancer
• The Adelanto ICE detention center population quadrupled in 2025 — but 911 calls increased sixfold
• How a bill would make it harder for ICE to make arrests near California courthouses
• Mexican authorities seek answers after reported detainee death at ICE facility in California, officials say

The county, in a recently published assessment of the death, found there was “inadequate supervision due to critical staffing issues” and disclosed that officers were subsequently disciplined in the aftermath for failing to follow department policy.

This month, in light of the findings, the Los Angeles County Claims Board recommended the Board of Supervisors pay a $2.5 million settlement to Marlen Medina, the mother of 18-year-old Bryan Diaz, to resolve a federal wrongful death lawsuit. Attorneys for the two sides submitted a notice of settlement to the court back in January 2025, but the case has stalled since then due to the county’s lengthy review process, according to court filings.

A county spokesperson declined to say when the settlement will go to the supervisors for final approval. Attorneys for the county indicated in an April 15 status report to the judge that they would use their “best efforts” to ensure the settlement is presented “at the earliest available opportunity.”

Death called an accident

Diaz, who died in May 2023, was facing an attempted murder charge and had been inside the Barry J. Nidorf Secure Youth Treatment Facility for less than two months. The Los Angeles County medical examiner classified his death as an accident caused by the effects of fentanyl.

Medina’s lawsuit alleges officers did not perform safety checks on Diaz from 9 p.m. May 8, 2023, when he was last seen alive, to 8 a.m. May 9, when he was found unresponsive. State law requires safety checks every 15 minutes.

The window of Diaz’s cell had been covered, and staff could not see inside, according to the lawsuit. Staff members are supposed to immediately remove, or instruct detainees to remove, any obstruction.

The department declined to provide additional information about the disciplinary actions taken against the officers.

Drugs allegedly supplied by staff

The lawsuit further alleges a probation officer, Michael Solis, and a teacher, Alejandro Lopez, supplied the drugs that killed the teen. The county’s assessment makes no mention of that allegation, and Vicky Waters, the spokesperson for the Probation Department, declined to comment on it due to the pending litigation.

David McLane, the attorney for Medina, also declined to discuss the case as the settlement has yet to be approved.

Two deputy probation officers, who claimed they were placed on leave for investigating Solis, similarly alleged Solis and Avila were the sources for fentanyl in the facility, according to an October 2023 letter from their attorney to Probation Chief Guillermo Viera Rosa.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office did charge Solis and Lopez, separately, in June and July — roughly a year after the allegations were made in the lawsuit — for allegedly smuggling Xanax into the county’s juvenile facilities. However, none of the charges related directly to Diaz and the crimes alleged in their respective criminal complaints occurred after his death.

Both men have pleaded not guilty and their cases have yet to progress beyond the initial arraignment.

Investigations into Diaz’s death by the Los Angeles Police Department and the L.A. County Probation Department led investigators to Solis and Avila, according to the lawsuit.

Warning signs

Advocates, a county watchdog and even a judge had warned for months before Diaz’s death that rampant drug use inside the county’s juvenile facilities would lead to disaster if the county did not make changes. At least six youths in custody were hospitalized for suspected drug use in the months after Diaz’s death.

An investigation by the Office of the Inspector General found that lax security, driven by a dire staffing crisis, had allowed drugs to proliferate at several L.A. County juvenile facilities. Drug runners threw contraband over the walls, dropped packages with drones and even walked through security — posing as fake food delivery drivers — without ever being searched, the OIG’s report found.

Emails obtained through a public records request described a “state of emergency” inside the Secure Youth Treatment Facility, in particular, with one credible messenger warning probation’s leadership that “someone will die unless you take immediate and extreme action” just two months before Diaz’s overdose.

‘State of emergency’

Filmmaker Scott Budnick, founder of the Anti-Recidivism Coalition and a member of the Board of State and Community Corrections, wrote in a March 2023 email to then-Probation Chief Karen Fletcher that he witnessed a group of youths “smoking and playing video games 5 deep in one room — away from cameras” and another six smoking marijuana in a circle in the bathroom. He described “the amount of pills and marijuana and phones in the unit” as astounding.

“Unit X is in a state of emergency, and no one is present or doing anything about it,” he warned. “Someone will die soon.”

Just days after Diaz’s death, the Board of State and Community Corrections, with Budnick recusing himself, ordered the shuttering of Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall, which shares the building with the Secure Youth Treatment Facility, and Central Juvenile Hall due to the deteriorating conditions inside those facilities.

Budnick explained after the vote that he mentored Diaz and the teen was on a “real path of change.”

He blamed the death on the county’s poor management and said the short staffing had left youths with nothing to do all day. Juveniles told him drugs helped make monotonous days feel less long, he said at the time.

“There’s hundreds of emails that said someone is going to die in Unit X and nothing happened,” he said. “I would walk into that unit and, every week, it would be the exact same thing. They’re not getting recreation, they’re not going to school.”

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Miguel Espinoza expressed similar concerns after learning about two nonfatal overdoses at the same facility during a March 2023 court hearing. He called it a “stroke of luck that the individuals who came across those two youths were trained in the use of Narcan and actually had it accessible,” according to Medina’s lawsuit.

“If the youth had been in a different unit, or it had been at a time when there was an untrained staff member, it appears highly likely that one or both of the youths would have passed away,” he said at the time.

Lack of Narcan training

In its assessment, Los Angeles County listed “a lack of training on use of Narcan” and the insufficient number of staff issued Narcan, a nasal spray that can reverse opioid overdoses, as one of the root causes behind the lawsuit over Diaz’s death.

Diaz was found by probation officers at about 8 a.m., but the report indicates nursing staff responded and administered Narcan, unsuccessfully, to him, suggesting the officers were unable to do so.

The Probation Department began training officers on the use of Narcan in December 2022, and the training remained ongoing at the time of Diaz’s death. Since then, all deputized staff have been taught to administer the nasal spray and received two doses to carry on their person, according to the summary of the county’s corrective action plan.

The department has stepped up security significantly in the years since Diaz’s death. Employees now must bring in belongings and lunches inside clear bags. Airport-style baggage and body scanners have been installed at facility entrances, and the county has increased the frequency of searches and the use of drug-sniffing canines.

At a time when one environmental group estimates 60,000 K-12 students in the state — nearly a third of them in San Bernardino County — have lost classroom time this school year due to weather-related events, roughly $194 million sits in limbo in the CalSHAPE program.

CalSHAPE, shorthand for the California Schools Healthy Air, Plumbing and Efficiency Program, was created in August 2020 during the early grip of the COVID-19 pandemic, primarily with funds from the energy-efficiency budgets of investor-owned utility companies.

