How Could You? Hall of Shame-The Refuge UPDATED

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Bastrop, Texas, “The Refuge, a nonprofit that operates a 50-acre residential treatment center in Bastrop, Texas, for teenage girls who are victims of sex trafficking, had its residents removed and was forced to temporarily close March 11 after the state’s Health and Human Services Commission suspended its license.

The suspension stems from a report that one of the shelter’s staff members made on Jan. 24 to Texas Department of Family and Protective Service investigators that a colleague had given two girls her phone, had them take nude photos of themselves and then sold the photos for Percocet and Xanax pills — prescription drugs frequently sold on the street for recreational use — which she gave to the girls.

The Texas House of Representatives’ Human Services Committee held a hearing Monday on the scandal and how it had been publicized in a class action that is now in its 11th year with no signs it will be resolved soon as officials struggle to comply with court-ordered reforms of the state’s foster care system.

Brooke Crowder, The Refuge’s founder and CEO, told the committee the former employee who sold the photos was as an overnight supervisor in a cottage where four girls lived, including the two who took the pics of themselves, and was immediately fired Jan. 24 when management learned of the situation.

Crowder said The Refuge works closely with the Bastrop County Sheriff’s Office because girls who are placed there by the state’s juvenile detention system, child protective services or their own parents are the most “traumatized girls in our system” having endured sexual trafficking by pimps.

“We call them quite often for various things,” Crowder explained. “Sometimes if girls have gotten into a terrible fight … sometimes if one of our girls has homicidal ideation.”

The Refuge promptly notified the sheriff’s office about the photograph seller and its investigation is ongoing. But after the shelter’s problems were publicized in a March 10 filing and hearing in the class action, sparking widespread media coverage, Governor Greg Abbott ordered an immediate probe by the Texas Rangers.

Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, which oversees the Rangers, told the committee they had reviewed the sheriff’s investigation and he believes an arrest is forthcoming.

“Clearly there is evidence and probable cause to believe that Refuge employee was involved in the sexual exploitation of a child, two minors specifically,” McCraw said.

He testified police are waiting on a cellphone service provider to comply with a subpoena and provide records proving the former employee distributed the photos. He said he expects the woman to be arrested once they get that info and she may also be charged with production of child pornography.

“I’m really confused about the nonarrest,” said Representative Toni Rose, a Democrat from Dallas. “And you said that you all are waiting. I mean if it’s already been determined and you have evidence that these things have happened, I’m just really unclear about why this person hasn’t been arrested.”

“That last piece of information. OK? Which is important, is that exchange which will come with the electronic data, the digital evidence,” McCraw replied. “Law enforcement, you know, we’re in a position to make the case to a prosecuting attorney. But in the end they get to decide when charges can be filed or not.”

Though the Texas Health and Human Services Commission handles background checks for all prospective employees of residential childcare homes, including putting them through an FBI fingerprint check, a registry of child abuse and neglect maintained by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, and similar registries of other states they have lived in, Crowder said The Refuge had learned a valuable lesson that despite all those firewalls a “predator still got in.” She said it recently hired two companies to do different kinds of background checks that aren’t just criminal.

The Refuge’s license is suspended until April 10 and Crowder said she hopes the police investigations are done by then and the Health and Human Services Commission allows it to reopen. It has capacity to house 40 girls but due to budget constraints only had 11 when it was shut down, Crowder divulged.”

“On Sunday, Justin Lewis, child care investigations division director for DFPS, resigned due to the finger-pointing within the agency over who was to blame for the delay in escalating concerns about The Refuge, and what he called the “public political flogging” of two of his staffers Friday in a hearing of the Texas Senate Senate Special Committee on Child Protective Services.

But he may have also been motivated to resign by an email a former colleague sent to Judge Jack’s case manager on Saturday, which was placed on the docket Monday.

It includes text messages from Lewis revealing his disdain for Jack. “She needs to get hit by a bus,” he wrote.

Frank noted two monitors, employed by Texas Appleseed and Public Catalyst Group Corporation, appointed to document for Jack if state agencies are complying with her mandates charge $425 an hour, and he has been told the organizations’ staff members are paid at least $225 per hour for their work on the case.

“I’m really not concerned with the money,” Frank continued. “I am concerned with we’ve been in this lawsuit since 2011. The likelihood and the motivation to ever get out of this when you have that kind of money going to essentially two and through two different individuals is there’s not much of a chance of ever getting out.”

