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March 27, 2007

Gonzales Ship Sinking Fast

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is on a ship with more than one big hole in it, and it seems he is sinking fast. One of the holes taking him down is his failure to prosecute officers of the Texas Youth Commission despite "more than 1,200" complaints and knowledge that "dozens" of guards and administrators were sexually abusing juvenile inmates, including routinely waking them up at night for all-night sex parties.

Texas Ranger Brian Burzynski presented his findings to Gonzales back in 2005, but Gonzales declined to prosecute. So did other officials Burzynski contacted. At least eventually they did. Originally they prepared indictments, but after hearing from Washington, they declined to prosecute, despite full acknowledgement that the activity was, indeed, occurring. The general consensus was that since the boys may have willingly participated, and none of the boys reported having experienced "pain" during the "assaults" (yes, that was the word prosecutors used), and since they did not apparently "resist" or "object," the boys did not experience the sort of "bodily injury" or "victimization" that the law required; therefore, no laws were broken. Never mind that officials lengthened some of the boys' sentences in order to keep them available for the sex parties.

Why would the Administration help to cover up this mess and make it go away, you might wonder? Because the case occurred right in the middle of Republican Governor Perry's re-election campaign. Meanwhile, prosecutors kept busy "actively pursuing minor voter fraud issues."

The scandal in Texas, and its cover-up in Washington, is so outrageous it almost cannot be believed.

Emerging evidence suggests the scandal was systematic and statewide, perpetrated by a criminal conspiracy of staff employees. Texas authorities are investigating allegations that pedophiles on the TYC staff conspired to recruit and hire other pedophiles to engage in criminal acts of forced sex with the minor inmates. … TYC management and staff personnel were hired despite prior records of felony offenses or previous sexual misconduct.

It is a real shame that abuse of young boys is often treated differently than abuse of young girls. We tend to assume that they are enjoying it and are not harmed by it in the same way that girls are. I am personally very close to a male victim of a female teacher and know that assumption is absolutely false. And Burzynski says in the case of these juvenile victims of sexual abuse, the boys were not willing participants.

"When I interviewed the victims in this case, I saw kids with fear in their eyes, kids who knew they were trapped in an institution where the system would not respond to their cries for help," he said.

Burzynski promised the boys he would do everything he could to see justice done. Thanks to Gonzales, however, that justice has yet to be meted out.

Posted by Becky at March 27, 2007 09:48 AM