The goal was to provide grants to improve aging ventilation and plumbing systems to help keep schools cool during heat waves, filter smoke from wildfires and help combat the spread of infectious disease. The most ambitious HVAC upgrades would include solar and storage power backup so campuses could stay open even when electricity is cut off.

Amounts awarded to schools have varied, ranging from about $20,000 for minor repairs to more than $2 million.

Energy affordability

But CalSHAPE abruptly quit doling out money in 2024 amid concerns in Sacramento about the state’s burgeoning utility bills for ratepayers. In a December letter to the California Energy Commission, a handful of legislators pushed to put CalSHAPE out of business and return the $194 million to the utility companies “to address our state’s ongoing challenges with energy affordability.”

“Anytime that we are asking for ratepayers to fund these initiatives, we need to take a very, very close look at the cost effectiveness of the initiatives,” said Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, D-Irvine, who chairs the Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee.

Despite her environmentally friendly voting record, it was Petrie-Norris who introduced a bill in 2024 to end the CalSHAPE program early, before it was set to expire in December 2026, and return the funds to the utility companies, with a requirement that ratepayers receive credits. But the bill failed.

Supporters of CalSHAPE say any ratepayer refunds would be negligible. According to a recent Senate budget subcommittee hearing agenda, $1.25 per month would be returned for one year to Southern California Edison customers, $2 per month for a year to San Diego Gas & Electric customers, and 20 cents per month for a year to Pacific Gas & Electric customers.

“It’s insulting that our children and teachers’ well-being and ability to learn is so little-valued,” says JuNelle Harris, co-founder of the nonprofit Clean Air Allies. “This idea that CalSHAPE is somehow the root cause of utility unaffordability is absurd.”

Petrie-Norris acknowledges that the size of the pool “isn’t enormous” but says costs to utility customers have been “death by a thousand cuts.”

“We need to ensure that the things that are on people’s utility bills should be the cost of delivering electricity to your house, not a bunch of other programs or pet projects,” she said.

Now, however, environmental activists are supporting a bill amendment with language to keep the CalSHAPE program alive beyond its statutory expiration on Dec. 1. If it fails, unspent funds will be returned to the investor-owned utility companies with no requirement that ratepayers receive credits on their bills.

Harris argues that since the money is already set aside, it should go to where it was intended. For schools, she said, “The bottom line is there is no other funding source at hand.”

Tedious process

The process for school districts to actually grab a slice of the funds is somewhat tedious.

CalSHAPE funding was to be distributed in two phases: Phase 1 called for assessments of school HVAC systems and small repairs, while Phase 2 involved funding the serious repairs.

Once schools completed Phase 1, they had to submit reports to the California Energy Commission, which then had to approve them before schools could move onto the next phase. That’s not to mention construction delays, supply chain disruptions and backlogged reports at the CEC, Harris says.

Though more than 4,500 schools received funding to have their HVAC systems assessed, only 172 have received Phase 2 funds.

“Not very many people had actually had the opportunity (to proceed to Phase 2) before the program was frozen,” Harris said.

Local impacts

In San Bernardino County, 227 schools received CalSHAPE funds for HVAC assessments and minor repairs, but only seven schools in the Chino Valley Unified School District have received funds for upgrades and serious repairs.

Yet the need is great throughout the county.

UndauntedK12, a national nonprofit working to make public schools resilient to climate change, estimates that among the 60,000 students statewide who have lost time to weather-related events this school year, more than 17,000 were in San Bernardino County.

UndauntedK12, which tracks closure notices shared by local or state agencies, says that’s more students than in any other county in California.

San Bernardino County, the largest geographic county in the contiguous United States, encompasses both desert and mountains and “can be particularly susceptible to extreme and variable weather conditions,” according to a spokesperson for the county superintendent of schools.

Five San Bernardino County schools shut down in August because of a public safety power shutoff, 14 more were closed due to extreme heat the following day, and two school districts were closed for several days after heavy snow in February.

The 14 heat-related closures occurred after a train struck utility equipment, which caused a power outage, according to the county schools spokesperson. The combination of high temperatures and the power outage prompted the San Bernardino City Unified School District to close the schools.

Five schools in Bear Valley Unified School District have been closed this year because of public safety power shutoffs, temporary electricity shutoffs designed to reduce wildfire risk during strong winds or heat waves.

Statewide, the frequency of public safety power shutoffs increased by 145% in 2025, according to reporting by the Desert Sun. Schools can remain open even during power outages or shutoffs, but when temperatures are too high and there’s no power backup to keep the air conditioning running, they may be forced to close.

When schools close because of power outages or public safety power shutoffs, children stay home, where the power often is out, too.

“Not only are they missing out on this critical learning time, but they’re not getting any respite from the heat,” said Stephanie Seidmon, program director of UndauntedK12.

When schools are closed, students receive at-home instruction, said Karen Gray, co-chair of the San Bernardino County District Advocates for Better Schools Executive Committee, but it’s “not optimal.” In-person attendance is important for stability and consistency in children’s lives.

“Some kids count on school to be fed,” she added.

Given the age of public schools in California — 40% were built more than 50 years ago — and the threat posed by climate change, Seidmon argues the CalSHAPE funds should be spent on infrastructure upgrades.

Without them, she said, “we will continue to see school closures and disruptions that could otherwise be prevented.”

The Southern California News Group confirmed that employees at two school districts, on opposite ends of L.A. County, have been impacted, but the full scope of the potential data breach was not immediately available.

LACOE declined to provide information about how many school districts or employees may be affected. The regional agency manages payroll services for more than 150,000 employees across 100 school districts, community colleges and charter schools in Los Angeles County, according to its website.

“The Los Angeles County Office of Education is currently investigating fraudulent tax return filings from some employees both in our organization and in some L.A. County school districts,” said Van Nguyen, the public information officer for LACOE, in an email. “We are working with external experts and the W-2 vendor to review the issue. We will continue to provide updates to the community as appropriate.”

The Los Angeles and Long Beach unified school districts, the county’s two largest districts, do not use LACOE’s portal for electronic tax documents and their employees were not affected, according to those districts.

Karla Estupinian, a spokesperson for the Lancaster School District, confirmed that some employees in the district have received letters about fraudulent tax filings, but she was unable to provide an estimate of how many due to the ongoing investigation and the fact that some may have only recently filed their taxes.

“We’re still in the early stages of this and we’re really waiting to hear back from LACOE,” she said.

Lancaster school officials first heard about the issue from another district. Once its own employees returned from spring break last week and began making similarly troubling reports, it became clear it was not isolated to a single district, Estupinian said.

