TYC Reform Committee Fires First Shot
March 8th, 2007 at 8:12 pm
The special joint committee named by the house and senate leadership to oversee reforms of the Texas Youth Commission in the wake of the Pyote scandal (reported first in The Texas Observer) met for the first time this afternoon. Much of the four hour hearing was devoted to housekeeping issues, including who among the team assigned by the governor’s office to investigate and overhaul the agency–which included the governor’s special master Jay Kimbrough, John Keel of the state auditor’s office, Ed Owens, the new executive director, and Don Clemmer of the attorney general’s office–would handle which duties. Senator Chris Harris raked Clemmer over the coals for fifteen minutes for his agency’s failure to intervene sooner in the crisis at Pyote. The committee was likewise unimpressed with Clemmer’s prediction that he could have the two alleged perps at Pyote indicted within four or five months. Chairman Whitmire urged him to expedite it however he could.
Texas Ranger Brian Burzynski stole the show with his account of his efforts on behalf of the victims at Pyote. Burzynski, who finished his investigation in the spring of 2005, was thwarted at every turn by Ward County district attorney Randy Reynolds, who refused to move on the case until January of this year, prompting Senator Royce West to ask if there was any process for impeaching district attorneys in the state of Texas. Burzynski, who choked up a bit when he recounted his promise to the victims he interviewed that he would not let them down, received a standing ovation from the committee members and much of the gallery at the end of his testimony. Clearly, the Rangers will not be taking the hit–and rightly so–for the fact that not a soul has yet been arrested in what is emerging as one of the worst scandals in recent memory.
The current board of TYC took a hit however, when the committee, after hearing an hour’s worth of testimony from board members, wrapped up the hearing with a vote of no confidence in the board. It was a symbolic swipe at the governor, who has yet to cave in to demands that the board be replaced by an outside conservator. His man Jay Kimbrough, however, all but promised that mass firings were imminent at the agency. Kimbrough was relentlessly upbeat about the work that was being done thus far (”an excellent job by everybody” he kept saying, which might fairly be translated as “no conservator needed”), which has included establishing hotlines for youth and staff to call to report abuse, sending peace officers out to the various TYC facilities, and surveying staff and inmates at selected facilities.
Politics was in the air this afternoon as attempts were made to nail down when the governor knew of the abuse at Pyote, when Burzinski’s unreleased report made it to the capitol, and various other lines of intrigue. Democratic Caucus leader Rep. Jim Dunnam issued a press release shortly after the hearing ended calling on the governor once again to wipe out the board. The gov’s office responded with its own press release, which read in part: “the Governor believes that every member of the TYC board must be willing to devote their full time and attention to correcting the problems at the youth commission. Any member who is not willing to do that should resign immediately.”
March 9th, 2007 at 7:08 am
Nate, you say the Rangers should “rightly” not take a hit for this, but I have to wonder. Somebody on the committee, I think it may have been Shapiro but I couldn’t tell, asked why Buryzinski didn’t just “slap the cuffs on him.” I found his reply unsatisfying - that making the M.O. public would invite other not-real victims to copycat the charges. To me that’s not good enough for three reasons:
1) He’d already searched the suspects home to find the porn, etc., and would have given the same probable cause in the search warrant affidavit about victim testimony.
2) It’s untrue that arrest warrant affidavits include the level of specificity he told the committee - in fact, many of them are fairly vague and perfunctory, merely stating that reliable facts or testimony supports the officer’s belief that all the elements of a crime are present.
3) Once he believed the DA wasn’t going to prosecute, the risk that the media would read the arrest warrant affidavit, to me, becomes a lesser concern than the idea that an alleged pedophile is running a youth prison. He was being told by the US Attorney and the County Attorney that these were misdemeanors, which means for much of last year he was under the impression that the statute of limitations might expire by Feb. 2007 (two years after his investigation began). Why didn’t Buryzinski just cuff and stuff the guy? Because arresting a state official like that is a politically charged deal, and he likely feared going out on that limb alone, understandably.
Think about it: If he had evidence on a drug case, would he similarly wait for permission to arrest?
An alternative interpretation might be that he did a good job investigating the case, but didn’t have the guts to stand behind his work, force the issue with an arrest, and let the chips fall where they may.
I don’t know. But I wonder.
March 9th, 2007 at 10:23 am
Just wonder if Perry’s reluctance to fire the TYC board members has anything to do with their fundraising and contributions to Perry and the Republican party. How much was the well-being of these children sold for?
March 12th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Texas Rangers in our corrupt county of Hidalgo County in South Texas frequently tell victims of crimes that they will not waste their time investigating crimes because our illustrious DA, Rene Guerra, has several groups he simply will not prosecute, including bankers, school districts (especially the one his wife works at, etc).
The AG’s office likes to say they can’t get involved unless the DA asks them to. Bull! Show me the state statute that allows that nonsense.
The AG’s office has prosecutorial authority to step in, otherwise, why have Rangers, DAs, laws? DAs are not as almighty as the establishment would like the public to believe.
Here in South Texas, our weekly alternative newspaper, The Paper of South Texas, has been running the story of an Edinburg school teacher who signed a confession to having an intimate relationship with a 14-yr old male, yet because she is from such a wealthy and well-connected family, has never been arrested, investigated or prosecuted.
The confession was witnessed and signed by two school officials, one of who is related to the DA (cousins) and would seem guilty of failure to report because nobody has been able to provide the father of the victim with evidence that the teachers alleged crimes were reported to CPS and/or TEA as required by law.
The teacher, in fact, was at last report teaching in Del Rio, kinda like the Catholic Church moving wayward priests from parish to parish.
So, the father has sued in federal court, including among the defendants three Hidalgo County criminal assistant district attorney for their alleged cover up of this scandal.
Not one other media member has run with this story because among the members of the extensive powers of corruption down here is a law firm that represents the city, county, school district and all the major news media players. When they’re told not to run a story, they don’t.
That’s why I’m hoping somebody at the Observer reads these comments and contacts me about this TYC-like travesty of justice. We’ve got more documentation on this than the Library of Congress has books.
Greg Abbott ran on a campaign of “Protecting Texas Children,” but when we asked them if they’d received a copy of the confession, they stopped returning our phone calls.