The state's sexual abuse case against a former youth prison administrator has stalled since his attorney was arrested and stopped appearing at hearings, court records show.The judge has ordered a hearing Dec. 18 to get Brookins lawyered up and move the case along, just in time to get the case back in the media's sights as the Legislature heads back to town.Scott M. Dolin, an Austin attorney who had been hired to defend Ray Brookins in the ongoing probe of sexual abuses at a Texas Youth Commission jail, stopped appearing in court after being arrested, according to records filed by the Texas Attorney General's Office.
Prosecutors, according to the court records, learned of the arrest in February. Courts records do not indicate what charges Dolin was arrested on or where.
Dolin was removed from the case in April and Brookins, the former assistant superintendent at TYC's West Texas State School in Pyote, has repeatedly pledged to hire another attorney. But according to court records, that has not happened. ...
Brookins was originally set to stand trial in April, but the case was derailed after [his attorney Scott] Dolin failed to show up for pretrial hearings. Since then, according to court records in Ward County, the case has stood still.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
TYC sex abuse case stalled for lack of defense counsel
According to AP:
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48 comments:
So let me get this straight....a child molester continues to walk free for seven months and counting because he has a rotten lawyer?????
Only in America!
Unbelievable.
I wonder if Brookins has gotten a job while he's waiting? Maybe someplace with kids?
Someone remind me again why TYC should have ever had a facility in a place where it takes 2 years to try someone for molesting kids.
BB
Hasn't the state attorney general been in charge of the prosecution for almost the last two years? The problem is now and has always been that there is not enough evidence to convict these guys, and the witnesses are not credible. They have already been convicted by the court of public opinion, along with WTSS. They will not be able to get a fair trial in this state, and a group of nice, hard-working people are going to have to find jobs elsewhere. Maybe there shouldn't be a facility in West Texas, but the biggest mistakes in this were all made in Austin.
Correction, 4 years.
The charges were filed four years ago and Brookins is stalling for any statute of limitations there may be.
It is no coincidence that the judge has just ordered him lawyered up, it fits in with Elmer's plans to shut down TYC and steal more TRS money.
Yes, it's been four years, but the Attorney General has only had it for two years. The criticism of Randy Reynolds was that he sat on it for two years, but the AG has done the same thing. Judge Parks told Brookins that if he didn't have an attorney by May 31st he would appoint one at Brookins expense. John Paul Hernandez has a lawyer, but he hasn't been tried either. It seems to me there is someone higher than Judge Parks pulling the strings, and I don't think it's Whitmire. I think it's the governor.
The "lack of evidence" argument is almost too ridiculous to merit comment. Read Ranger Burzynski's report. He collected plenty of evidence.
The failure of authorities to follow thru only feeds this kind of speculation.
BB
BB
As discusting the acts mentioned in the Ranger report are. Brookins admitted to many of them in the light of counseling with the youth. Hence the youth's knowledge of personal information. And he explained his DNA samples as a chronic masterbator who gets off in semi public places like his office.(inappropriate and sick, yes) The biggies (felonies)however, require a victim's testimony to prove. And his victim goes on trial himself for two armed robberies on 12-01-08.
So is he a credible withness? After all he was mad at Brookins for abusing him for making him work after hours.
The ball's in the Attorney Generals court. So don't blame us hick out here in the sticks. Even though all this oil and electromagnetic energy from the wind turbines makes us crazy. We do lock up the bad guys.
an observer from the begining.
With that information you just gave, he sounds more like a pedaphile than ever. Classic case of "partial admission."
I personally think the ranger screwed everything up. Why was that report given to the public? All the evidence is circumstantial and anectdotal, and the confession was done before he was read his rights. Any credible judge will not allow any of that as admissable. Why didn't the ranger arrest him? I really would hate to be the ranger on the witness stand.
BB, again remember the AG's office has been in control of these cases for the past 2 and some odd years. So don't try and blame the location of our facility for the AG's inability to keep the ball rolling. They wanted it in their court and they got it - so lay the blame where it belongs and leave WTSS out of it. No one wants to see these cases tried than the staff at WTSS and the citizens of Ward county. All you people who sit back and criticize West Texas and make assumptions about the people who work here have no idea what it has been like for us since the day Ray Brookins arrived at this facility. Don't assume you know anything about us until you have walked in our shoes.