“This week, we’ve been hearing from a lot more,” she said. “After we started hearing about us, we heard that other districts nearby were also impacted.”

The number of Lancaster employees affected has continued to grow as more and more finish their taxes, she said. Employees who filed early did not receive letters, suggesting fraudulent filings may have occurred recently.

LACOE contracts with a vendor, W2Copy, to provide electronic W-2s to its employees and the employees of certain school districts. In a statement, W2Copy said it disabled access to the tax document portal out of an abundance of caution once LACOE reported its concerns.

None of its other clients has reported similar issues, according to the statement. Still, the company brought in a third-party cybersecurity firm to conduct a forensic investigation of the entire W2Copy network and no breach was found, the company said.

“Specifically, the investigation found that all login activity to the portal observed during the review utilized valid, system-recognized credentials and successfully completed authentication through the standard login process,” the statement reads. “No evidence was identified indicating the use of invalid credentials, authentication bypass, or compromise of the portal’s login mechanism.”

Any assertion that W2Copy’s systems were hacked, or its security defeated, “is not supported by the findings of the third-party forensic investigation conducted on our behalf,” the company said.

Earlier this week, Jose Gonzalez, LACOE’s chief technology officer, and David Hart, its chief financial officer, sent out emails to L.A. County school administrators warning about the fraudulent filings and provided a form letter to send to employees.

“While the investigation is ongoing, there are early indications that Social Security numbers were used to file fraudulent tax returns and some cases may have involved the use of dependent’s information as part of the fraudulent filings,” they wrote. “It is important to acknowledge that this type of activity reflects a broader environment where organizations across the country are constantly confronting evolving threats related to cybersecurity and identity theft. Accordingly, we encourage all districts and employees to remain highly vigilant.”

The missive states that LACOE has “temporarily disabled access to online W-2 forms” and that employees needing those documents should contact their district’s human resources department instead.

Gonzalez and Hart’s email includes a tip sheet detailing the steps that employees can take if they receive a letter from the IRS or the state’s Franchise Tax Board indicating that a duplicate return has been filed.

Cyberattacks on school districts have become all too common in recent years. Hackers in late 2023 stole Glendale Unified School District employees’ Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers and financial account information and demanded a ransom for the data, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Employees did not learn the full extent of that breach until months later when they attempted to file their taxes, only to find that somebody else already beat them to it.

That same year, hackers stole student identification numbers and email addresses from Long Beach Unified and posted the data online.

In 2022, Los Angeles Unified School District was forced to disable all of its computer systems for several weeks after a cyberattack compromised student records, COVID test results and Social Security numbers.

The number of people detained in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s detention centers in Adelanto quadrupled.

Statistics show:

• Between 2021 and 2024, the two Adelanto immigration detention centers — the Adelanto ICE Processing Center and the Desert View Annex next door to it — had a combined average of 259 people detained in them, according to ICE data.
• In 2025, that jumped to 999, almost four times the average number of detainees during the presidency of Joe Biden.

But the number of calls to 911 to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department went up six times in 2025. That’s 150% faster compared than the rise in population.

The numbers show that:

• Between Jan. 1, 2021 and Dec. 31, 2024, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department received 164 calls about emergencies inside ICE’s detention facilities in Adelanto. That’s an average of 41 a year.
• But between Jan. 1, 2025 and Dec. 31, 2025, there were 249 calls to 911 — six times the average in the four years before.

This data comes from an analysis of department call logs obtained through a California Public Records Act request.

“More 911 calls aren’t just a function of more people in custody, they are a sign that the system is broken,” Rep. Raul Ruiz, D-Palm Desert, said in a written statement. Ruiz has repeatedly criticized conditions at ICE detention facilities.

“I saw this firsthand at Adelanto,” the member of Congress continued, referencing a Feb. 6 visit to Adelanto. “The conditions are prison-like, and the lack of transparency from ICE has made it harder, not easier, to fix.“

As of April 13, four Adelanto ICE Processing Center detainees — Ismael Ayala-Uribe, Alberto Gutierrez Reyes, Irvin Cruz-Nape and Jose Guadalupe Ramos-Solano — have died since Trump returned to office.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta called the Adelanto ICE Processing Center “a ticking timebomb” in a legal brief in March.

Rep. Jay Obernolte, R-Hesperia, who represents Adelanto in the U.S. House of Representatives, has described the detainees as being treated “as humanely as possible.” He declined to comment for this story.

In an email, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department declined to speculate on the relationship between detainee populations and increased calls for service, but wrote that the increased calls for service did not impact the department’s response time or quality of service to the rest of the High Desert community.

The two Adelanto facilities are owned and operated by the GEO Group, the United States’ largest private prison operator.

In a written statement, the company said meets all ICE “detention standards and contract requirements regarding the treatment and services ICE detainees.”

“The support services GEO provides include around-the-clock access to medical care, in-person and virtual legal and family visitation, general and legal library access, translation services, dietician-approved meals, religious and specialty diets, recreational amenities, and opportunities to practice their religious beliefs,” the statement continues. “Additionally, all of GEO’s ICE Processing Centers are independently accredited by the American Correctional Association and the National Commission on Correctional Health Care.”

That’s not exactly how Esmeralda Santos, the lead organizer for the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, sees it.

The Adelanto ICE Processing Center “was not ready to handle the increase in beds that were going to be occupied,” she said.

Even before the surge in early 2025, the ICIJ was hearing from the handful of people detained inside that the building regularly lost electrical power and heat and the phones kept going out.

“The facility itself is not in the proper condition to handle all these people,” Santos said. “There’s too many folks and not enough staff, and they aren’t trained enough.”

According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, there is “no direct correlation” between the spike in detention center populations and 911 calls.

“Many factors may contribute to the number of such calls, including the criminal history of the detainee population and family members calling 911 on behalf of detainees,” a written statement from the agency reads in part.

“Being in detention is a choice,” the statement continued. The agency encouraged “all individuals here illegally” to leave the U.S., offering them $2,600 and a free flight home.

2021-24 vs. 2025 incidents

More than just the 911 call volume changed in 2025.

Specific types of calls seen repeatedly on the logs from 2021 through 2024 stopped appearing in 2025. Assaults, warrant arrests, rapes, federal Prison Rape Elimination Act calls, and other categories do not appear in the 2025 logs.

Instead, catch-all categories soared in the 2025 call log:

• “Extra patrols” went up 3,820% compared to the four-year average
• “Information call” went up 990% compared to the four-year average
• “Follow up” went up 593% compared to the four-year average
• “911 follow up” went up 300% compared to the four-year average

Assaults on officers and assaults with serious injuries both went up 700% compared to the average. Four of each were reported in 2025.

