The Child Protection eNewsletter

Texas Youth agency can't just fire felons… 

It took investigators less than three weeks to find out that the Texas Youth Commission employs dozens of convicted felons.  Getting them off the payroll could take much longer, officials acknowledged.  Read More Here  The reason?  Top agency officials may have approved many of the hirings knowing about the felony records, so the workers cannot simply be fired.  In addition, Youth Commission employment policies state that workers cannot be fired without a specific cause, such as a violation of agency policy.  Most other state agencies are "at will" employers, meaning that the workers can be removed for any reason, according to legislative researchers.  "We are working on a way to correct this situation," said Ed Owens, acting executive director of the agency.  "Yes, it's not as simple as letting people go.  We're working on a solution."

Jay Kimbrough, the special master appointed by Gov. Rick Perry to oversee the ongoing investigations into sexual abuse and other problems at the agency that runs the state's juvenile justice system, had announced that at least 111 people with felony convictions or arrests were working for the agency.  After accounting for nicknames and other variations on employees' names, investigators revised the number to 99 employees with 132 felonies.  The agency employs about 4,800 people.

Agency officials said the workers' assignments range from correctional officer to counselor to office staffer.  The crimes range from hot checks and burglary to assault and murder.  An investigator said four employees have murder convictions, with one convicted of murder with malice and two or three others convicted of attempted murder.  Also, 437 employees have a history of misdemeanor convictions or arrests, officials said.  There is no prohibition against hiring people convicted of misdemeanors; the agency does not ask job candidates to disclose such misdemeanors on their applications.

Meanwhile, a legislative public hearing into the sex assault and cover-up scandal at the Texas Youth Commission opened Wednesday with a tense exchange between defensive employees and inquiring lawmakers and then moved into teary stories from family members about reports of abuse.  Read More Here  More than 200 people showed up for the Capitol hearing that ran more than six hours, including dozens of Youth Commission employees who became agitated about accusations that the agency where many have worked for years is broken.

Meanwhile, 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.  Read More Here  Among the charges in the Texas Ranger report were that administrators would rouse boys from their sleep for all-night sex parties.

The Texas Youth Commission controversy traces back to a criminal investigation conducted in 2005 by Texas Ranger Brian Burzynski.  The investigation revealed key employees at the West Texas State School in Pyote, Texas, were systematically abusing youth inmates in their custody.  Burzynski presented his findings to the attorney general in Texas, to U.S. Attorney Sutton, and to the Department of Justice civil rights division.  From all three, Burzynski received no interest in prosecuting the alleged sexual offenses.

Florida may charge disgraced ex-Congressman Mark Foley… 

Florida law enforcement officials are building a possible criminal case against disgraced former Congressman Mark Foley, R-Fla., based on sexually explicit instant messages that were sent from Pensacola, Florida, to an underage high school student, thereby falling under the state's tough law on Internet sexual predators, ABC News has learned.  Read More Here  "It's a broad statute, and it encompasses a lot of activity," said Maureen Horkan, the director of the Child Predator CyberCrime Unit in the Florida Attorney General's office.

Foley has begun to re-emerge publicly in Palm Beach, Florida, after spending weeks at an Arizona rehabilitation center for what his lawyer described as issues involving substance and his own alleged sexual abuse as a minor.

Unlike federal law, the Florida statute makes it a crime simply to use lewd or explicit language "that is harmful to minors."  Officials say the text in the Foley instant messages make it clear he was in Florida and knew he was dealing with someone under the age of 18.

ICAAN rejects .XXX domain again today… 

The agency that sets the Internet addressing guidelines influencing how people navigate the Web has again defeated a proposal to give adult Web sites their own ".xxx" domain.  Read More Here  Many in the adult-entertainment industry and religious groups alike had criticized the plan, which the Canadian government also warned this week could leave the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers in the tricky business of content regulation.  The 9-5 decision by ICANN's board came nearly seven years after the proposal was first floated by ICM Registry LLC.  It was the third time ICANN has rejected such a bid.  Paul Twomey, ICANN's chief executive, who had described the proposal this week as "clearly controversial, clearly polarizing" abstained from the vote but did not say why.

Both online pornographers and religious conservatives opposed the new domain.  Read More Here  Porn sites are largely concerned that the domain name, while billed as voluntary, would make it easier for governments to later mandate its use and "essentially ghettoize sexual information on the Web.  Religious groups worry that ".xxx" would legitimize and expand the number of adults sites, which more than a third of U.S. Internet users visit each month, according to comScore Media Metrix.

In other news… 

A youthful-looking sex offender who posed as a boy and enrolled in several charter schools is competent to stand trial for numerous crimes, a judge has ruled.  Read More Here  Neil Havens Rodreick II, 29, faces charges including possessing child pornography, assault, fraud, forgery and failing to register as a sex offender.  vol5_iss10  and  vol5_iss16

Country music star Wynonna Judd said she filed for divorce from her estranged husband, Dan R. Roach, after his arrest last week in Texas on sex charges involving a minor.  Read More Here  Roach, 49, was arrested Thursday in Abilene and charged with three counts of aggravated sexual battery against a child younger than 13 in Nashville, police said.

A gunman who sexually assaulted students as he held them captive in a high school classroom last fall claimed to have lost touch with reality, investigators said in a chilling final report on the attacks.  Read More Here  "I have no idea what's real and what's not real," Duane Morrison wrote in a suicide note released by authorities.

A Philadelphia narcotics officer sexually assaulted a teenage girl at least three times and had other sexual contact with her.  Read More Here  Thomas Gitto, 40, was 36 and the victim was 14 when the assaults began, Chief Inspector William Colarulo said.  The assaults occurred when Gitto was off-duty, although one took place in a police trailer, he said.

Reacting to the slaying of a social worker, the Kentucky state legislature approved a bill Tuesday to lessen the dangers faced by others doing the job.  Read More Here  The measure requires visits between birth parents and abused or neglected children to take place in secure locations.  Legislators pushed the Boni bill, named after slain social worker Boni Frederick, through on the last day of the session.

A husband charged with killing his wife's teenage lover got a rifle two weeks before the boy was shot to death outside his home, investigators in Tennessee testified.  Read More Here  A grand jury is considering whether Eric McLean should be charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of 18-year-old Sean Powell, a former student at the high school where McLean's wife, Erin, was a teaching intern.

Wisconsin sex offenders being held at a state facility are demanding their pay be restored from $2 per hour to the minimum wage, which they had received until recently.  Read More Here  Offenders at Sand Ridge Secure Treatment Center argue the state’s $6.50 per hour minimum wage — which they earned until last month — should apply to them since they are civilly committed patients and not inmates.

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