LOS ANGELES (KNX) – A Los Angeles family filed a civil lawsuit against California Pediatric & Family Services after video revealed their teen daughter’s behavioral therapist abused her during a session.
According to the family's attorney Robert Glassman, Kevin Yuen, an employee with CAL-PED, had worked with the Verdugo family's 16-year-old daughter Marcela for 18 months. Marcela is non-verbal and has Dandy Walker Malformation Syndrome and Autism.
In March 2021, the teen’s mother saw Yuen grab Marcela’s arm aggressively. Glassman told KNX News, the mother tried to give Yuen the benefit of the doubt.
“The mom wanted to make sure this wasn’t just her daughter’s underlying disability, didn’t want to jump to conclusions, didn’t want to accuse anyone of anything that wasn’t right,” he explained. “So she wanted to wait and see and give this guy the benefit of the doubt.”
Then, the mother noticed changes in her daughter, including “flinching and covering her face and hitting herself with a closed fist” when Yuen would come into their home, as well as bruising on Marcela’s neck and back, according to the complaint.
That’s when the mother took action and bought a camera to put in the living room to record Yuen’s session with Marcela.
“(The family) had the intuition to investigate this on their own by putting the camera in there, and of course, what they saw after they watched the video was horrifying,” Glassman said.
Video on June 14 revealed Yuen punching Marcela in the face twice. At one point, Marcela hits herself and Yuen punches her again, causing her head to go backward. Yuen briefly checks her and his hand before continuing the session.
Glassman told KNX the family rushed the teen to the hospital and called police upon seeing the video. After police watched the video, they arrested Yuen.
Yuen was arrested for one count of child endangerment and one count of assault by means likely to produce great bodily harm, according to KTLA. Yuen pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor child endangerment charge, was given four years of probation, and is prohibited from working with children during probation.
In the lawsuit, the family says Marcela suffered "severe and permanent injuries" from Yuen's abuse and are seeking non-economic damages, as well as economic damages for "past and future hospital, medical, professional, and incidental expenses as well as past and future loss of earnings and loss of opportunity.”
CAL-PEDS released the following statement to KTLA:
“We were shocked and appalled when we saw the video. The employee in question, who had passed background checks, was terminated immediately, and we reported the incident to the appropriate authorities,” the statement read. “We are cooperating fully with law enforcement.”
Glassman said what happened shows something is wrong with the system.
“These are companies that are supposed to be providing therapy and support for their children and (the family) relied on them to make sure that they were putting into their home someone who had a clean background,” Glassman said.
“Someone who knew how to deal with children. Someone, who honestly, was just a normal person who wouldn’t take it upon himself to beat their little girl’s face in with their fist. And so the family was really trusting and relying on this company to pick someone to help their daughter, not to beat her up.”
He credits Marcela’s mom for listening to her intuition.
“Her instincts kicked in and told her something isn’t right and she took matters into her own hands and put a camera into the room and captured this crime being committed against her daughter,” he said.
“Thank God for (Marcela’s mom). If it wasn’t for her, this abuse would’ve kept going.”
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