A probation officer grabbed the camera of a teenager who was charged with excessive force and will be offered a plea agreement Friday by Los Angeles County prosecutors after posting videotapes of the incident No jail sentence under the terms.
Oscar Cross, 61, does not compete for one misdemeanor crime of assault, must complete 250 hours of community service and 30 face-to-face anger under the terms set by the Los Angeles County Dist Management class. Atti. Ryan Dibble. If he complies with the terms of the deal, the case will be dismissed within one year.
The cross is Accused by public officials In 2023, after the Times published a video about the violence, the video took place in 2020 at Kilpatrick Camp in Malibu.
Beckham had previously told Times that he was hungry and was looking for food in a public area, but all he found was a milk carton. He threw the container, causing a dispute with the officials.
In the video, four officers are seen grabbing the boy and pressing him onto the bed. A man put his knee on his back and nailed the teenager. For about a minute of clash, Beckham looked soft and Cross grabbed the 120-pound teen’s legs and bent his feet towards his head. Beckham could hear the screaming “Mom!”
“I think what’s going on is unfair. …It ended so quickly,” Beckham said in a Los Angeles court on Friday. “It hurts me a lot to everything I do and I’m even afraid to go out. I always have to be with my family because I’m not safe and can even leave my own home, given that What happened.”
Cross, who served as duty supervisor during the incident, was initially charged with a felony assault and faced him in state jail for three years. If convicted of a felony, he will not be able to serve as a law enforcement officer. Defense attorney Tom Yu said Cross is still employed by the probation department but will not comment on his client’s current identity or whether he plans to return to work.
Vicky Waters, communications director of the probation department, said Cross has been on leave since October 2023. She has no comment on the plea agreement.
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Dibble said the lack of harm suffered by Beckham played a role in the plea agreement. But, Beckham argued in court Friday morning that the X-rays showed his back had been damaged by the disc. Records from previous reviews show that Beckham has not been treated for serious injury in the incident.
“I’m very happy [Cross] Will be fired at the end of the case…My client has served the county with outstanding results for thirty years. ” Yu said.
Yu said Cross believes he used reasonable power in the incident, but the videotape plagued several probation officers. One person calls cross-action “child abuse.” The departmental review committee said the cross should be fired, according to documents reviewed by the Times in 2021.
But Adolfo Gonzales, the chief of the publicity at the time, blocked the supervisor from termination and refused to hand over footage of the incident to prosecutors for review.
More than a year later, The Times received videos of probation officials who spoke on anonymously for fear of Gonzalez’s revenge. Los Angeles County prosecutors only realized the incident after 2023 reports. A few weeks after The Times released the video in The Times, Gonzalez was fired by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
The prosecutor does not need Cross to waive his proof of being a peace official under the terms of the deal.
Cross’s conditional plea includes 250 hours of community service and 30 anger management meetings. He will return to the court in February 2026 to determine whether he has fulfilled these conditions.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
The troops heads prosecuting police officers at the Police Office, Dibble and Alan Yochelson, declined to comment outside the court. The District Attorney’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Amenui Ashvanian ordered Cross to compensate Beckham and determined that the amount will be held later this year. Beckham’s family also filed a civil lawsuit against the department.
Outside court, Yu laughed at the idea that the victim in the case was a “choir boy” who said he often fought probation officials and was detained for violent sexual crimes at the time of the incident. Law enforcement sources have previously told The Times that Beckham was detained for sexual assault.
“He is not an innocent child, he is just a victim of child abuse,” said You.
Yet juvenile justice advocates are angry at the terms of the deal.
“I can’t help but wonder what happened to all the other officers who watched this without protecting this young man and how this outcome would change the culture within many of our teenage facilities,” said member Milinda Kakani (Milinda Kakani) said. The county’s probation supervision committee. “I think it’s safe to think that everything will remain the same.”
