43-year-old man with a domestic violence conviction, an unregistered gun and over $100,000 in warrants was running youth volunteers out of their offices. A 16-year-old girl says he sexually abused her.

In February 2021, Huntington Park police arrested Billy Valdivia, then 43, after a 16-year-old girl and her mother walked into the station. Police reports describe the girl as a volunteer in the youth political network where Valdivia was, in his own words, “mentor” to teenagers. According to the reports, she met him through that world, and so did a second girl, age 14, who described a frightening encounter with him months earlier.

That world was tied to two of the city’s most powerful politicians. The question for Huntington Park voters is simple: how did a man like this end up in charge of children, and what did the people whose offices and campaigns he worked for do to stop it?

Who he was, in their world

Nothing in the reports accuses Efren Martinez or Councilmember Graciela Ortiz of abuse. But the documents place Valdivia at the center of both of their operations:

• Valdivia told detectives he was a contracted, paid employee of the “Y Vote” youth internship program, run out of Martinez’s offices. Another report summarizes his statement that he was “employed by Efrain Martinez (contract employee)” and that he “oversees” Martinez’s campaign office near Santa Fe and Gage.
• The 16-year-old described him as the “boss” who manages the volunteer events. She also said she volunteered during Ortiz’s campaign for the L.A. County school board, with the work held at that same office.
• The 14-year-old told detectives that Y Vote is run by Ortiz and that she had volunteered for over a year.
• Valdivia told police his job was driving minors. He said he spends most of his time at the office with volunteers “that consist of minors and young adults,” and that one of his tasks is picking them up at home and dropping them off. The girl told police the two were often alone in transit.
• When he was stopped, he was driving a 2000 Toyota 4Runner registered to Martinez. He said it was the vehicle he drives regularly, and a records check confirmed the registration.
• Inside the car, in a black bag, officers found a loaded, serial-number-free “ghost” gun and a Huntington Park city commissioner badge.

What the girls say happened

The 16-year-old told police that Valdivia sought out chances to be alone with her and found excuses to touch her. She described physical contact in his car, at the office and at his apartment, escalating to sexual contact. Detectives later recovered a Polaroid from his apartment that matched her description, along with text messages and other evidence under a search warrant. She told police she understood she had been “groomed.”

On February 15, 2021, she ran away and stayed with him. Her mother reported her missing. The mother called Valdivia because he was the volunteer coordinator for Martinez’s office and she thought he could help find her. He told her he hadn’t seen the girl. The girl says she was with him.

The 14-year-old described a separate incident in November 2020. She said Valdivia offered to teach her to drive, pulled into a dark alley, and tried to pull her onto his lap and then toward him by her waist. She said she refused to get back in the car until he raised his voice. She told detectives he treated her differently afterward and that she began limiting contact with him.

The first girl told police she was afraid to come forward because Valdivia “is well known in the community and has close ties to city officials.” Her mother said the same. A child should never have to weigh that before reporting abuse by an adult her community program put in charge of her.

The red flags that were on paper

By his own admission to police, Valdivia was legally barred from owning a gun because of a prior domestic violence conviction. The detective’s report confirms a 1997 domestic violence conviction. He carried the gun regularly, saying it was for protection. Police also found over $100,000 in outstanding warrants. At his apartment, a search found a homemade explosive device, which the Sheriff’s bomb squad determined was a destructive device.

The reports contain no sign that anyone running a youth program for teenagers checked any of it. They record no background check, no rule against adults being alone with minors, no supervision of who drove the girls home.

What he did next

Within hours of his arrest, Valdivia was working the phones. In his first recorded jail call, on February 22, he asked an associate to contact “Efren” and “Graciela,” saying he needed to talk to them or to the chief of police.

Over the next two weeks, according to a detective’s summary of the calls, he:

• Told relatives the girl “set me up,” that her family was Republican, and that it was all “politically driven,” with a “major league” origin that “came from higher up”;
• Said he had “helped Efren” and “wanted to continue helping him,” and asked a supporter to find California Democratic Party stationery to write letters vouching for his character;
• Told people to keep everyone, including his own son, away from the girl;
• Had his mother direct someone to empty drawers in his apartment, including where the Polaroids were found, and remove a black case from the area where the explosive was later discovered.

Why this is a failure of oversight

Martinez’s office hosted the program, and Valdivia drove Martinez’s vehicle. Ortiz’s campaign and the Y Vote network drew teenagers into the same orbit. A parent entrusts a child to a program because of the names on it. When those names are public officials, the program borrows their authority. That is exactly why the girl’s mother called Valdivia first when her daughter went missing, and why the girl feared speaking out.The reports leave questions that Martinez and Ortiz owe the public:

1. Who hired Valdivia, who paid him, and with what funds?
2. Was he ever background-checked? Did anyone know of his 1997 conviction or his warrants?
3. What policies governed adults transporting or being alone with minors?
4. When did either of them first learn of any complaint about him? Did the 14-year-old’s experience ever reach anyone?
5. Why did Valdivia, on the first day of his arrest, ask for the two of them by name?
6. What was done for the girls after this became public?

A youth program that cannot answer those questions has failed the children it enrolled, whatever the intentions of its founders.

Sources/Documents:

• Arrest Report (February 2021): Arrest Report
• Incident Supplemental Report (February 2021): Incident Supplemental Report
• Supplemental Report Narrative (February 2021): Supplemental Report Narrative
• CHP Vehicle Report (February 2021): CHP Vehicle Report
• Civil complaint (January 2024): Complaint PDF
• Los Cerritos Community News (January 13, 2024): Local reporting on the lawsuit
• Los Angeles Times (February 24, 2024): Coverage of the lawsuit and Ortiz
• Los Angeles County Superior Court ruling (March 8, 2024): Ruling in case 24NWCV00084
• Los Angeles Times (October 11, 2024): Update on the civil lawsuit