Monterey County Youth Center Director arrested for alleged sexual contact with minor
SALINAS, Calif. (KION)
UPDATE 7/17/2020 3:30 p.m. The Chief Probation Officer for the Monterey County Probation Department, Todd Keating, has released a statement in response to the arrest of the Department's Youth Center Director.
When members of the Probation Department said the found inappropriate communication between Jennifer Butz-Tavares and an inmate at the Monterey County Jail, Keating reached out to Sheriff Bernal to request an internal investigation.
Keating tells KION that he does not have any additional details to share, but said his goal was to get to the truth and that the health and safety of the youth under their supervision is the department's top priority.
Read Keating's full statement below.
"Inasmuch as this is an active criminal investigation as well as a personnel matter, I don’t have any details to share at the moment beyond the information included in the MCSO press release. I will say that my goal from the beginning was to get to the truth, whatever that truth might be. Nothing has changed in that regard now that this has become a criminal matter.
"It’s important to recognize the fact that probation staff acted immediately to report the information they had come across and trusted that the information would be acted upon. The health and safety of the youth under our supervision and care is the department’s first priority. We will continue to work with the Sheriff’s detectives and will take any and all necessary action moving forward."
Chief Probation Officer Todd Keating
PREVIOUS STORY: The Monterey County Probation Department's Youth Center Director, Jennifer Butz-Tavares, has been arrested for alleged inappropriate sexual contact with a minor.
The investigation started in late May when the department said it found inappropriate communication between Butz-Tavares and an inmate at the Monterey County Jail.
The Sheriff's Office's Professional Standards Division started an investigation, and it was turned over to the Sexual Assault Unit when investigators found that the victim was a minor who used to be a resident at the Monterey County Youth Center in Salinas.
While the victim was there, investigators said Butz-Tavares had inappropriate sexual contact with him, and the relationship continued when he was released and became an adult.
Butz-Tavares was placed on administrative leave when the Probation Department found out about the criminal accusations.
On Wednesday, the Investigations Division served search warrants at Butz-Tavares' home, and she was arrested and booked into the Monterey County Jail. She is charged with communication with a minor for the purposes of sex, annoying or molesting a child, sexual battery, assault under the color of authority and dissuading a victim from reporting.
Anyone with information is asked to call Det. Rosy Silva at 831-755-3818 or Det. Sgt. Bryan Hoskins at 831-755-3773.
