Texas Youth Commission abuse case stalls after lawyer is arrested
November 21, 2008
The state’s sexual abuse case against a former youth prison administrator has stalled because his attorney was arrested and stopped appearing at hearings, court records show.
Written by Alicia A. Caldwell, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram
MONAHANS — The state’s sexual abuse case against a former youth prison administrator has stalled because his attorney was arrested and stopped appearing at hearings, court records show.
Scott M. Dolin, an Austin lawyer who had been hired to defend Ray Brookins in the ongoing investigation of sexual abuse at a Texas Youth Commission jail, stopped appearing in court after being arrested, according to records filed by the Texas attorney general’s office.
According to the court records, prosecutors learned of the arrest in February. Court records do not indicate what charges Dolin faces or where he was arrested.
Dolin was removed from the case in April, and Brookins, the former assistant superintendent at TYC’s West Texas State School in Pyote, has repeatedly pledged to hire another lawyer. But that has not happened, according to court records. A judge has ordered a hearing on the matter for Dec. 18.
A voice mail system for a telephone number listed for Dolin’s Austin office was full and not accepting messages Thursday. Officials with the attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Brookins and John Paul Hernandez, the former principal at the jail, were indicted last year on charges that they sexually abused teenage boys at the jail about 50 miles southwest of Odessa. Both men have pleaded not guilty.
Brookins was charged with two counts each of improper relationship with a student and improper sexual activity with a person in custody.
Hernandez was indicted on one count of sexual assault, nine counts of improper relationship with a person in custody, and nine counts of improper relationship between a student and educator. Both have remained free on bail.
Brookins was originally set to stand trial in April, but the case was derailed after Dolin failed to show up for pretrial hearings.
Since then, the case has stood still, according to court records in Ward County.
Several motions, including a prosecution request to move Brookins’ trial, have not been ruled on in the months since Dolin last appeared in court.
Brookins and Hernandez were indicted more than two years after allegations of widespread sexual abuse at the rural jail were reported to the Texas Rangers.
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