Does anybody really expect this case (or any of the other ones) to be handled in a compentent and fair manner? Whatever happens with TYC seems destined to be handled in the same old corrupt way - in your face arrogance.
All the dirty ones of TYC will be able to slide. The Gov's and AG's office could help, but they know they don't have to. There is little effective pressure to deal with this mess.
How easily commenters here want to take on the mantle of victimhood from the inmates who were actually molested.
It isn't "elitist" to expect services to be provided competently and on time. That includes legal services. I fully agree that the AG has blown it just as much as the local DA.
This criticism isn't a moral indictment of the citizens of Ward County, either, and even bringing that up is just changing the subject. Instead, it's a criticism of the lack of qualified professionals to get the job done right.
The fact is that my infant son will probably be in high school by the time this seemingly open-and-shut case is closed. I would find that equally inexcusable if it were happening in Harris County as in Ward County.
BB
WTSS and some local people of Ward County helped cause this injustice. When employees publically down played the incident and tried to blame others for their problems, their credibility and integrity went to hell. The public was mislead so no one locally pushed the case, rather they covered it and hoped it would go away. Now they are upset that their precious institution may close, but they have caused the entire miscarriage of justice. Thanks to D.Bard, and his cohorts who tried to mislead everyone. A fine example of how they will continue to treat youth who need help!
BB, no one wants to take away the mantlehood of victimhood from the inmates, if they were, indeed, victimized.
Ray Brookins, may or may not have been a child molestor, but he was most assuredly a sociopath. Through a comedy of errors he got left in charge of a facility. He would have done the same amount of damage no matter where he would have been.
We have in this country something called "due process" which has served these inmates more often than has failed them. It is serving Brookins now. The crimes have not been proven to have occurred, and there is supposed to be a presumption of innocence. The fact that we lost that to trial by press is probably the greatest crime that has been committed here.
Who has got the beef against Don Bard? And why? He's an associate psychologist. All he's supposed to do is psychologicals, and that's about all he does. How did he become the target? This isn't him, by the way. I am his friend. Does that make me a cohort?
Many more youth than those at WTSS have been victimized in TYC. The assistant principal at WTSS reported sexual abuses to his superiors and local media. They both reported him back to the abusers. The gentleman who wrote "Raped by The State" was also bashed by the WTSS administration and some locals for "making allegations", which were verified to be true by other media, including the Dallas News and Texas Monthly. There has been a strong coverup by some officials and TYC management, plus some legislative leaders who knew about the scandal, years before the 'sex incident at WTSS'. It has been proven that youth abuse, sex abuse, physical and some deaths of youth under suspicious circumstances; has gone on in TYC for several years. Can the situation get any worse, when many in power and leadership positions, want it to just go away? Strong actions are necessary to reshape TYC and bring about rehabilitation for youth. If you don't believe in treatment and rehab. for youth, you shouldn't be in CJ.
My guess 1:14 is that you are the gentleman that wrote "Raped by the State." That would explain a lot. I have no problems with you selling your book, but must you continue to lash out at everyone else to do it? I started to read your book, but it was mean-spirited, poorly written, and totally subjective. If TYC was as evil as you say, you were very much a part of it for twenty-five years. In fact it was specifically your job to investigate and to stop abuse. You are in no position to be throwing stones.
The originally reason for the TYC scandal was that TYC could not get the prosecutor off his chair to prosecute. The AG, who has much more authority in prosecution than TYC ever had, has managed to do less while in the driver's seat. Maybe it is time that the AG was placed under a conservator.
Howard A. Hickman
Brookins is a sleaze bag.
He should have been ordered to get lawyered up as soon as his sleaze bag lawyer was arrested.
This a a political show baot and Gov. Goodhair and Elmer are both hoping to profit from it.
The word from this institution - not the 'Pyote Peyton Place', was several administrators were out of control for some time, prior to the Brookings incident. It was so bad that problems were kicked above TYC level to the governors office. The Brookings ordeal only opened the doorway to the agency wide aberation, which was allowed by ill TYC leadership. Our facility has problems, but nothing close to the Pyote nightmare. There is no way that most employees could have been in the dark about such widespread abuses and malfeaseance by administrators.
6:21...I think you are right. Our Govenor has managed to keep a stinking agency out of the national spotlight for several years now. This "look the other way" type of government is unethithical, unjust and stinks to high heaven.