But state Representatives Victoria Neave and Gina Hinojosa, both Democrats, said they believe court monitoring should continue.

Hinojosa stated it’s “hard to believe we should get out from under court oversight” when 23 children have died in DFPS care since 2019, though she said she knows some parents relinquish their rights to their kids who have severe health problems that make them predisposed to dying young.

Neave said the reason for the class action is the 24,000 children in Texas’ long-term care have a right to seek recourse for the state’s failings. “And I get that not everybody agrees with every order. But in the end the main goal is that we get what we need done from the state so that these children are protected,” she added.”

Texas lawmakers vet state’s scandal-plagued foster care system
[Courthouse News 3/21/22 by Cameron Langford]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update: “The caretaker accused of selling nude photos of two teenage victims of sexual abuse at a state-contracted shelter in Bastrop was previously fired from a nearby state juvenile facility for having inappropriate relationships with children in her care, state records show.

Iesha M. Greene was fired by the Texas Juvenile Justice Department in April 2020 after seven months on staff at the Giddings State School in Lee County. She was hired 16 months later by The Refuge, a private Bastrop facility for girls who have been sexually abused.

Texas authorities say Greene in January solicited and sold nude pictures of two girls in the facility’s care. The incident eventually led authorities to shut down the 50-acre ranch while they conduct an investigation.

The Refuge officials have testified that they run state-required background checks on all prospective employees and that Greene’s screening revealed she did not have a criminal record.

The Refuge spokesperson Steven Phenix said the facility was “absolutely not” aware Greene was fired from Giddings, which he said would have prevented her hiring at the Bastrop facility.

Phenix said Greene did disclose her employment at Giddings, but The Refuge’s hiring staff never contacted her former supervisors there. The Texas Tribune obtained Greene’s personnel files, which are publicly available, through a records request.

“We have instituted requirements that go above and beyond the state’s requirements to further reduce the chances a hire like this will be made again,” he said. He described Greene as a “perpetrator with criminal intent.”

Greene was hired as a youth development coach at Giddings, a correctional facility for boys, in September 2019, Juvenile Justice Department records state. Six months later, the department launched an investigation into Greene regarding her conduct during a shift on Feb. 23, 2020.

The assigned investigator reviewed surveillance footage from that day and stated in a report that Greene allowed youths to use a staff phone and computer, against policy, where they accessed social media and pornography, some of which they printed via a staff printer.

Greene also left boys unattended for 90 minutes that day, the report states, and several teens at the facility said Greene was “flirtatious” with them. The report concluded Greene had acted inappropriately with the children in her care and that her conduct had a “significant risk of causing substantial emotional harm” to them.

The agency fired Greene in April 2020 and barred her from future employment there.

Greene could not be reached for comment Thursday. She has not been charged with a crime related to her alleged conduct at The Refuge; an investigation by the Bastrop County Sheriff’s Office is ongoing. Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, told lawmakers at a hearing last month he believes Greene will be charged with sexual exploitation of a child and possessing child pornography.

The Refuge said Greene claimed to have previously worked for six other state-licensed child care facilities before she was hired. The shelter’s staff declined to share Greene’s résumé.

Greene was an overnight supervisor at The Refuge, tasked with watching over youth while their primary staff caretaker slept. After the accusations against Greene emerged, shelter leaders say they also learned she had allowed the residents to use her smartphone, a policy violation, and slept on the job.

The Refuge, which has been shut down since March 11, hopes to convince state regulators to allow it to reopen. Out of 324 residential child care facilities in Texas, The Refuge is the only one to have its license involuntarily suspended since 2021, a Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson said.

The suspension was triggered by Greene’s alleged actions and a previous incident in which two of the shelter’s residents ran away Feb. 20 with the aid of other employees. The Refuge fired the two employees found responsible for the latter incident, and the teenagers involved were returned to the facility.

The state currently requires facilities that work with children like The Refuge to run background checks on all their prospective hires. However, those checks would inform employers only whether job candidates have a criminal record and would not have included information about previous terminations or the reasons they were fired.

The Refuge leaders say they’re ramping up their background check process and enlisting Praesidium, a third-party service that scours public records in addition to those found by traditional background checks. The tool was recommended by Gov. Greg Abbott’s office after The Refuge case became public. It’s unclear whether the service would have flagged Greene’s misconduct report and termination at Giddings State School.

