When Attorney Wesley Ouchi sued Los Angeles County for forcing one of his male teen clients to take estrogen, he did not foresee the lawsuit leading to oversight of juvenile hall.
But that’s what happened.
“A board of supervisors raised the issue at one of their supervisor meetings and the lawsuit was used in support of why they thought it was important to fund the probation department with a civilian oversight committee in order to help protect the juveniles,” Ouchi told the Southern California Record. “Juvenile court is entirely run by the juvenile probation department, which is why they thought it was important to establish a third-party oversight committee.”
Ouchi filed the lawsuit in Superior Court of Los Angeles on June 23 after his client, a minor, developed gynecomastia, which is defined as swelling of breast tissue in males.
Dr. David Oh, medical director of the Los Angeles County Juvenile Court Health Services, and Dr. Danny Wang, who reports to Dr. Oh, are named as defendants and are accused of prescribing the estrogen hormone, Estradiol, at Central Juvenile Hall in Eastlake without the voluntary and informed consent of the teen or his parents.
“There's a lot of systemic problems within the juvenile system if this is the way they go about treating minors,” Ouchi said in an interview. “The forms they use to obtain informed consent actually do not obtain informed consent because they don't apprise the parents or the minor of the actual medical procedure that they are performing on them.”
The lawsuit alleges a violation under the California Tom Bane Civil Rights Act for alleged threats that were made to the 16-year-old regarding taking the medication because he couldn't refuse as well as a violation of right to privacy and right to bodily integrity under the California Constitution.
Other claims include negligence and medical battery.
“He's a male and now he has breast tissue, which expanded,” said Ouchi. “Essentially, it's tissue that needs to be surgically removed because it's not fat or muscle so, it's not going away on its own.”
Although Ouchi’s client is not a male running around with full-on female breasts, his chest tissue did swell to a degree that was noticeable to him, the other minors in juvenile hall and his parents, he said.
“The day that they gave him the estrogen was the same day they had diagnosed him with Oppositional Defiance Disorder, which is associated with elevated levels of testosterone and elevated levels of testosterone are also correlated with higher levels of delinquency,” Ouchi said. “It’s utterly ridiculous because male teenagers are supposed to have high levels of testosterone. There's no such thing as elevated testosterone.”
After taking the pills for 13 days, the teen felt terrible, according to media reports.
“His chest was sore and hurting,” said Ouchi. “My client had developed growing tissue along with pimples and acne, which he’d never experienced before. He also couldn’t sleep or concentrate and he was depressed and anxious.”
The plaintiff is seeking general and special damages in an amount to be proven at trial as well as reasonable attorney fees.