San Luis Obispo County is grappling with a new reality: Changes to state law have released a flurry of child sexual assault litigation against agencies around California, unearthing incidents that allegedly took place decades ago.
“We have a total of four active cases involving sexual assault and [Assembly Bills] 218/452; however, two of those cases involve the old boy’s school in Paso Robles, which was a state-run facility so we should be getting dismissed from those relatively quickly if we haven’t already,” County Counsel Jon Ansolabehere said.
In 2019, the Legislature unanimously passed Assembly Bill 218, which extended the statute of limitations to file a child sexual assault lawsuit from age 26 to 40; extended the statute of limitations for survivors older than 40 to within five years of when survivors reasonably should have discovered repressed memories of assault; and enabled survivors whose statutes of limitations had expired to file lawsuits by Dec. 31, 2022.
In 2023, the Legislature also passed AB 452, which removes the statute of limitations on all childhood sexual assault claims filed after Jan. 1, 2024.
These reformed state laws resulted in multiple payouts to survivors from school districts, like the Carpinteria Unified School District in Santa Barbara County and the Lucia Mar Unified School District in southern SLO County.
Lucia Mar faced three lawsuits over the last six months of 2025 that alleged child sexual abuse, assault, and negligence by employees.
In August 2025 and February 2026, two men filed complaints against the county for reported abuse that took place when they were at the El Paso De Robles Youth Correctional Facility, which housed minors under the age of 19. The facility closed in 2008.
On Feb. 2, an anonymous Jane Doe filed a lawsuit against SLO County alleging assault in 2000 when she was a 14-year-old detainee at SLO Juvenile Hall.
“On at least five occasions, the correctional officer sexually abused plaintiff by isolating her in multiple places, including a cell, visiting rooms, search rooms, and attorney rooms, and forced her to strip to her underwear and proceeded to grope her body,” her complaint read. “These acts were committed in a custodial setting by an employee of the county, and for the correctional officer’s own sexual gratification.”
The woman’s complaint added that she doesn’t know the officer’s identity, but it could be determined through discovery. The officer also allegedly displayed other concerning behavior, like spending time alone with minors in staff-only areas, assigning unusual cleaning duties, and violating professional boundaries.
In December 2025, an anonymous John Roe sued the county for a dozen issues that allegedly took place between 2001 and 2002 when he was a 15-year-old at the Juvenile Probation Department in SLO. He alleged sexual assault and battery perpetrated by an officer named Kevin, negligence, failure to summon medical care, and a violation of the Bane Act.
A Bane Act claim notes that a defendant, through threats, intimidation, and coercion, tried to prevent the plaintiff from doing something they had the legal right to do, or to do something that they weren’t required to under the law.
Roe’s complaint said that the officer abused him by fondling him, forcing him to remove his clothes, and performing oral copulation on Roe.
“Officer Kevin threatened to remove John F.H. Roe’s facility privileges, including access to telephone calls and outdoor ‘yard time,’ should John F.H. Roe fail to comply with Officer Kevin’s orders,” the suit states.
The complaint added that the county subsequently covered up the abuse allegations and created an environment that “harbored molesters.”
Ansolabehere told New Times that the county has no comments because of active litigation. ∆
This article appears in March 5-12, 2026.