For Dimitria Pope, it was a long goodbye – and a strange one.

Ms. Pope, acting executive director of the Texas Youth Commission, resigned late Monday. She had been told she would be fired if she refused to quit.

Her exit was the latest in a long line of unorthodox occurrences at the state's juvenile incarceration agency, which collapsed in scandal a year ago.

Richard Nedelkoff, TYC's conservator, told Ms. Pope on Monday morning that he was dismissing her. But hours later, she denied to The Dallas Morning News that her job was in jeopardy.

"I'm doing fine," she said. "Nothing has changed. My employment status is the same. ... I'm off today. I want to get back into the office tomorrow and see what's going on."

A few hours after that, she announced her resignation, TYC officials said.

Rumors that Ms. Pope would be removed started shortly after Mr. Nedelkoff was named conservator in December. The conservator, appointed by the governor, has executive authority over TYC.

Despite the rumors, Ms. Pope has shown up at her office regularly, called planning meetings with her staff and publicly denied she was on the way out.

At a legislative hearing last week, she acknowledged that she was not in the running for the permanent executive director post. She said, however, that she would stay with the agency until she was forced out.

"I am the stabilizing factor of the TYC," she told a House appropriations subcommittee. "I intend to be until I'm pushed out the door."

TYC officials said that push would have come Friday afternoon, but Ms. Pope was not in the office. So it happened Monday morning, when Mr. Nedelkoff delivered his decision with an agency lawyer present.

Shortly thereafter, Ms. Pope told The News: "I'm still employed. You can put an exclamation point on that."

She declined to comment further: "I will have a lot to say about that later."

Mr. Nedelkoff has not named a new executive director, but he said he expects to make an announcement soon.

Ms. Pope, 55, was appointed TYC's acting executive director in June, after spending most of her career at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

She came to the agency shortly after the Legislature enacted sweeping reforms in response to widespread sexual and physical abuse at TYC prisons.

State Sen. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen, said Monday that he thought Ms. Pope performed reasonably well under difficult circumstances.

"She went into TYC when the agency was in turmoil. ... I thought she did a good job overall," said Mr. Hinojosa, an author of the TYC reform bill. "She was under tremendous pressure and under a microscope. Every misstep she took was magnified."

Although she declared in December that she was doing an excellent job, Ms. Pope has had a rocky tenure. For example, she approved the expanded use of pepper spray on inmates – a tactic she said was designed to reduce injuries to youths and staff members incurred during physical restraints.

Her pepper spray policy was abandoned after it was challenged in court.

She also approved the purchase of equipment and office renovations with money appropriated for hiring prison guards.

Ms. Pope denied any wrongdoing. She told the legislative subcommittee last week that the carpet she replaced in executive offices was 19 years old and was giving her a severe allergic reaction.