The sheriff’s department was able to provide more detail about the jump in catch-all categories.

“The increase in ‘information calls’ in 2025 was mainly attributed to calls from GEO facility staff for medical requests for detainees reporting a medical-related condition or concern,” sheriff’s department spokesperson Gloria Orejel wrote in an email. “In these instances, our dispatch center receives a call from facility staff, creates a call, and relays the information to the fire department or paramedic response. Deputies generally do not respond to those calls unless specifically requested.”

Some of the changes in categories reflect ongoing changes in how call types were recategorized, according to Orejel, including more types of calls being added between 2023 and 2025.

In addition, “call classifications can change based on how calls are received, documented, and cleared within the dispatch system,” Orejel wrote.

New categories reported in the 2025 call log for the first time in at least five years included security checks, medical aid, protest, drug overdoses, narcotics being found  and an escape.

The Sept. 26, 2025 escapee didn’t get far, according to the initial call for service. At about 3:50 p.m., an unnamed adult male inmate climbed over the first perimeter fence of a recreation yard. He ran a short distance between the outer and inner perimeter fences before being captured by detention center officers.

More details about the escape, and other specific incidents, are being withheld by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. The department cited an exemption to the California Public Records Act for “files compiled by any other state or local agency for correctional, law enforcement, or licensing purposes.”

The ICIJ heard about the escape attempt when it happened, Santos said — and the retaliation that reportedly followed for detainees held in the west wing of the Adelanto ICE Processing Center.

“People were not allowed to go outside for about a month,” she said.

According to ICE data, as of April 9, 2026, there were 5,805 people in ICE’s California detention centers. There were 1,733 people detained in the Adelanto ICE Processing Center and 425 at Desert View Annex.

The agency categorizes 27.41% of its California detainees as criminals. ICE further identifies 19.12% of the detainees as “Threat Level 1,” the most dangerous, based on the severity of their “criminality” and how recently it occurred. The agency defines detainees as criminals if they have a conviction or pending criminal charges.

“I don’t think this facility should exist, at the end of the day,” Santos said. “No one should be caged under these types of conditions.”

More about ICE detention centers in Adelanto

• Two Democrats and a Republican visited ICE Adelanto detention center. Only one got in
• Who’s in ICE detention in California? According to ICE, less than 30% are criminals
• Family ‘devastated’ and asking questions over death of 39-year-old Westminster man in ICE custody
• Detainees, LA nonprofit file suit alleging inhumane conditions in Adelanto ICE detention center
• ‘It will drive you crazy’: Letters reveal what life is like inside Adelanto ICE detention center
• Man detained at Adelanto ICE facility dies in custody; 9th such death this year, LA council member says
• A second recent death connected to Adelanto ICE detention facility is reported
• AG Bonta calls ICE’s Adelanto detention facility a ‘ticking timebomb’
• Mexican authorities seek answers after reported detainee death at ICE facility in California, officials say

One of the cannabis companies that failed to obtain a permit to open a dispensary is now suing the city, alleging officials tipped the scales in the favor of companies with close ties to City Hall.

Four Covina council members attended the wedding while the application process was still ongoing, according to interviews and pictures from the event.

The aggrieved company, Embarc, operating under Covina Responsible and Compliant Retail LLC, filed its lawsuit against Covina and Zen Garden, one of the winners, in August, but the case has made little progress so far.

The litigation will face its first major legal hurdle in May, when a judge is expected to weigh a motion from the city that seeks to have the case thrown out due to alleged deficiencies.

“We brought this case because we believe it is critical that municipal processes are transparent and unbiased — and we are hopeful the Court will shine a light on actions that may have occurred in darkness,” said Lauren Carpenter, the CEO of Embarc, in a statement. “As alleged in our complaint, there are serious questions about whether undisclosed relationships, pre-application communications, and deviations from the City’s merit-based scoring system influenced the outcome.”

Embarc is asking to have Zen Garden’s permit revoked and granted to it instead. Other cannabis companies are mentioned in the allegations, but not formally named in the lawsuit.

Process ‘fair and transparent’

Covina, meanwhile, stands by its process, which it described as “fair and transparent” in a statement, and maintains that Embarc’s complaint omits key facts, including that the city allowed Embarc to amend its application and change its location after the deadline had expired.

Embarc’s allegations “are a transparent attempt to make-up arguments and facts” to undermine the process and “to force the City to accept an Embarc cannabis retailer,” according to the city’s statement.

“The owners of Embarc Covina publicly praised the City for its fair process in statements to the Covina City Council at a public hearing on February 4, 2025, just two weeks prior to the selection of applicants, only to now contradict those statements and advance a different narrative once Embarc was not granted approval to proceed to the next stage in the process,” the statement reads.

Covina spent years developing its cannabis regulations and working through the selection process. The city first put out the request for proposals in 2023.

After several rounds of evaluations, the council chose Stiiizy, a major cannabis retailer with dozens of dispensaries in California, as the first winner in December 2025. Then Rilano and Zen Garden were selected as second and third, respectively, in February 2025.

All three dispensaries are now open, according to social media posts.

Councilmember Patricia Cortez made the motions and nominated each of those companies at those final meetings.

Rilano and Zen Garden passed on a 3-1 vote. Councilmember Walt Allen, who opposes cannabis in the city, refused to support any applicant, and Councilmember Victor Linares recused himself due to a potential conflict.

Personal ties

Cortez did not disclose during either meeting that she was in the wedding party of Michael Touhey, a local owner of Stiiizy Covina, and Angela Thomas, a local owner of Zen Garden, roughly six months earlier.

Cortez served as a bridesmaid at both an intimate ceremony for the couple attended by only 10 people and at a second, larger celebration that drew in elected and public officials from across the San Gabriel Valley, including three other sitting Covina council members, according to interviews.

Touhey is a well-known former member of the West Covina City Council, a former board member of the Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District and a regular fixture at cities’ council meetings and public events throughout the region. He often is sought out by companies for community and government affairs work due to his longstanding and deep connections in the area.

Cortez, who works as Upper San Gabriel’s director of government affairs, was hired in 2013, the year after Touhey won his seat on the water board. The pair became fast friends and remained so after Touhey left elected office in 2016.

In an interview, Cortez acknowledged the friendship and added that she is similarly close with Jorge Marquez, a former Covina council member and Three Valleys water board member, as well as transportation Commissioner Eloy Flores, both of whom were listed as owners on Embarc’s application.

“My relationship with the Touheys had no influence in my decision,” she said.

Marquez could not be reached for comment

The city in its statement about the lawsuit took a similar stance.

“A City representative knowing a person who has been active in the community for years and even being friends with that person is not a basis to sideline that City representative from participating in the process,” the statement reads.

