Texas Governor Rick Perry and his office were aware of incidents of sexual abuse at juvenile prisons in Texas as far back as 2001, and did nothing, according to documents released in the ongoing scandal surrounding sexual and physical abuse at the Texas Youth Commission.
All this is especially interesting considering that, earlier this month when officials with the Texas Youth Commission voluntarily released to the media emails to four senate staffers in a vain attempt to shift the blame from within their own ranks and away from Texas Governor Rick Perry's Office—even though it had already been mentioned in the MainStream Media that Perry's office had advanced knowledge of some of the problems?
Well, folks, the MainStream Media finally has their act together and is able to tell us exactly when Perry's office was made aware of some of the problems that make up the TYC Scandal:
Gov. Rick Perry's staff knew as early as June 2005 that two administrators at a Texas Youth Commission facility were not being prosecuted on allegations of sexually abusing youths in their custody, according to records obtained Tuesday by the Houston Chronicle.
Perry's aides have said that TYC notified them of the initial investigation in February 2005, and that they thought the case was being pursued by prosecutors until they were told otherwise in October 2006 by an aide to state Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston.
Also, other records show Perry's office routinely sent written complaints from parents about their children's treatment in TYC facilities to the agency for self-investigation. A complaint of sexual abuse involving students was forwarded to Perry in 2001 by then-U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Denton.
That's right, folks! Texas Governor Rick Perry could have done something about this six years ago! Had his office acted on that complaint, perhaps none of what we are seeing unfold now would have ever happened.
Of course, Perry, Lt. Governor Dewhurst, House Speaker Tom Craddick, and AG Greg Abbott all talk a good game about this and express outrage at the tragedy. However, they sat idly by for as long as six years before doing a thing:
Perry and other state leaders have expressed outrage that a Ward County prosecutor allowed sexual abuse allegations against two West Texas State School administrators to languish for two years without prosecution.
But an e-mail obtained under the open records act shows a TYC administrator told a Perry criminal justice staff member in June 2005 that the case was not under prosecution.
In a June 13, 2005, e-mail, Perry staff member Alfonso Royal asked TYC Chief of Staff Joy Anderson: "What is going on in the West Texas investigation?"
Anderson replied 18 minutes later: "Both the assistant superintendent and the principal resigned in lieu of termination. We aren't aware of any pending criminal charges."
Ah ha! That's about three months after the March 9th emails Anderson sent to four senate staffers (which Capitol Annex has obtained under the Public Information Act), which isn't surprising, since Perry's office knew of the allegations all along.
And, get this:
Perry spokesman Ted Royer said Tuesday that in June 2005 no one in the governor's office would have believed the prosecutor would sit on the case for 18 more months.
"From the communication we received, there was no reason to believe that due process was not moving forward as it should have," Royer said.
Royal did not check back with TYC again on the investigation.
How's that for follow-up? You say you think something is being handled properly and have no reason to think it isn't because your follow-through is at best, half-assed!
Hey, if you don't follow up, you can always say you thought everything was fine and dandy, right?
And, as we said, Craddick and Dewhurst knew very well what was going on, and were in a position to do something:
Anderson, on Feb. 24, 2005, sent an e-mail to Royal and staff members for Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, House Speaker Tom Craddick and Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, D-Houston, notifying them of the initial investigation of one of the two administrators.
Three other e-mails in March 2005 from Anderson to Royal showed that TYC was keeping him abreast of the West Texas investigation and at least once gave him a verbal "briefing."
Capitol Annex actually has copies of the other March 2005 e-mails, which were released as part of the "covery your ass and deflect" operation TYC started around the first week of March.
And, that's not all:
Other correspondence released by the governor's office showed that at least 33 parents, two students and two staff members had written to Perry between 2000 and 2007 to complain about physical abuse or conditions at TYC facilities, including the one letter of sexual abuse forwarded by Armey. That case involved a student complaining about sex abuse by another student.
The letters were forwarded to TYC for investigation. Senior agency executives wrote the parents conciliatory letters downplaying problems with their children.
Royer said the governor's office had to rely on TYC to respond to the complaints.
"When constituents write to tell us their insurance company is overcharging them, we refer them to the Texas Department of Insurance," Royer said. "We do not have the staff to investigate complaints about other agencies."
Again, where is the follow-up here?
X-Posted From Capitol Annex