View the article here.Eleven people who work for youth prison facilities in Central Texas, including a controversial former sheriff, are being fired because of their criminal histories.
The employees are among 40 statewide who are being terminated by the Texas Youth Commission because of past brushes with the law. All either have been convicted of a felony or have received deferred probation for a felony-level crime.
With the latter, there is no final finding of guilt if people successfully complete their probation. Thus, they don’t have convictions on their records.
But the TYC doesn’t see much of a distinction, spokesman Jim Hurley told the Tribune-Herald. Whether people plead guilty to a crime or plead no contest to get deferred probation, they are essentially admitting they violated the law, he said.
“We need a clean slate,” Hurley said. “This agency is under a microscope, and there are too many questions about what is going on about this agency.”
The state conducted new background checks into every TYC employee after media agencies revealed in late February that allegations of sexual and physical abuse had been covered up within the youth prison system, sometimes for years.
Upon learning about the scandal, lawmakers vowed that no one who had committed a felony would be allowed to continue working at the TYC.
Officials made good on that promise this week when the agency mailed out termination notices, Hurley said. More people may end up being fired, he said, because some TYC employees who committed a felony-level offense were allowed to plead to a misdemeanor. All cases in which individuals originally were arrested for felonies are being examined, he said.
So far, most of the termination notices have been for drug-related charges, according to information from the TYC. But the list of offenses employees were adjudicated for also includes violent crimes such as murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault and sexual assault.
At the two area facilities, all of the crimes attributed to employees are nonviolent. At the McLennan County State Juvenile Correctional Facility in Mart, five people are being fired. Four have been convicted of a crime — driving while intoxicated, possession of marijuana and methamphetamine, possession of marijuana and burglary. The fifth received deferred probation for selling marijuana.
At the Marlin Orientation & Assessment Unit, six people are being fired. All of the charges ended in deferred probation. They include theft, credit card abuse, possessing a controlled substance, delivering a controlled substance and two counts of tampering with a government record.
One of those tampering charges belongs to former Falls County Sheriff Larry Pamplin, who has been employed at the Marlin facility about three years. He has been a caseworker, which entails leading group sessions for inmates as well as responding to parental concerns.
Some Falls County residents raised concerns about Pamplin’s employment at the TYC soon after the abuse scandal revealed its questionable hiring practices. Their argument was that people with a criminal history like his should not be working with troubled youths.
Prosecutors alleged that Pamplin stole more than $23,000 from the county during the early 1990s. He did so through a scheme in which he falsified records relating to the jail’s food fund, they said.
Pamplin originally was charged with three theft-related counts and seven for tampering with government records. But he ended up striking an agreement with prosecutors in 1998 in which he pleaded no contest to one felony count of tampering with a government record in exchange for the other charges being dropped.
As part of the agreement, Pamplin had to serve five years deferred probation. He also had to pay the county $15,000 in restitution and agree never again to run for public office or work for a law enforcement agency.
Pamplin did not return phone calls from the Tribune-Herald on Friday.
Another change in personnel at the Marlin facility is the retirement of Superintendent Jerome Parsee. He was suspended from his post late last month after being arrested on a charge of making a false report to a peace officer.
State law enforcement officials visited the Marlin facility in early March as part of the statewide investigation into abuse within the TYC. At that time, Parsee was asked what kind of abuse complaints had been filed at the Marlin unit.
Parsee reportedly told investigators that the most serious complaints dealt with use of force against inmates who had to be restrained after getting unruly with staff. But officers later learned several sexual abuse complaints had been filed at the facility.
The case is pending, but Parsee chose to retire from the TYC as of April 1, Hurley said.
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