TYC Scandal: Another Lawsuit Filed Alleging Abuse

As we told you previously, one lawsuit has already been filed against the Texas Youth Commission over sexual abuse at commission facilities.

Now, an East Texas woman has filed the first federal lawsuit in East Texas over abuse her son suffered while confined in TYC. From the Tyler Morning Telegraph:

Friday, a Longview woman filed a lawsuit in a federal district court in Marshall against the Texas Youth Commission (TYC), guard Verkeasha Mason, juvenile correctional officer James Davis and Superintendent Alan Walters, all of whom work at the McLennan County State Juvenile Correctional Facility in North Central Texas.

The mother claims her son, a youth detained at the juvenile facility in McLennan County from Jan. 10 through Dec. 11, 2006, was molested by Ms. Mason, a guard working in the control room of the facility. According to the lawsuit, the guard molested the boy in a staff bathroom.

The inmate was caught leaving the staff bathroom by another guard after the incident. It was reported to Davis the victim was in the off-limits bathroom and the inmate was punished for violating TYC policy, according to the lawsuit.

The boy “informed Davis that he was in the staff bathroom with defendant Mason, but did not explain what occurred in the bathroom,” the claim states.

Ms. Mason was on probation for being in similar situations with other youths at the McLennan facility prior to the incident with the Longview boy, the lawsuit claims.

Good lord. This also goes to show that males weren’t the only alleged abusers. I believe this has already been established as a fact, but it’s not talked about quite as much.

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