Will the madness end in the next in the next gubernatorial election?
Lets hope we don't have to wait that long.
I think 6:21's comment disappeared. Oh well....
6:30 is right on...but most of the adm. and austinites that were uncovered would like to put all of this BEHIND them!! maybe that's the common factor that has linked the "clique", good ol'boys/gals. this could get very dirty. M&M "melts in your mouth, not in your hands"
Go 6:30. Some ignorant employees, or those who pretend to be ignorant, were aware of abuses years before the 'Peyton Place' incident at WTSS. I know of several mid level folks that contacted Austin, state reps., and other high offices to stop the turmoil at Pyote; but nothing ever happened to halt the devilish practices by administrators. They were kin to the top TYC leadership and evidentally are still keeping things from being done. Some of the ones proping up the current leadership, were part of the problems in the first place. They need to go for a real clean start at Pyote. Their are several 'accomplishers' to the sex abuse still there.
6:30, red flags went up when you started with "Word." The original charges haven't even been proved yet and may never be. When you say, "There is no way that most employees could have been in the dark about such widespread abuses and malfeaseance by administrators," you jump from an unproven premise to a false conclusion. We don't yet know if the two are guilty of molestation, much less that administrators are guilty of hiding it. People at the state level might be guilty of inattention to their duties and shifting blame, but not much more than that.
I don't know anyone at WTSS, and I doubt that you do either. For their sakes, I'm asking that you stop slamming them.
It's interesting, that back some time ago, we here, not Pyote, also complained to higher headquarters about management of this institution and were told to "lay-off, keep it quiet, support the management team". The 'team' finally were forced out, but many at the top tried hard, for years to cover-up and support their own, in charge of the institution. Many feel the same happened at West Texas, which allowed the big sex scandal to occur. Why now, continue more cover-up? Is this to be encouraged, so as to not hurt someone's feelings?
Thanks 102. Someone/they....are trying to quiet the entire atmosphere in TYC. Don't rock the boat...leave it to others in charge. Haven't we been through this before? Smells bad....when we are encouraged to be quiet and not report the truth! Ever wonder who is behind this?
The AG dropped the ball? Um....the AG was ready for trial when Brookins' attorney went AWOL. The AG repeatedly asked the judge to appoint Brookins a new attorney. The AG filed the formal motion asking the judge to appoint him an attorney. Last I checked, the AG doesn't have the authority to appoint lawyers - That's solely the judge's responsibility. You might want to double check who's been dropping the ball.
If you were to check with most voters in Ward county, would would discover that few voted for Parks....just leave the space blank. A waste. He has sat on this also. Many would call this judge a nut. He has a robe, but so did the nut in California that killed all those people. BUT, why does the attn gen also sat and let it happen????
No one will step up. What is wrong with CJ In Texas??
We all know what is wrong with criminal justice in Texas. Some of the top TYC culprits that covered the sex scandal, are friends with folks in the governor's office and the attorney general's office. What can Texas's expect? People in the TYC Board are tight w/the governor's people, and they are also tight w/folks who were in the middle of the sex scandal, plus the other mismanagement. Unless the US Attn Generals office gets involved, seriously, all this will slowly dissolve into nothing. Does anyone really think the government is out to help citizens? They all have their skeletons and they all protect each other....screw the public once they are in office!
Unfortunately, I personally know a number of the individuals referred to in this blog.
The former Assistant Principal is a friend of mine. I worked with Brookins, Hernandez, Barnard, Clay, and numerous other names that have appeared on this website. Thankfully I am out of TYC.
This entire scandal, which should have been already prosecuted, because the Ward County Sheriff told me that he has several rooms full of evidence in the Ward County Courthouse, has been a political football. It has nonsensically gone on simply to gratify some political ambitions of some very sick people including individuals in the Lege, the Gubernatorial mansion and evn in the White House.
Children were huurt in TYC, both by other children and staff. Some staff were punished, some were rewarded, it dependen upon the upward suction that the individual had at the time.
Many children were helped by the concerned and caring adults who were employed over the years in TYC. But The clean sweep mashould have been carried out four years ago. Today too many of the offenders have walked, are employed in other areas and are just beyond reach.
I guess that "tough on crime" only counts if the criminal is not connected to the power structure.