What the law says

Though it may raise eyebrows, such a friendship would not qualify as a conflict of interest under California law, which requires a council member to have a financial interest in the decision, either personally or through a spouse.

Covina prohibited dispensary owners from having “vested interests” in more than one company and required all owners to be identified in the applications. However, it does not verify how those interests are held and did not weigh whether California’s community property laws, which equally divide ownership between husband and wife, would affect those interests.

Touhey and Thomas, who had been dating for years, were not married when they applied. In an interview, Touhey said their respective ownership stakes are now intentionally held as “sole and separate properties.”

The couple agreed that, if they were able to get permits, “hers would go to her kid and mine would go to my kids,” Touhey said.

Stiiizy approached Touhey after a different company he was working with backed out of the process, he said.

“When you do this for a living and all you do is attend council meetings and events all across the San Gabriel Valley and Southern California, you get to know people,” he said. “If cannabis is on the agenda, all of the same people are in the audience.”

Zen Garden asked for Touhey’s help, too, but he declined because he could only apply with one company and “would not cross that line,” he said. The company approached Thomas afterwards, according to Touhey.

Deep ties to community

Thomas has lived in Covina for three decades and knows many of the same people, Touhey said. The couple volunteers with and donates to a large number of community organizations.

Some cannabis companies, familiar with Touhey from his involvement in other cities, saw Covina as his territory and believed it was pointless to compete, according to two cannabis executives familiar with the city’s process. Both were contacted independently by a reporter and agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity due to concerns of retaliation. Neither is affiliated with Embarc.

In separate interviews, they alleged Touhey bragged in various meetings about having all three licenses secured before the process even began.

“He didn’t hide the fact,” one said.

Touhey denies ever making such comments.

“Hell no, I would never say something like that,” he said.

Touhey accused Embarc and Marquez, the former Covina councilmember, of being sore losers and attempting to use the lawsuit to sway the upcoming election in Covina toward more favorable candidates.

“I have just as many wins as I do losses,” Touhey said. “In my line of work, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but you normally don’t sue everyone in the process, you just lose.”

Rankings questioned

Embarc’s lawsuit also questions the legitimacy of the city’s ranking of applicants. Applicants went through three phases of evaluations and Embarc was ranked the highest out of applicants in the second round by a third-party evaluator.

Zen Garden and Rilano landed near the bottom at sixth and seventh, respectively.

The final ranking, tallied from interviews, moved Stiiizy to the top, Rilano to second and established a three-way tie between Zen Garden, Embarc and Culture Covina for third place.

Culture withdrew before the final vote after losing its lease on a property to Embarc. The dispute between the companies led the City Council to delay its selection of the final two winners by months.

Staff reports indicate the council did not have to follow the final rankings at all and could choose any of the applicants that scored more than 180 points, or none of them.

Cortez declined to explain why she nominated Zen Garden over Embarc due to the pending litigation. During the February 2025 meeting, she stated that her choice came down to the rankings.

“I read through all the reports, I’ve looked at all the scores and, for me, I’m basing it on the final scores that were presented, so my recommendation would be to reward the second permit to Rilano Covina and the third permit to Zen Garden, and that would be my motion,” she said.

Embarc’s lawsuit, however, argues that its combined scores from Phase 2 and 3 should have placed it above Stiiizy or, at minimum, broke the tie with Zen Garden.

The scores were not cumulative, but rather only determined if applicants qualified to move forward, according to the city.

Leases questioned

Embarc’s lawsuit further alleges the city favored applicants leasing space from the McIntyre Co., a Covina-based real estate company and developer with generational ties to the community. All three of the winners rent from the company.

“That improbable result, along with strong evidence of improper and undisclosed bias within the city’s ranks, demonstrates that the RFP process abandoned objective fairness for favoritism and insider dealing, and after steering applicants to McIntyre Company properties, the City’s decision-makers overlooked numerous disqualifying flaws in certain applications and green-lighted them when they should have been excluded,” wrote Lawrence Conlan, Embarc’s attorney, in the court filing.

In its statement, Covina called it “coincidental.” The identity of the landlord or property owner was not a factor in the evaluation process, officials said.

“In addition, any business looking to lease space would likely reach out to one of the largest landlords in the City, and the fact that one of those landlords was willing and able to rent to cannabis businesses was a business matter purely between that landlord and those businesses and not any basis used by the City to grant or deny a cannabis permit,” the statement reads.

Linares, the council member who recused himself, works at a brewery owned by Andrew McIntyre, the president of the McIntyre Co. He describes himself as an employee, though he’s been listed as an owner and a founder in the past.

Stiiizy’s dispensary is now located next door.

The lawsuit alleges Linares, McIntyre and City Manager Chris Marcarello met with at least one individual before the process began to attempt to persuade that person to apply for a dispensary at a McIntyre Co. property.

One prospective applicant contacted by the Southern California News Group claimed the three men pitched a McIntyre property as a potential location for a dispensary during a meeting in 2022. Communications shown to a reporter by that individual discussed scheduling a meeting with Marcarello at that time, but the messages did not confirm if it took place.

The city, and Marcarello, separately confirmed a seemingly different meeting with a real estate agent that same year where the city’s position on cannabis was discussed. The city denied that either the councilmember or the city manager encouraged the agent to rent from McIntyre or a specific landlord.

In an email, Marcarello said he attended the meeting with the real estate agent at the request of a council member.

“Upon my arrival, Mr. McIntyre was in attendance and I have no knowledge of who invited him to attend, nor was I aware that he would be in attendance,” he said. “We are not aware that the real estate agent participated in the RFP process or if that agent represented any eventual applicant for a cannabis permit.”

He could not recall where the meeting took place, or if he had any other meetings about cannabis with Linares or McIntyre present.

Meetings with prospective businesses are not unusual for a city manager, he said. Once the application process began, companies could only go through approved channels and were prohibited from contacting council members directly.

Linares declined to comment due to the pending litigation. McIntyre could not be reached.

City was ‘very, very cautious’

Allen, the council member who refused to support commercial cannabis after spending more than 43 years in law enforcement, reiterated his strong opposition during a phone interview.

Still, he expressed complete confidence in the staff and City Council’s handling of the process, saying he would have been the first to call it out if there were flaws.

“The staff worked on a legitimate system to really provide the most equitable process for the selection of the dispensaries in Covina and I do believe that,” he said. “The city was very, very cautious about how to go about this so we would avoid lawsuits.”

In a motion passed unanimously by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, April 7, the county’s Department of Public Health will better coordinate with the ongoing investigations, helping uncover and enforce fraud cases. A report on how DPH will help will come back to the board in about two months.

