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Texas Child Abuse
and Neglect … "Here’s the
statistics I was able to find:
In 2006, there were 186 confirmed victims of child sexual abuse in Region 10 (out of 1,878 confirmed victims for all types of abuse/neglect). Keep in mind; Region 10 is composed of 6 counties El Paso, Hudspeth, Culberson, Jeff David, Presidio and Brewster. From 2007, there were 31 confirmed victims of child abuse/neglect (all types, not just sexual abuse) in Brewster County alone out of the 2,202 total victims of child abuse/neglect in Region 10. State office has not yet broken down 2007 stats into “types” of abuse/neglect — that’s why the ’07 numbers are generic and not specific to sexual abuse. Thanks and good luck." These “cases” cited are verifiable matters which have been vetted through the Austin offices. The cases are sent to law enforcement and Child Protective Services for investigation and action. The Texas Attorney General frequently proclaims his actions in “protecting children” and so do politicians at every level of government. There is a considerable gap, however, in the number of sexual assaults on minors reported and those which actually result in convictions of sexual predators. At every level of the system some responsible authority is making judgments that may result in dismissal of the allegation. Because the cases often involve minors, there are restrictions on public access to the cases. The most common crime statistics report, the Uniform Crime Report compiled by the FBI, does not include sexual assaults on minors. At Sul Ross State University, for example, the university is required by federal law to report the cases of sexual abuse annually — so they do. On the Sul Ross web site there are charts of “crime statistics,” on campus and of campus. Sul Ross reports 1 case of “forcible sex offenses” every year on campus 2002-2006 and 1 case every year off campus. “Sex, lies and sealed records in Fort Worth” is a lengthy story in the Dallas Morning News of December 3, 2006 which describes the suppressions of records involving a church. In August 2004 the Texas Judicial Council published a lengthy report, “Public Access to Court Case Records.” The report tries to anticipate the changes to the system brought about by electronic access to court data while emphasizing that court records are “presumed” to be public. For those case workers involved in protecting children this is very frustrating work. The San Antonio Express News online reported that half the state’s (Texas) case workers left the service in the past year. (“Child Abuse cases taking a toll, by Nancy Martinez, San Antonio Express News, January 19, 2008). Perhaps the worst case of Texas governmental inaction was the 2007 scandal involving the Texas Youth Commission. In that case which is still evolving in salacious and disgusting detail, started when the prosecutor, District Attorney Randy Reynolds in Pecos, Reeves County, sat on and intentionally delayed a Texas Rangers’ report of sexual abuse in a juvenile jail in Pyote for two years. Our readers will not be surprised to learn that DA Reynolds is running for reelection. His only opponent is Reeves County Attorney, Kevin Acker. Acker tells the Dallas Morning News he didn’t want to run but could not recruit anyone to oppose Reynolds. (“Pecos DA criticized in youth jail sex scandal seeking re-election (“Dallas Morning News online February 2, 2008”). One report, however, is quite useful — the Annual Report of the Texas Office of Court Administration (OCA). The annual report is a compilation of monthly reports from district and county clerks throughout Texas, by county. “Criminal activity” has 15 categories, from “capital murder” through “theft” and “arson” to “all misdemeanors.” Brewster County reported 92 total criminal cases pending in state district court on 9/01/06. A year later, on 8/31/07 97 cases were pending. Throughout the year there were 52 cases added, 42 of those by indictment. Throughout the year there were 47 dispositions. There were 22 convictions in Brewster County’s slice of the 394th District Court. There were no acquittals. There were 12 “dismissals.” And there were 13 “other dispositions.” Several quick and easy observations might be drawn. The total number of “Drug sale or manufacture” and “Drug possession” cases combined are only 13. But only 5 of those cases resulted in convictions. Four of the total was dismissed, and 4 were “other” dispositions. The “backlog,” or those cases in the queue, was not reduced at all. Brewster County ended the year with the about the same number of felony cases as it began. Twenty-two convictions are fewer than 2 per month. That is not heavy lifting for prosecutors, particularly compared with the huge case loads of the past. What Happened to Case #3829? The “Texas Judicial System Annual Report Fiscal Year 2007” is an excellent report about our state justice system. What does it tell us about Case #3829 a grand jury indictment for sexual assault on a minor? For the year between 9/01/2006 there were 2 cases of sexual assault on an adult and 3 cases of sexual assault on a minor on Brewster County’s part of the District Court’s report. The number changed some time during the year with what is recorded as a “dismissal.” There were no cases of sexual assault recorded as “indicted” even though Case #3829 was the result of a Brewster County indictment in early August 2007. Case #3829 includes no documents indicating it was dismissed although the case file clearly shows that the case was withheld from the judicial system only 48 hours after the indictment was filed. DA Brown apparently initiated the decision to delay the case. Some official in the system may have decided that the case was properly in the “dismissal” column on the annual report. Or is this a fuss about a simple clerical error, or perhaps a series of errors? Perhaps. But the gentle reader is advised to reflect on the statement of the spokesman for Region 10. He told us in an email that for the fiscal (presumably) year of 2007, “there were 31 confirmed victims of child abuse/neglect (all types, not just sexual abuse) in Brewster County alone …” Perhaps those 31 cases of “confirmed” sexual abuse or neglect were dispatched in Judge Val Beard’s County Court; but there is no such accounting in the annual report. There were 198 “dismissals” and “other” non-prosecutions, non-convictions of cases during the same period in county court. That large number is almost as many as were added. The result is that in both the district and county courts the pending cases over the year remain level. The conclusion is that the Brewster County Courthouse is not very vigorous in the pursuit of cases confirmed by state and local agencies to be either child abuse or neglect. Case #3829 is an excellent example. PS: February 14, 2008 Texas Child Protective Services emails us
that during the past fiscal year (2006-2007) there were 31 cases of
child abuse or neglect in The only “case” on the docket of the 394th
District Court, however, is the one we brought to your attention on
January 30 — “Case #3829.” That case was absent without leave since the
defendant’s indictment on August 7, 2007. Moreover, District Clerk Jo Ann Salgado has
discovered that the district court’s report to the Texas State Office
of Court Administration is incorrect. Four of five cases of sexual
assault reported during the past year do not exist. The only existing
case of sexual assault pending on the district court docket here in |