The Refuge officials reported the sexual abuse allegations against Greene to the state and fired her on Jan. 24, the same day they say they learned of the incident. Since then, the situation has been under investigation.

The state removed all the children in The Refuge’s care on March 9, five weeks after the facility reported the allegations against Greene. A day later, U.S. District Judge Janis Jack called an emergency court hearing.

Jack was particularly concerned over the situation because the youth at The Refuge weren’t removed even after it became clear that some of Greene’s relatives also worked there. Four other shelter employees were related to Greene. None of them remain employed by The Refuge.

State officials and a federal court also blasted how the state’s child care agency handled and escalated reports on The Refuge case in the weeks after the facility reported the incident. Neither Texas Department of Family and Protective Services higher-ups nor the federal court overseeing the state’s foster care system were notified about the situation until weeks later, they say. DFPS Commissioner Jaime Masters blamed not finding out quickly about the situation on an “unbelievable” culture problem on a small team within DFPS. Two employees were fired as a result.

However, Justin Lewis, former director of child care investigations for Texas’ protective services agency, said that DFPS was scapegoating those employees before he turned in his own resignation. He said decades of systemic issues and convoluted processes have led to communication breakdowns in the troubled agency — and kept DFPS executives out of the loop.

After the situation was made public by the federal court, the Texas House and Senate each had hearings to go over details of the incidents at The Refuge and take an overall look at the foster care system.”

Accused Bastrop shelter caretaker was fired from previous job for misconduct with children
[Caller 4/24/22 by Zach Despart and Reese Oxner]

Update 2:“A grand jury in Bastrop County did not find enough evidence to indict Iesha Greene, the former caretaker accused of selling nude photos of children at a state-contracted shelter.

The Refuge, a foster care facility for victims of sex trafficking in Bastrop, had its license suspended and closed on an emergency basis in March after the allegations against Greene surfaced.

Greene was accused of selling and soliciting nude photos of two girls in her care, using the proceeds to purchase and supply drugs and alcohol to the children. The Refuge fired Greene over the allegations.

“The Grand Jury did not indict Iesha Greene, or any other person, for any offense(s). The Grand Jury did not find sufficient evidence to support an indictment on any criminal offense,” Conor Brown, an investigator with the Bastrop County Sheriff’s Office, wrote to The Refuge. The case was presented to the grand jury on Sept. 13, and the shelter received a copy of the letter in the mail on Tuesday. Brown did not respond to a request for comment.

Brooke Crowder, the founder of The Refuge, said in a statement to The Texas Tribune that “we expected a different outcome from the grand jury because our singular goal has been justice for our two residents who were mistreated by a former employee.”

Testifying before a committee investigating the allegations in late March, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw said he was confident Greene would be arrested on charges of sexual exploitation of a child and child pornography when law enforcement can provide further evidence.

Court-appointed watchdogs of Texas’ foster care system, meanwhile, have said there is “ample evidence” that former sex trafficking victims were abused at a foster care facility, though they did not mention Greene. U.S. District Judge Janis Jack said she would seek a federal criminal investigation into allegations that children were sexually abused and trafficked at The Refuge.

Greene was previously fired by the Texas Juvenile Justice Department for having inappropriate relationships with children in her care, state records show. The Refuge officials have testified that they run state-required background checks on all prospective employees and that Greene’s screening revealed she did not have a criminal record. The Refuge staff did not reach out to Greene’s previous employers nor did they request her TJJD personnel records when they hired her.

Eight other staff members were also accused of subjecting seven children staying at The Refuge to sexual and physical abuse, neglectful supervision and medical neglect. While Greene was fired immediately after the first report against her emerged on Jan. 24, children remained in the facility until it was forced to close in March.

Crowder said the shelter has created a new employee screening process since it was ordered to close and that she hopes the grand jury’s decision means the facility can reopen soon.

“We are humbled that this decision seems to clear the final obstacle to the restoration of our license, and we hope that our licensing agency and elected officials will expedite that process,” Crowder added. “It is time to once again welcome to our healing community the children whose lives have been upended by exploitation so they can continue their healing process in earnest.”

Bastrop County grand jury declines to indict caretaker at center of The Refuge abuse scandal
[Texas Tribune 9/29/22 by Sneha Day]