In addition, the board voted to send a letter to the director of the California Department of Public Health and the administrator of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, urging better coordination between the array of regulatory agencies and greater investment into enforcement of potentially fraudulent home health and hospice providers.

“Hospice and home health care exist to serve our most vulnerable residents, so fraud in these industries is a profound betrayal of their trust,” said Fifth District Supervisor Kathryn Barger, a co-author of the motion with Third District Supervisor Lindsey Horvath. “Los Angeles County cannot stand by while unscrupulous individuals exploit any gaps between local, state and federal oversight.”

In Los Angeles County alone, there are more than 4,700 home health and hospice agencies currently operating, and the numbers have been growing in the last few years, the county reported. Of those, 1,623 are hospice agencies.

The motion explained that these businesses have been concentrated in Glendale and Burbank, but recently the county has seen an increase in hospice companies in the Van Nuys area of Los Angeles.

Hospice services have been the target of investigations in California and other states by the FBI and the State Department of Justice.

A CBS News investigation in March highlighted Los Angeles as “ground zero” for hospice fraud and found that more than 700 hospices had “multiple red flags for fraud” under criteria outlined in a state audit released in 2022. In the five-county Southern California region, the number of hospices climbed from 722 in 2018 to 1,799 in 2024. The counties of Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside and Ventura account for nearly a quarter of the hospices in the country.

Since the audit, California instituted a moratorium on new hospice licenses, revoked more than 280 licenses since the audit and charged 109 individuals with hospice-related offenses. Another 300 providers are actively under investigation.

But investigators say those already licensed are often ripe for fraud.

The fraud investigation over suspected hospice fraud put a Van Nuys office building into the national spotlight after records found 89 hospices registered there. Clustering of multiple hospices in a single building was flagged by state auditors as a potential indicator of fraud.

Records show about 40 hospices registered to 14545 Friar St. in Van Nuys billed Medicare for more than $38 million — or about $28,000 per patient — in 2023, according to the most recently available data from CMS.

On April 2, federal authorities announced the arrests of eight people, including three nurses and a psychologist, and charges against seven others for allegedly participating in fraudulent schemes originating in Southern California that siphoned more than $50 million from the national health care system.

Authorities carried out raids and arrests in Anaheim, Covina, Lakewood, Hollywood and Idaho as part of the federal enforcement operation.

The board motion states some hospice provider operators have “engaged in unscrupulous practices such as documenting care that was not provided and enrolling patients under stolen identities.”

A husband and wife in Covina used fake hospice billings to cover mortgage and car payments, international flights, and other personal bills. Twenty-two of their patients did not have terminal illnesses, said federal investigators during the April 2 press conference.

“Los Angeles County is doing our part and will not allow bad actors to exploit gaps in oversight while patients and families are put at risk. Stronger coordination and accountability across every level of government is essential to protect people and restore trust in these critical services,” said Horvath.

About 60 percent of the home health and hospice agencies operating in L.A. County have approved federal status, the board motion states. This allows them to be surveyed by private accrediting firms, rather than the federal CMS.

The motion wants the federal CMS to investigate complaints about these “deemed providers.” That way, if fraud is confirmed, the federal government can take over investigations and enforcement efforts.

“We must work toward stronger coordination and accountability at every level of government to protect the patients and families who depend on these critical services,” said Barger.

Southern California News Group Staff Writer Jason Henry contributed to this article.

The Southern California News Group learned just recently of the settlements even though the high-profile litigation was quietly resolved from June through August 2025. According to the settlement agreements obtained by SCNG, each plaintiff received $600,000 to $2.4 million.

Attorney Morgan Stewart, who represented nine of the 12 plaintiffs, did not explain why the settlements were not publicly disclosed earlier, except to say the final defendant in the litigation, Riverside-based Clover Enterprises Inc., did not settle until February. Clover is the sports medicine service that contracted with the district to provide athletic trainers at the time of the alleged sexual misconduct.

The scandal erupted in the fall of 2022, when the first six alleged victims came forward with the allegations against athletic trainer Tiffany Strauss Gordon, now 44, in a lawsuit and series of interviews with the Southern California News Group. They alleged Gordon routinely had sexual intercourse and performed oral sex on them over a six-year period, from 2001 to 2007, when they ranged in age from 14 to 17.

The number of Gordon’s accusers subsequently doubled, and more lawsuits were filed in San Bernardino Superior Court, also by former Colton High football players.

Gordon is the daughter of former Colton High School football coach Harold Strauss, who was considered the architect of what has been described as the school’s pipeline to the National Football League. Under his wing, many of his players went on to play college ball or be drafted into the National Football League, including former NFL player Shareece Wright, one of the original six plaintiffs who went public with the allegations on ESPN in February 2024.

Harold Strauss died in December 2019.

A skilled trainer

Jim Clover, owner and founder of Clover Enterprises, said he was stunned to learn of the allegations against Gordon, who worked for him as an independent contractor and had come highly recommended.

“I had no idea what was going on until I read about it in the paper,” said Clover, who founded Clover Enterprises in 1995, is the author of four books, and has been an adjunct professor of sports medicine and kinesiology at Cal State San Bernardino for more than 17 years. Clover said he knew Harold Strauss well.

Gordon had a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology from Cal State San Bernardino and a master’s in education and a teaching credential from the University of Phoenix, according to Colton Joint Unified.

From his observations, Clover said, Gordon was a skilled trainer whom everybody praised and seemed to love.

“Everybody thought she was wonderful,” he said in a telephone interview. “I thought she was really good at what she did.”

Groomed for abuse

In their lawsuits, the former players alleged Gordon preyed upon and groomed them for sexual abuse. The alleged encounters occurred in the school’s locker room, training room, bathrooms, weight room and football trailer, as well as the Bloomington home where Gordon lived with her parents and weekly “Captains Dinners” were held with the coaches and top players.

Gordon’s alleged sex acts with Colton High football players, according to the lawsuits and player interviews, were a frequent source of banter and gossip among students. They referred to it as “getting the Tiffany treatment” and “getting spatted.”

Spatting, the practice of taping a player’s ankle over their shoes for added support, took on a whole new meaning at Colton High, becoming a running joke among football players and assistant coaches, according to the lawsuits.

A former player recounted in an interview and a court filing how a Colton assistant coach walked into the school’s locker room while Gordon was performing oral sex on the player. Instead of stopping the alleged sexual act, the coach immediately left the room.

Another former player alleges Gordon performed oral sex on him while he slept in a van en route to a football camp in Oregon. He said his teammates appeared aware, but treated the incident as unremarkable.

