American Statesman | March 06, 2007
By Mike Ward

XXXRayVijon, the 41-year-old Austin man calls himself, proclaiming on MySpace.com that his interests include "making good love to the one I'm with" and "practicing safe sex 'cause I love me." He posted a photo of himself at the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas.

"If you ask me, I'll say . . . if it feels good, just do it!" he stated in his online profile on the social networking site.
 
The site has piqued the interest of state legislative investigators, who believe it belongs to Ray Brookins, a former Texas Youth Commission official accused of having sex with teenage boys incarcerated at the remote West Texas State School. One investigator who knows Brookins confirmed that the photo on the MySpace page is that of Brookins. The site was last updated in August; it was unclear when it was created.

The online postings appear to demonstrate a penchant for pornography that should have been a red flag about Brookins' suitability for a job that involved supervising teenagers — one of many red flags that went unchecked by the Youth Commission until too late:

•Brookins had a disciplinary and petty criminal record dating back 21 years, when he was hired as a Texas prison guard, including an arrest and conviction for hot checks, according to state records obtained by the Austin American-Statesman.

•Brookins' use of pornography on the job, including viewing images of nude men and women on state computers, was not considered when he was hired at the West Texas school, according to a Youth Commission report on the sexual abuse that was made public last week by Texas Senate leaders.

•Brookins' driving record contained numerous and repeat violations that demonstrated "his scofflaw attitude," the Youth Commission report states. The record was not given enough weight in considering how he would follow and support rules as a top official at a high-security state facility, the report concludes.

"This guy never should have been working for TYC. Period," said Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, D-Houston, a vocal critic of the agency's inaction in protecting incarcerated Texas youths from predators. "My question is how many more of them are out there right now in TYC. It's what we don't know that scares the hell out of me."

The reported sex abuse at the state school in Pyote — in which Brookins has not been charged — is thought to have gone on for more than a year, in part because of a series of bungled investigations and what legislative leaders call a cover-up by top officials at the Youth Commission.

After news reports about the sexual abuse, legislative leaders last week took steps to put the agency under new management. Gov. Rick Perry ordered a shake-up in agency management, and legislators are expected to begin hearings this week into the allegations. At least seven investigations — criminal, administrative and legislative — are under way.

Just as the growing scandal has highlighted how Youth Commission officials failed to stop ongoing abuse, it also highlights another dark reality in Texas: Too often, people with criminal records can be found in the low-paying jobs at Texas' prisons and youth lockups.

Last year, the American-Statesman disclosed that in 2005, more than 700 prison employees had been arrested and charged with serious crimes, including robbery, sexual attacks, drug-dealing and murder. In many cases, because the charges were dropped or reduced, they were allowed to remain on duty — even after criminal convictions.

Many infractions

Brookins fit that mold.

The college graduate, who has been working at a Northwest Austin hotel since resigning from the Youth Commission in 2005 amid an investigation into the sex abuse allegations, hired on as a prison guard in November 1985, prison system records show.

Before he left that post in July 1999, he had reached the rank of captain and was a supervisor at the Cotulla Unit south of San Antonio, despite a record of disciplinary violations that included his arrest and conviction in 1997 for writing hot checks in Beaumont, according to prison records.

Because the charge was a misdemeanor, he was allowed to continue work.

He had four other job write-ups: for failing to report major uses of force, where guards have to restrain convicts; failing to complete random drug tests on convicts; failing to file a report as required; and for accidentally wrecking a warden's car.

By August 1999, he had gone to work for the Youth Commission and was named director of security at the San Saba State School, a school for troubled youths northwest of Austin.

Within four years, he had a new, much more troubling work record.

In March 2001, he was disciplined and put on probation for accessing pornography on his office computer — "photos of naked men and women with their genitalia exposed," the Youth Commission report states.

About that same time, he had multiple run-ins with state and local police for driving violations and two accidents — one a misdemeanor conviction for driving with a suspended license, a charge for which he was arrested at work, according to the Youth Commission report.

And investigators were told that Brookins "regularly took youth into his office, alone in the evening, and with the blinds closed," according to the report. "Administration addressed the issue by telling him to only counsel one-on-one in his office when absolutely necessary and to have his blinds open when doing so."

That finding would later come back to haunt the agency.

In October 2003, Brookins transferred to the West Texas facility as director of security, a move supported by Lydia Barnard, the former San Saba superintendent who hired him and who was by then a director of juvenile corrections, according to the Youth Commission report and testimony before Whitmire's committee.

Youth Commission officials later conceded that his personnel file was never reviewed, legislative investigators have determined.

Within two months, staff members at the remote lockup began reporting that Brookins was taking boys to his office at night, according to the Youth Commission report. Brookins insisted he was counseling the youths, and no further investigation took place, according to the report.

Staff members complained without success that Brookins and the facility's principal, John Paul Hernandez, were both spending time with boys in their offices with the lights off, according to the report.

More abuse claims

In the following months, the count of alleged incidents and staff complaints climbed. In September 2004, a 17-year-old youth complained that Brookins had watched him shower and made an inappropriate advance, according to a second, confidential report on the investigation obtained by the American-Statesman.

Barnard investigated the complaint and found that no abuse had occurred, a Senate report shows.

A month later, she announced that Brookins would serve as acting superintendent.

Staff members continued filing complaints about Brookins' and Hernandez's nighttime activities with boys, including e-mails directly to Youth Commission Executive Director Dwight Harris in Austin. Still, nothing happened.

In early 2005, according to the confidential Youth Commission report, a computer tech "found pornographic Web sites saved to the favorites files" on Brookins' home and office computers. He said he had no idea how they got there. Then, a security officer at the facility reported that a nude photo of Brookins had been found on a private Internet sex club site.

The confidential report shows that agency investigators later determined the sexual activity had gone on from approximately January 2004 to February 2005, including "engaging in sexual conversations with youth, showing youth pornographic movies and materials, touching youth, performing unwarranted and inappropriate strip-searches, making provocative comments, watching students shower."

Not until Texas Ranger Brian Burzynski showed up at the West Texas facility in February 2005 did the reports of sexual molestation stop. Brookins resigned that same month, Hernandez several months later. Both left in lieu of being fired, according to the confidential report.

By the time he left, Brookins had 12 disciplinary actions in his personnel file, according to legislative investigators who have seen it.

Repeated attempts to contact Brookins and Hernandez for comment were unsuccessful.

Youth Commission spokesman Tim Savoy said allegations of sexual abuse are difficult to investigate and prove.

"Usually only two people are present," he said, adding that "an allegation doesn't mean a confirmation."

Still, Savoy said, Brookins' personnel record should have drawn attention.

"We should have fired him in 2001, after we found porno on his computer," Savoy said. "That should have been a red flag."

Brookins' checkered past: a glance

Ray Brookins began his criminal justice career in 1985 as a prison guard. He left state employment in 2005.

Disciplinary violations include:
•Failing to report major uses of force on convicts.
•Failing to do random drug tests on convicts.
•Failing to file required reports.
•Wrecking a warden's car.

Criminal violation:
•Arrest and conviction in 1997 for writing hot checks in Beaumont. Allowed to continue work because the charge was a misdemeanor.

SOURCE: TEXAS YOUTH COMMISSION'S SUMMARY REPORT FOR ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEW
mward@statesman.com