By Emily Holshouser
Daily Breeze, Torrance, Calif.
LOS ANGELES — A psychologist who said she was retaliated against for reporting civil rights violations at the Twin Towers jail has settled her lawsuit against the county’s Department of Mental Health for $1.65 million.
In the 2018 suit, Sara Hough, a psychologist specializing in forensic evaluations, said the department discriminated and retaliated against her over several years while she worked at the jail.
Hough began working for the department in 1997. In 2011, after being transferred to a position overseeing mentally ill inmates at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, Hough said she and some of her colleagues began to notice civil rights violations against inmates, but the complaints went ignored. In 2013, Hough reported to her supervisor that deputies were refusing to provide inmates with basic necessities such as food and clothing. She also said in the suit that an inmate at Twin Towers died after they were placed in handcuffs for ten hours, and that some inmates were not receiving medications.
“There was some pretty outrageous treatment of the inmates, which Sara reported and consistently fought,” said attorney Michael Kent , one of her lawyers.
The department denied that Hough suffered any discrimination or retaliation, but did not address any of the claims she made about the treatment of inmates in the lawsuit.
The Sheriff’s Department did not respond to a reporter’s questions about the claims in the suit but released a general statement this week: “We house and care for approximately 12,000 inmates in our seven jail facilities on any given day. The safety and security of our entire incarcerated population as well as the staff is very important to us.”
Hough’s complaints about how she was treated on the job were deemed unsubstantiated, and shortly after, she was investigated twice by the Department of Mental Health and the Office of the Inspector General for her own workplace conduct, her suit stated.
In 2013, several staff members with the department were placed on administrative leave during the Inspector General’s investigation, according to court records. Hough remained on paid leave for nearly three years.
The Inspector General’s investigation ended in 2016, finding that the department’s claims against Hough were substantiated, and that her own complaints against the department were unsubstantiated, according to the suit. The OIG review was not made public, according to Hough’s legal team. A spokesperson for the Inspector General’s office could not be reached for comment on Friday.
While she was working at Twin Towers, Hough also started a private practice performing forensic interviews of inmates for the Los Angeles Superior Court . Hough’s superiors alleged that she was conducting those forensic interviews, and doing other unrelated tasks, while on the clock for the Department of Mental Health , she said in the suit.
Hough’s lawyers said in the suit that the investigations were focused on “trivial and frivolous” allegations, including Hough’s use of her county email to respond to an emergency e-mail from her child’s school. Her lawyers also said she had permission to complete her other work during her hours with the county.
When Hough returned to work in 2018, her job had been transferred to the Department of Health Services . Her lawyers said that she had no real assignment, no employees, and that her work was “rendered meaningless.”
She is retiring this month, Kent said.
The settlement awarding Hough $1.65 million was approved by the Los Angeles Claims Board and the Board of Supervisors on Feb. 29 .
Kent said both sides wanted to reach a resolution, as the case had gone on for several years.
But, he said, “I think this has a message for the county and other governing bodies as a whole, that they need to take retaliation and discrimination seriously.”
A spokesman for the Department of Mental Health declined to comment, and the Department of Health Services could not be reached for comment.
Los Angeles County spent more than $80 million in litigation costs in 2023. Twin Towers jail has long been at the center of allegations of abuse and misconduct against inmates.
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