As reported by Jerome Corsi of WorldNetDaily and picked up bytherawstory, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton-both already under siege for other matters-are now being accused of failing to prosecute officers of the Texas Youth Commission after a Texas Ranger investigation documented that guards and administrators were sexually abusing the institution's teenage boy inmates.
The Dallas Morning News extensive investigative report supports the findings of World Net Daily.
The Houston Chronicle and The New York Timeshave also reported this story.
Among the charges in the Texas Ranger report were that administrators would rouse boys from their sleep for the purpose of conducting all-night sex parties.
The Texas Youth Commission is the state's juvenile corrections agency, charged "with the care, custody, rehabilitation, and reestablishment in society of Texas' most chronically delinquent or serious juvenile offenders." Inmates are felony-level offenders between the age of 10 and 17 when they are committed. The commission can maintain jurisdiction over offenders until their 21st birthdays.
In the Texas Youth Commission scandal, Texas Ranger official Brian Burzynski received a July 28, 2005, letter from Bill Baumann, assistant U.S. attorney in Sutton's office, declining prosecution on the argument that under 18 U.S.C. Section 242, the government would have to demonstrate that the boys subjected to sexual abuse sustained "bodily injury." Baumann wrote that,
"As you know, our interviews of the victims revealed that none sustained 'bodily injury.'"
Baumann's letter continued, adding a definition of the phrase "bodily injury," as follows:
"Federal courts have interpreted this phrase to include physical pain. None of the victims have claimed to have felt physical pain during the course of the sexual assaults which they described."
Baumann's letter further suggested that insufficient evidence existed to prove the offenders in the Texas Youth Commission case had used force in their alleged acts:
"A felony charge under 18 U.S.C. Section 242 can also be predicated on the commission of 'aggravated sexual abuse' or the attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse. The offense of aggravated sexual abuse is proven with evidence that the perpetrator knowingly caused his victim to engage in a sexual act (which can include contact between the mouth and penis) by using force against the victim or by threatening or placing the victim in fear that the victim (or any other person) will be subjected to death, serious bodily injury or kidnapping. I do not believe that sufficient evidence exists to support a charge that eitherBrookins or Hernandez used force to cause victims to engage in a sexual act."
Baumann's letter went so far as to suggest that the victims may have willingly participated in, or even enjoyed, the acts involved:
"As you know, consent is frequently an issue in sexual assault cases. Although none of the victims admit that they consented to the sexual contact, none resisted or voiced any objection to the conduct. Several of the victims suggested that they were simply 'getting off' on the school administrator."
Baumann's letter also rejected Burzynski's charges that the administrators at the Texas Youth Commission facility in West Texas had used their position of authority to force the inmates to participate in the sexual acts or that the administrators had lengthened the sentences of the boys to retain willing participants or punish those reluctant to participate.
Baumann further wrote:
"In order for the government to be successful in a criminal prosecution, it would be essential for us to show that the victim was in fact victimized. Most of the victims were aware of the power that the school principal and assistant superintendent held over them, but none were able to describe retaliative acts committed by either the principal or assistant superintendent. Although it is apparent that many students were retained at West Texas State School long after their initial release date, it would be difficult to prove that either Mr. Brookins or Mr. Hernandez prevented their release."
Difficult? The Dallas Morning News reports charges from 2004 here.
On Sept. 27, 2005, the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division declined prosecution in a letter written to Lemuel Harrison, the Texas Youth Commission superintendent at the West Texas State School.In that letter, Justice Department section chief Albert Moskowitz wrote:
"evidence does not establish a prosecutable violation of the federal criminal civil rights statutes."
Read the letter here.
The scandal broke earlier this year, after news reports broke Texas newspapers detailed Texas Ranger Burzynski's probe into the charges. In his testimony March 8 to the Texas legislature's Joint Committee on Operation and Management of the TYC, Burzynski laid out a timeline of the attempts he made over a two-year period to get federal, state and local law enforcement authorities to prosecute. Read allegations of staff sexual misconduct from 2000-2006 here.
Ted Royer, spokesman for Texas Governor Rick Perry explained why it took so long for a public investigation to begin. In Texas, the attorney general just can't come in and prosecute a case.
"But if the DA asks the attorney general to come in, then the attorney general can go in and prosecute."
When asked why Perry's office didn't press federal law enforcement officers to take a second look and get involved in what now appears to be a conspiracy to deprive minor boy inmates of their civil rights in the TYC system, the response was as follows.
"Why bother?" Royer responded. "The U.S. attorney and the Department of Justice in Washington had already told us in February 2005 that they didn't want to be involved."
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"America's children will be better protected from every parent's worst nightmare—sexual predators—thanks to passage of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006...The protection of our nation's children has been, and will continue to be, one of the Department's highest priorities, and we believe this bill will help us do our job even better."
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Alberto Gonzales on the Adam Walsh Act
July, 2006
Johnny Sutton, the United States attorney in San Antonio, confirmed in a statement that his office "worked with the F.B.I. investigating the allegations of improper sexual contact between a staff member of Texas Sheltered Care and minors who were housed at the facility." But Mr. Sutton added: "We reluctantly concluded that the federal government did not have jurisdiction over any felony offenses allegedly committed. Because the most serious offense which might be brought by this office would at most be a misdemeanor, these allegations may be more effectively addressed by state authorities."
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The New York Times
March 24, 2007
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Read the investigative report on the Texas Youth Commission
here.
Here's more investigative reporting from the Dallas Morning News-Abuse Scandal Rocks TYC.-if you can stand any more.
The State Auditor's Office immediately referred 205 potential cases for further investigationduring the investigation of the Texas Youth Commission.