Criminal investigation

Colton Joint Unified spokeswoman Katie Orloff said that from the moment the district was made aware of the “more than 20-year-old allegations” in the summer of 2022, it immediately placed Gordon on administrative leave and contacted police, triggering a criminal investigation.

Police learned that the district had investigated Gordon more than a decade earlier on similar allegations after a former teacher reported to then-Superintendent Jerry Armendarez and Colton High School Principal Robert Verdi that Gordon allegedly sexually abused Colton High football players in the training room from 2002 to 2008, according to a police report obtained by the Southern California News Group.

During the 2022 investigation, Colton police Detective Jaime Ramirez interviewed the former teacher, who said she had been informed by a student that Gordon was giving “oral sex to students in the training room, so she reported it to the district. She told Ramirez she later followed up with the district and was told “the allegations were unfounded and nothing further happened,” according to the report.

The 2022 investigation was short-lived due to a lack of cooperation from some of the former players as well as the district. Gordon denied having any kind of inappropriate sexual relationships with the former football players when interviewed by police. Asked by an investigator why she thought the former players would make up the allegations, Gordon stated, “Why else? For money,” according to the police report filed in the case.

Lack of cooperation

During a deposition in the civil litigation, Gordon repeatedly pleaded the Fifth Amendment to most all questions regarding her employment as an athletic trainer and her involvement with football players.

On Aug. 8, 2022, attorneys for the law firm Greenberg Gross LLP, which was representing the six former players in the litigation at the time, informed police the alleged victims “did not want to be involved in a criminal investigation and will not cooperate with law enforcement,” according to the police report.

Attorneys for Greenberg Gross would not comment on why their clients refused to cooperate in the criminal investigation.

Having nothing more to go on, police closed the investigation.

“Colton PD did submit a case to us, however the victims refused to be identified. Due to this, our office was unable to proceed with prosecution,” said San Bernardino County district attorney spokesperson Jacquelyn Rodriguez in an email.

Stewart, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, said his clients wanted to pursue criminal charges against Gordon, but they understood that the statute of limitations to prosecute her had long expired. “It’s not that they didn’t want prosecution, but understood that it couldn’t happen because of the statute of limitations,” he said.

Ramirez noted in an Oct. 10, 2022, police report that on Aug. 8 that year Colton police Sgt. Robert Vega told him that Colton Joint Unified Superintendent Frank Miranda informed him that district officials “would no longer speak to law enforcement regarding the case per the direction of the school board and would invoke their attorney-client privilege.”

The district disputes Ramirez’s account in his report, calling it a “false claim.”

“Dr. Miranda did not direct anyone on his leadership team to refrain from cooperating with the Colton Police Department’s investigation, nor was he directed to do so by the Board of Education,” Orloff said in a statement. “The District has made itself, and will continue to make itself, fully available to the Colton Police Department and is committed to ensuring law enforcement has access to all relevant facts and information for their investigation.”

But in a July 28, 2022, email from Colton Joint Unified attorney Margaret Chidester to Ramirez and copied to Miranda, Chidester informs Ramirez she will no longer be able to cooperate in the investigation. The email was sent to Ramirez less than two weeks before Miranda’s conversation with Sgt. Vega.

“Previously, the (Colton Joint Unified School District) had directed me to speak with your department concerning the matter of CJUSD employee (Tiffany Gordon),” Chidester said in the email obtained by the Southern California News Group. “I learned yesterday that the district has not waived the attorney client communication privilege, and thus I am not authorized at this time to discuss the matter with you or your department.”

Another allegation

Although the district maintains the alleged sexual abuse by Gordon occurred more than 20 years ago, a lawsuit filed by a former student against the district and Gordon in October 2024 alleges Gordon continued her alleged pattern of sexual abuse at Grand Terrace High School after the district promoted her to athletic director in 2011.

The former student, an athlete at Grand Terrace High School at the time, alleges Gordon groomed and sexually abused him on campus in the fall of 2020, when he was 17 years old. That case is still pending and scheduled for trial in March 2027, court records show.

Attorneys from the Los Angeles law firm Panish Shea Ravipuldi, who are representing the former student, did not respond to requests for comment.

Orloff also declined to comment.

Gordon’s employment with Colton Joint Unified ended as of June 30, 2024. She did not respond to telephone calls and emails seeking comment. Her attorney, Daniel Kolodziej, also declined to comment.

Commitment to ‘student safety’

Orloff said the litigation and settlements had no detrimental financial impact to the district, which has implemented significant changes since the alleged sexual abuse first surfaced. She said the football program is thriving and preparing student-athletes to pursue both academic and athletic opportunities at the collegiate level.

“It is now a fundamentally different program, grounded in a strong culture of mandated reporting and a clear commitment to student safety and well-being,” Orloff said.

Under the current administration, the district requires annual mandated reporter training for all employees, as well as training on appropriate adult/student boundaries, and additional mandated reporter training during management team meetings, Orloff said.

Additionally, the district has an ongoing “see something, say something” campaign to encourage students to report concerns and make sure they feel safe doing so, and students also are trained on sexual harassment prevention each year in grades 4-12.

Even Clover, the medical services company owner, has partially shifted gears professionally. He said his legal entanglements from Gordon’s alleged actions raised his awareness, and prompted him to start up a new business called Campus Shield 360, offering mandated reporter training to coaches.

Clover, who settled with the plaintiffs for $24,000, called the litigation an “awful experience.” He said he spent more money on his attorney fees than the settlement.

“It hurt, and it still hurts,” Clover said of his traumatic experience. “It affects you. Nothing is ever going to be the same.”

Some receiving payments also have claimed erectile dysfunction, toenail fungus, urinary tract infections and acid reflux in their medical evaluations.

The program, called the Subsequent Injuries Benefits Trust Fund, was meant to encourage employers to hire veterans whose prior injuries could be made worse by new, work-related injuries. The SIBTF — not the employers — would be liable for the old injuries. It is funded by an annual tax on all employers.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office says the SIBTF is operating unfettered and without the same safeguards as the traditional workers’ compensation system. Unsustainable, the fund’s liabilities are expected to hit $30 billion by 2029 amid skyrocketing applications.

“It’s 100% a cottage industry. Word got out and it’s almost a gimme,” said Jerry Azevedo, a spokesman for the Workers’ Compensation Action Network, a coalition of employers, insurers and brokers calling for change.

How the program works

Here’s how the program operates: Workers file claims for their employment-related injuries with workers’ compensation and then file a second claim with the SIBTF for preexisting health conditions that affect their ability to work. Some applicants who are receiving benefits have listed their sleep apnea, obesity and arthritis. Others have listed their infertility and hemorrhoids.

