Perry fires youth agency head 2 years after probe TYC shake-up comes 2 years after probe

Agency's leader ousted; 'cover-up' of abuse alleged

AUSTIN — Gov. Rick Perry's staff learned last fall of a Texas Rangers investigation into allegations of sexual abuse in 2005 at a West Texas state juvenile facility, but the governor took no major action to reform the Texas Youth Commission until after the report became public last week.

On Wednesday, Perry removed the agency's board chairman, Pete Alfaro, of Baytown, and appointed Don Bethel, of Lamesa, as Alfaro's replacement.

Perry also recommended that at its meeting Tuesday, the board hire Ed Owens, the deputy executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, as the acting TYC director and set up an inspector general who answers directly to the board.

And late Wednesday, the Senate voted to ask the legislative audit committee to recommend the entire state agency be put into a conservatorship. Perry would have the final say on whether a conservatorship is adopted.

Legislative committees held hearings last year in which former TYC employees and the parents of youth offenders testified that there was widespread physical and sexual abuse of those incarcerated in the system.

But Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Sens. John Whitmire, D-Houston, and Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen, said they didn't find out until last week about the Texas Rangers' report on the possible sexual assault of boys by TYC administrators at the West Texas State School in Pyote.

They said there appeared to be a cover-up by high-ranking TYC officials.

"Two or three years ago a Ranger report went to the Youth Commission, and we're just finding out about it in the Legislature in the last few days," Dewhurst said. "Who was on the distribution? That Texas Ranger report, did it just go to the Youth Commission or did it go to other offices?"

No charges have been filed

Perry spokesman Ted Royer said the governor, the lieutenant governor and speaker were notified of the original investigation in 2005, but he said the results were given only to TYC.

Royer said the governor's staff became aware of the report in November when public safety adviser Alfonso Royal was contacted by Alison Brock, the chief of staff for state Rep. Sylvester Turner, D-Houston.

Royer said Brock asked Royal if the governor's office could help getting Ward County District Attorney Randall "Randy" Reynolds moving on prosecuting the offending TYC officials.

Royer said Perry's staff never saw the report, but Royal received the ranger's notes and talked to the ranger about his investigation.

Royer said the district attorney told Royal he did not have the staff to prosecute the case. He said Royal then coordinated with Reynolds to get him help from the Texas attorney general's prosecutor assistance office.

No criminal charges have been filed.

Royer said the governor's office was trying to address "systemic" problems one step at a time.

"You never take the most drastic step first. You take smaller, aggressive steps to see if you can get the job done," Royer said, noting that Perry has now taken a more drastic step.

Repeated reports

Brock said she turned to Royal for help after learning about the report from juvenile justice advocate Isela Gutierrez, of Austin.

Brock said she called the ranger who conducted the investigation and he told her his report outlining possible sexual assault by two TYC officials was sitting in the prosecutor's office.

That is when Brock turned to the governor's office.

"It's 100 percent state funded. The board is appointed by the governor. It's just one of those agencies where you look to the governor for help," Brock said.

She said she thinks Royal is dedicated to improving TYC.

Alfaro said Wednesday that the board knew of the Rangers' investigation in 2005, but thought the case had been turned over to the local district attorney. He said he didn't learn that no action had been taken or that there had been an additional internal investigation until last week.

He admitted there are problems at the agency, but thinks the board was addressing them. Alfaro said he had not been officially notified about Perry's decision to replace him as chairman. He said he will resign from the board when that occurs.

The sexual abuse that the Texas Rangers substantiated at the West Texas State School occurred despite repeated reports from staff members to superiors that students were being preyed on. The officials either turned a blind eye or intentionally covered up for their colleagues, the Rangers determined.

"Everyone knew what was going on," one juvenile told a Rangers investigator.

The Rangers' report indicated two top administrators had turned the Pyote facility into something of a sex camp between 2003 and 2005, molesting scores of young offenders. The two officials resigned in 2005.

'This is no surprise'

Gutierrez, who heads the Texas Coalition Advocating Justice for Juveniles, said Texas legislators heard many similar stories of youth abuse and sexual assault during a series of hearings last year that were held in McAllen and San Antonio.

Gutierrez said legislators did not demand immediate action to clean up TYC until they learned of the Rangers' report. She said it had been too easy to dismiss many of the stories as coming from allegedly disgruntled ex-employees or the parents of TYC youths.

"This is no surprise. What is a surprise is that the legislators are now taking it so seriously," Gutierrez said.

Dewhurst said he told Perry on Tuesday that the Senate would prefer to put TYC under a conservator and "fire" the entire board. Dewhurst said Perry declined to go along with that.

Whitmire noted that TYC Executive Director Dwight Harris resigned last Friday after being called to testify before the Senate Criminal Justice Committee on Tuesday. He said one of the TYC officials who received complaints about the Pyote facility, Lemuel "Chip" Harrison, was still working at the commission until he was suspended during the Senate committee hearing.

"Because of the history over the past two years of cover-ups ... we're concerned about what we don't know," Whitmire said. "This agency is still involved in a cover-up."

Hinojosa said the governor's office is focusing on the Pyote facility as an isolated problem, not part of a systemwide problem. He said there have been similar abuse cases at TYC facilities in Giddings and Edinburg.

"They think (the West Texas State School) is the only problem. It's not," said Hinojosa.

r.g.ratcliffe@chron.comlsandberg@express-news.net