7:34,
Let's not also forget that some staff were treated wrong and lumped into the cart with some bad apples when they had done nothing but a good job for TYC, and had their careers unjustly destroyed by an overzealous Conservator trying to suck up to the Lege and cover the Governor's back side.
Ditto, 8:56.
7:52
"Unless the US Attn Generals office gets involved, seriously, all this will slowly dissolve into nothing"
Actually, the US Attn Generals office was the first to decline prosecution in this case. I have/read their memorandun dated 7-28-2005 to Ranger Burzynski and Chippy Harris. Bottom line "our offices resources would be better employed investigating and prosecuting cases involving more clearly defined violations of federal criminal law." Bill Boumann,Assistant US Attorney, Major Cimes Unit. The Civil Rights Division Memorandum dated(09-27-2005) also "did not establish a prosecutable violation of federal criminal rights statutes" Albert Moskowitz Chief Criminal Section.
It will be interesting on December 18 when Brookins has his court date and the Judge appoints an attorney and the whole process starts.....anew.
ham2mtr
Hey Scott H, here is a shout out to you. I predict that Brookins and Hernandez will not go to trial until Perry is out of office in 2011 when Kay Bailey H. gives him a proper a** whoopin over all this mess he has overseen.
And just how long has the AG's office known that ole Brookins did not have an attourney? And, the judge really did not know this until now? Smells like a fix to me! The Pols do not want this case to come to trial!
The 'fix is in', has been in, in TYC for several years and will continue to be.
Of course they don't want it to come to trial. Discovery is a wonderful thing!
The delay's working for them. Turn TYC upside down, install incompetent and corrupt replacements, then keep the spotlight on all the turmoil results. Keep the spotlight off the corrupt and guilty politicians.
This isn't any diffrent than TYC now. Things are still happening. You place a person in Crockett that is a arrogrant power hungry man and he is a liar on top of that who is bring in his own people from Al Price. You will be reading about him in a few years due to him thinking he is not touchable. He took over Oct 1 and we had Staf teams for the last 3 weeks due to him debursting a corrupt dorm among others who were in tact and doing right. Its his fault why we are unrest rightnow. He wont' take it either he is blaming the 6's stating its their fault. Its not and the people here know it too. No one is going to follow him. SLogan
Crockett just needs to be patient and hope that CO can see the errors of their way. Placing a person over a campus and hoping they succeed is not the correct way to establish unity. If we continue to point out these flaws to our leadership in CO hopefully they will place the right leader on this campus and then we can move on. But we must do so without creating a situation where youth and staff are in danger. We need to step up and do our jobs and let the chips fall where they may.
Ya'll will never have the type of Campus you had when Freeman and Nicholson were there. They knew how to run a program. Besides, anyone that knows Freeman should know that he probably put some voodoo on the place before he left town. Ya'll are so screwed.
CRTC JCO VI
Why do you Crockett trolls keep venting your spleen regardless of the subject of the blog? Go create your own blog site where the four or five of you can argue about the good old days vs the bad old days of Freeman and Nicholson! Get this - it is not all about you.
it ain't about you either, BIOTCH
11:30 3:00 PM, I understand that you are not real happy but often when new people come in there are many changes and we all have to willing to make changes but just so you know--if you do not want help from AL Price then just say you don't want help. Those staff are not his people, majority of them were not even at AL Price when he was there. But I have never heard anyone complain when assistance was sent. Actually it is usually appreciated. Oh and By the way thanks for the disruptive kids that you sent us.
So, the time has come and passed for Brookins to get himself a lawyer - no word on what happened.
I think it should be pretty obvious by now that no politician wants this case to come to trial.
Its really sad to think a person could do this and get away withit.I know by law and due process and all but what happens if it is true? GEe if it was someone else in a regular agency it would have been a hanging mob on court square. i WORK FOR tyc AND IT AMAZES ME A WHAT goes on. It appears that the agenc;y does not check on its agencies to much. If a guy like that could be place out there when he had question marks about him before and not get checked on then its alot of people tht shoulod be held accountable for these youths pain and suffering. We should all be ashame if this guy gets off. There was several of us that knew him and knew he was crooked and some of us complained but once again it was sweeped up under the carpet just like everything else inTYC.
As Grits said, the legislature is returning to Austin in a few short weeks. It has now been almost FOUR years since the allegations were made. I wonder if it is still TYC's fault that the two haven't gone to trial yet...
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