In one case, a California prison guard with spinal problems also claimed other ailments, including toenail fungus and eczema, as work-disabling conditions. He received $291,053 in back benefits and a weekly benefit of $1,284 — with yearly cost-of-living increases — from the SIBTF, according to the website for Santa Ana law firm Silberman & Lam.

The guard’s lifetime benefits from the special fund are estimated at $1.9 million. That’s on top of what he received from his workers’ compensation claim, which ended in a 79% permanent disability for hypertensive heart disease and trauma to his psyche.

Attorney Scott Silberman said the SIBTF benefit was primarily for the spinal condition. The toenail fungus probably was listed as part of the complete medical history and likely didn’t factor much in the disability rating, he said.

In another case study from the Silberman & Lam website, a California Highway Patrol lieutenant received a 55% disability rating from workers’ compensation for his hypertension. He then went to the SIBTF and claimed preexisting health conditions, including lumbar injury, rhinitis, asthma, sleep apnea, erectile dysfunction and seborrheic dermatitis, or red, flaky skin. He received back benefits from the SIBTF of $208,680 and $1,269 weekly, worth an estimated $2 million over his lifetime.

Silberman agreed the fund program needs to be reformed, but said workers are not gaming the system.

“Eighty percent of the people, we tell ‘no’ to,” Silberman said, adding that the average worker represented by his office with a 100% SIBTF rating are low-wage earners and get about $700 a week.

He said asthma can be quite debilitating in the construction industry or professional sports and sleep apnea can be disabling for those dozing off at work, especially truck drivers.

He added that much of the fund money goes to copy services and doctors evaluating the claims for submission.

That’s where former Orange County Superior Court Judge Israel Claustro comes in. Claustro tried to profit from the SIBTF program by forming a company to write and submit medical reports for applicants. However, Claustro, a county prosecutor at the time, was not a medical professional, as required by law to operate such a company.

Another problem was that Claustro hired a doctor who had been previously convicted of federal fraud to do the evaluations and falsely submit them under the names of other physicians. The state fund sent more than $3 million to Claustro’s medical company.

Claustro pleaded guilty in January to a federal charge of fraud and resigned from the bench. He is scheduled to be sentenced in June.

System ripe for abuse

Claustro’s case highlights a system that critics say is ripe for abuse.

Observers cite multiple reasons for the increase in SIBTF applications. First, there were changes in 2004 and 2014 that made it more difficult to get a 100% disability rating in regular workers’ compensation, so injured workers began turning to the SIBTF program to augment their claims.

But the most recent rush on SIBTF applications began with a 2020 workers’ compensation court judgment that made it easier to get a high disability rating in the fund.

A look at the numbers shows a program in need of control.

The state Department of Industrial Relations reported that total payments from the SIBTF climbed from $28 million in 2014 to $326 million in 2025. And the number of yearly applications has soared from 1,011 in 2014 to 5,378 in 2024, said a report for the state Commission on Health and Safety and Workers’ Compensation.

A March report for an Assembly budget subcommittee said 25,000 cases are now pending, a number that is expected to hit 30,000 in July, creating a five- to 10-year backlog. However, attorneys say that number is inflated because many of the pending cases have been abandoned by the applicants, but were not formally withdrawn.

Employers’ costs soar

Yearly taxes paid by employers to the SIBTF have spiraled over the last decade, from $17.9 million in 2014 to $859 million in 2025, according to the state Department of Industrial Relations.

Los Angeles County’s assessment jumped 433%, from $2.2 million in 2020 to $11.8 million in 2025. Riverside County experienced a 168% increase in its yearly assessment since 2020, to $808,162 in 2025.

The Orange County Fire Authority’s assessment spiraled by a whopping 335% to $399,623 in 2025, up from $91,778 in 2020.  And San Bernardino County went from paying $199,904 in 2020 to $677,962 in 2025, an increase of 239%.

“It’s a well-intentioned program that’s lost its way and run amok with real consequences for taxpayer-funded agencies,” Azevedo said.

However, employee unions and attorneys say the SIBTF costs — spread among all employers — is much lower than if the employers had to cover the injuries individually through workers’ compensation.

Governor pushing reforms

Newsom’s office is trying to push through his reforms as a trailer in the governor’s budget package. The reforms would tighten up eligible health conditions, making them in line with the workers’ compensation system. They also would prevent “doctor shopping” by adding restrictions to requirements in medical reports.

As it now stands, applicants to the SIBTF can hire any state-certified medical evaluator they want without employer input and charge the fund for all medical reporting.

According to the Assembly report, doctors chosen by applicants give an average of 6% to 8% higher disability ratings than through the standard workers’ compensation selection process, which uses physicians considered more neutral. The report noted that 24% of all payments from the SIBTF go to doctors and copy services, double what is paid in the workers’ compensation system. In fact, SIBTF medical evaluations cost two to three times more than in the workers’ compensation system.

Too much of the money goes to outside costs, such as doctors, than to the injured workers, attorney Silberman said.

“In some cases, the cost of medical reporting can be excessively high; some may see it as a big racket,” he said, noting that even doctor groups favor limiting reimbursement for medical-legal reports. “We do our best in our office to control the costs. … I think having curbs on doctors would be a big savings.”

But Newsom is going about it the wrong way, said Silberman and other opponents of the governor’s proposed reforms.

Critics of the trailer bill, including the Peace Officers Research Association of California, say Newsom’s reforms would throw out existing medical reports on thousands of pending cases and force applicants to start again under new medical evaluation guidelines. That would be expensive and unfair, opponents say.

“I agree with putting it on the same playing field and the fact they need changes,” Silberman said. “It shouldn’t be easier to get (SIBTF) than workers’ compensation. But they shouldn’t make it next to impossible.”

Added PORAC, in a letter to the Assembly budget subcommittee: “We agree that the fund warrants thoughtful scrutiny and that reforms may be appropriate to address rising costs and ensure long-term viability. … (However) the current proposal appears to swing the pendulum too far in the opposite direction.”

The association warned that by narrowing access to the fund, the proposal could unintentionally discourage employers from hiring people with preexisting health conditions.

Transparency encouraged

Opponents also argue that the reforms should not be handled in a budget trailer, but through a regular legislative bill, which would get more public scrutiny.

Jason Marcus of the California Applicants Attorneys Association said reforms should be negotiated openly, not in a “back room.”

“This is just the governor saying what it is and what it will be,” Marcus said.

Silberman cautioned that the governor’s trailer bill could cause more problems than it solves.

“I think everyone agrees the waste should be eliminated and a conversation and a regular bill can negotiate those types of changes,” he said. “Unfortunately, the proposed budget trailer bill will likely be very costly for both employers and the most severely injured workers.”